MN State Fair

We made two trips to the State Fair during the long Labor Day weekend.  Jeff and I went Friday  night with Katie and Chris so we could enjoy the fair without a stroller and have a few adult beverages along with everything fried and on a stick.  We tried a wine flight of Minnesota wines this year and I have to say that the cute cardboard cutout they serve the wine cups in was the best thing about it.  The wines themselves were……well, yucky.  Luckily, the Leinie’s stand was nearby so we washed down our wine with a beer and headed off in search of pronto pups, fried pickles, and other healthy treats. 

We were back at the fair on Monday with the wagon and kids in tow.  It was a little windy and there were some rain showers off and on, so it wasn’t the most ideal fair day but we still had fun.

Here we all are and (shock!) we are all looking at the camera again.  Dare I say we are getting better at this family picture thing? 

And here are the kids checking out the John Deere tractors.  Always on our fair to-do list!

 

Ben was really excited to go on the Bumper Boats again this year so that was our first ride.  Hallie wanted to go too (and cried about it) but she is still too little.

 

Even though she wasn’t able to go on the bumper boats, we were able to get Hallie on the motorcycle ride.   She was just tall enough and I was kind of worried about how she would do but she rode behind her big brother and LOVED it! 

 

Ben was also itching to get on the Giant Slide so we headed over there after a few rides on the motorcycles.  Once we got there, we saw it was temporarily closed due to the rain.  Bummer!  They were in the process of cleaning it off so we went over to the carousel to kill some time.

After a half-hour, the slide was ready to go so we headed back over there and Jeff took each of the kids down.  Maybe next year I will be brave and go too!  I didn’t get any pictures but I did get video.  They are on the far ride side in both of them.  As you can see, Ben loved it and Hallie wasn’t really a fan!

 

Hallie was getting pretty tired around this point so we laid her down in the wagon for a little rest before heading out in search of their favorite foods - corn on the cob for her and fries for Ben.  As you can see, she didn’t actually sleep but thought she was quite the princess riding like that!

          

After their bellies were full, we were pretty much ready to head home but had to make one very important last stop.  Yep – the toy kiosks.  Those darn things are on pretty much every corner of the fair so there was no way we were getting out of there without a bubble gun and an inflatable Dora. 

Eighteen dollars and two smiling kids later, and our fair experience was complete! 

After such an exciting day, they both were so exhausted they asleep about two minutes after we left the fairgrounds.