The Little Minnesota Get Together

Okay, all of you in AZ, NY, VA, could you please tell me if you know where the state fairs are held in those states? I'm pretty sure AZ is in Phoenix just because I never heard of it happening in Tucson. Is VA in Richmond? NY somewhere upstate? The state fairs never seemed to be a big deal in any other place I've lived, but here in MN it is a BIG deal. It is known as the The Great Minnesota Get Together and for 2 weeks out of the year all you hear about is the fair. I've decided there are very defined groups of people:

1. The people will go every year at least once, sometimes more, and will often take a day of vacation from work. My unscientific poll has found that all of these people are born and raised Minnesotans. I haven't found one transplanted person who is a fair aficionado, which makes me think there is childhood nostalgia playing a big part in group #1.

2. The people who never go or go every 5 or so years and then remember why they don't go to the fair every year.

3. My coworker told me there's one more set. The people who fall into group 2 but have kids so they end up becoming group 1 for a few years.

I fall into group 2. I want to like the fair. It's good wholesome family fun with tons of animals, food and music. What's not to like? Chris and I went 2 years ago. We went early in the morning to beat the crowds. The best exhibit by far was the Miracle of Life center. They put a bunch of ready-to-pop mama animals in a huge building so you either see some really uncomfortable animals, animals giving birth, or babies. I loved it! Then as we were leaving the fair I saw the huge crowds and lines for that building and thought about those poor mamas. No privacy! And what kind of therapy do those babies require after being born in front of a whole bunch of gawking, furless, 2-legged animals? As for the rest of our vist, we ate as much fried food as we could stand at 9 am, wandered around the chicken/cow/horse barns, looked at all the blue ribbon food and craft winners and saw Miss Milky Way's head carved out of butter. No joke! That's a real pageant and the winner has her head carved out of butter! I will say it was worth it that one time, but I don't feel a need to go every year.

I am tempted to go just for the food. Every year the the newspapers/tv/radio spend a huge amount of time oulining what is the next winning fair food on a stick. Move over world news, we've stuck a corndog wrapped in pizza on a stick! At least this year they thought globally and included a camel meatball on a stick. If it wasn't for the Star Tribune posting the calories before the fair I might have headed over to the fairgrounds after hearing about the new foods. I mean who can resist a french toast sandwich with peanut butter and chocolate, or a fried pork chop on a stick (supposedly amazing!) or maybe the old favorites like a pronto pup (think corn dog, but doughnut batter!). Thankfully I read that fried cheese curds--an absolute must--pack 88 grams of fat!! Woowee! I chose an outdoor yoga class at Lake Harriet over the state fair last Saturday.

So anyways we didn't go this year. I can't imagine it'd be that much fun for a 2 year old. Have you ever sat in the vantage point of a stroller? You'd see a lot of large behinds headed to the food stands the whole time. I know in a few years we will fall into group #3, but do I really need to shell out ridiculous prices to ride a jumbo slide with this one does the trick?

At the fair it costs $2 to go down the big slide. This one was free and no lines...that could be because I took these pictures at 6:30 am. EEK! She's such an early bird.
And no need to go see hundreds of show animals when we've got our lovely companion! (When was the last time Cece was on the blog? And a picture of just her? Poor ignored pup)

To ease my guilt of not being a fair lover, I was very excited when I heard my friend Alise was throwing a Family Fest at her day care. Alise ran the first day care Penelope attended. She has now moved to a different part of town into a much better facility. The highlight of Family Fest was the petting zoo:

Penelope especially liked this mini baby goat. Just her size
Maybe she'll be a rodeo queen? I guess we'd have to go to Tucson for that.
"Hey! Why have you never given me corn dogs before? These are scrumptious!"
hmmm...tons of animals and she kept going back to the dog. She is just like her mama.
Penelope was quite attracted to the llama. Thankfully he was a pretty patient guy and put up with her yelling "HELLO LLAMA!!! LLLAMMMMA! HELLOOOOO"
"Llama do you want to dance?"
"Mama, check out this llama!" She then decided to check out his teeth and finally got a reaction from him, which then led to tears...sigh.

My friend Julie met us there with her son Wyatt. He's a few months younger than Penelope. He was not really interested in the animals so we went up to the playground. I call this a "posed shot". If I get 2 kids in a picture at the same time it is a success! Wyatt's the strong silent type--a good match for my chatterbox :)

I had to include this picture since it has Julie in the background. I got 1 photo with someone over 2 years old!