Minnesota Get Together

Today is the first day of the Minnesota State Fair. It is a fun tradition and we love going. The weather was perfect and the crowds were not too bad today (although it took FOREVER to find parking-next year we are doing the park and ride deal).

Today we got to eat and eat and eat. I really like this picture because LOTS of our favorite Fair foods are represented. Erik is holding a pork chop on a stick, Andrew is holding a bucket of Fresh French fries (our third helping of fries for the day), Dad is holding a bucket of Sweet Martha's Chocolate Chip cookies, Mom has another pork chop, Em has a snow cone and Ry is sipping fresh squeezed lemonade (our third huge cup). We also had cheese curds, ice cream cones and corn dogs. Part of our family fair tradition is the Giant Slide. It has been part of the fair probably since the beginning of Minnesota State Fairs. You get to sit on a piece of burlap and ride the waves of the slide. Good times.

The fairgrounds are huge. We walked to the end of machinery hill exploring along the way, but opted to take the skyride back to the center of the fair.
It was Andrew's first time on the skyride. He loved it. It is relaxing and you get a great view of the fair and all the people attending.

It wouldn't be a Fair without contests. I think this is mom's fourth or fifth year entering things in the fair.
This year, she won two first place ribbons. One for her jelly roll and one for her sweet bread coffee cake (which actually won the sweepstakes award as well-which means she won the best of the first place awards in the sweet bread category). Nice job Mom!

We checked out the animals at the Fair too. My favorite was the horse barn. I loved being able to walk right up to the horses. They are quite amazing.
We also went to the Birthing Center. That is where, if your lucky, you get to witness live births of different animals. No one was being born while we were there, but Ry watched the video of a pig giving birth. He says it was freaky. We also got to see new piglets, bunnies, lambs, turkeys and duckies. As we were walking around today, we stopped and watched a magic show-which was very educational about farms and how many things are made with products from farms. The new thing we tried this year was the water raft ride. Erik and Andrew got soaked by the first big wave, but by the end we were all pretty wet. I'd recommend it-it's a fun ride, and not too expensive.

We had a great time at the fair. But, now my feet are so happy to be home and not walking around!