The Great Minnesota Get Together

We decided it was time to take Penelope to the state fair. So many of my friends love it I decided I'd give it another chance. This time I was very prepared....studied the map, looked at the list of new foods (and heard many discussions of them--food equates to about 75% of state fair conversations in Minneapolis work places) and read reviews on the best activities for kids.

The other highlight is for my anniversary/birthday present, Chris got me a DSLR camera. The guy at the camera store shot holes in all my internet research on the camera I thought I wanted, but I left yesterday with the right camera for me....more than I wanted to spend, but oh well. That meant I got to play with all the cool features at the fair....what a great place to try it out! There are a lot of pictures!

 The high today was 68 degrees so absolutely perfect for mid-day fair going, but a little chilly and windy at 8 am. Did that stop me from getting a Minneapple pie (deep fried apple pie) with cinammon ice cream for breakfast? No way!

It didn't taste fried at all. Not greasy one bit. It was shaped like a McDonalds apple pie, but a million times better. Then we went to the coliseum for the horse show.

We saw a really boring show where they walked around in a circle. I guess the fun barrel racing and jumps happen later in the day.

We then headed into the barns to meet up with our friends Kelly and Cale and their adorable guy Adam.

Checking out the goats

Kelly, Cale and Adam

He was all smiles....until I took out the camera. We went through this a couple of times before I gave up on catching a smile.

While we were in the barn Penelope got hungry. Forget that she had a bowl of oatmeal and fruit an hour before, it was time for "second breakfast" as we call it. She didn't seem to care that it was raining sideways, she wanted to eat. (I'm afraid this is one my traits I've passed down...low blood sugar or something). We put up with the whining for it to stop raining, say goodbye to Kelly and Cale, and headed out with our angry toddler. She was very upset when Chis bought doughnuts and wouldn't even have a bite. Instead she had milk and scrambled eggs....who eats scrambled eggs at the fair? Apparently my kid.

The injustice of it all! I don't want doughnuts!! 

State fair all you can drink whole milk calmed her down. That stuff was good!

After scrambled eggs and milk, we started walking to the rides. I made a quick stop for a pretzel covered hot dog. I know, it was only 10 am, but I don't like corn dogs or pronto pups and this was a new must try food.

mmmm....pretzel dog

Penelope loved the big slide. Unfortunately a new camera doesn't fix my height issue even if I lift it way over my head. Got this man's head in all of my photos.

Next up: The carousel, "just like Dora." Dora Goes to the Fair has been a popular book in our house.

On my last camera this photo would have been a blurry mess. I love the sports continuous shooing mode!

Next up: The butterfly house

A little girl had about a dozen butterflies on her and shared some with Penelope.

You can't really see it, but there's a butterfly near Chris's neck. He wasn't so keen on the butterflies and wasn't proactive on getting them to be his friend. This one had other ideas and sat on his shoulder for over 5 minutes.

 Next up The Kidway. This is where you empty your wallet in a half hour. How many rides can a little girl ride that just go around in circles? Apparently a lot! We had to cap her at 4.

Penelope would not look at me the entire ride. She was too focused on the Dora mural. 

Thankfully there are some fun free kid's activities at the fair, like Alphabet Park.

Chris found the "fun settings" on the camera so that's the next group of photos.

Vintage

Blue highlight

Red highlight

Just to put a twist on the food choices, I got one of the new best rated foods of this year's fair. Salad on a stick!

cherry tomatoes, mozarella, vinagarette on a bed of wild rice and minnesota grown greens. Scrumptious!

And the other highly talked about new food of the fair....sweet corn ice cream.

I got it with wild blueberry topping. Tough decision between that and the honey carmelized bacon topping, but I decided that might be going overboard.

Verdict? "Delicious!" She said that about a dozen times and ate most of the sweet corn ice cream.

Chris's last treat of the day: fried green pepper rings.. These were amazing!!

We quickly stopped at the Miracle of Birth Center. Wall to wall of people so I only got a photo of this little lamb. He was adorable.

So all in all a great visit to the fair and a wonderful way to spend our 7 year anniversary. It became clear to us how we've put our roots down here. With the thousands of people there we ran into my friend Jenny and her family and then our next door neighbors. So it seemed aptly named "The Great Minnesota Get Together" or maybe "The Great Minnesota Eat Together"! 

Next year I'd like to go to some of the 4-H buildings or market places...we may have to go multiple days. Eeek! That would be the sign of a die hard fair goer!