What a perfect fair evening. Met up with Alison and Jed after work, did a little shopping, a little eating, a little cruising, a little browsing of crafties.
And some coffee.
Played in the arcade. Watched the fireworks. Then happened upon the nightly restock of the mini donut stand, where we had many of our behind-the-scenes questions answered.
My food recommendation from tonight is the deep-fried loaded tator-tots on a stick (Axels). YUM.
And lastly, here is my effort to capture the fair through a tribute video. I love to make these so that I, for one, can watch them during the long winter doldrums of fairlessness and remember the hot afternoons and cool nights and bustle of silliness that is the Fair. And if you don't admit that the fair is silly, then I dare you to press play and watch the dancing french fry.
Today Brent even joined us at the Fair! It was a gorgeous day. The prettiest fair day in recent history. I was still going strong after 11 hours, unlike yesterday, proving that sweltering heat does indeed wear you out.
We started off in Carousel Park with a good old fashioned carousel ride (Not me, I get seasick. Bella says, "Mommy will wave!"), which Bella had been looking forward to since the day before.
One ride I do love is the Giant Slide. Brent is usually assigned to be picture-taker. He managed to get one of Bella and I not smiling, which is weird because I swear we smiled the whole time. Huh.
It was absurdly busy, but I kind of like that. I like coming up over a crest and seeing the insane sea of people milling in front of you, and always getting the hottest possible food because booths are going through it like crazy, and avoiding the pile-up at the bottom of the Giant Slide, and getting to overhear lots of good conversations. Oh, speaking of food, we had quite an adventurous eating day...
Buni's Buns: possibly the greatest caramel roll I've ever had. It's going to be hard not getting one of these every morning. Brent and I split one, except that I ended up eating all but 2 bites. Oops.
Roasted Corn: I predicted Bella would love this, since she can eat 2 ears of corn at a go, but she was all, "eh."
Honey Lemonade: I plan on never drinking anything else at the fair.
Pizza on a Stick: This was from Green Mill and was AWESOME.
Bacon on a stick: Not that great. It is so thick (1/3 lb) that it tastes almost more like jerky or something. I like bacon that melts in your mouth!
Strawberry Crepe: Totally fantastic. I am back on crepes after my first day leather-crepe let down.
Peanut Butter Hot Dog: Of our group, I was the only one who liked this. But I like like LIKED it! Disclaimer: I like peanut butter, honey, and hot dogs more than your average person.
Chocolate covered bacon: Um. Yuck?
Jamaican Jerk Pork Chop on a stick: Fabulouso. Now here's some pork that melts in your mouth. (in the Bazaar)
Here is Bella eating the chocolate covered bacon:
I think that about covers it. Oh, and some ice cream for Bella. Which we impulsively got in milk shake format, not realizing that would blow her mind. "I'm eating ice cream with A STRAW!!"
I should clarify that we met up with several people during the day, and so didn't order all of this food ourselves. Except for the Buni Bun. That was pretty much all me.
Bella was still a little tired from our previous day at the Fair, apparently, since she took a 3.5 hour nap in the stroller. While she napped we strollered her all over the fair, snacking, listening to bands, playing skee-ball, people-watching, drinking beer.
Bella and I did a little shopping for Fairwear. We got cute shirts, both on sale, which is shocking in the Fairwear store. We will be sporting them on Tuesday during our second Mommy/Daughter day.
We popped in to check out the butterheads and I was so impressed with the new butterhead gazebo! It seems smaller, but is bumped out from the corner, so you can go almost 360 around it. What a huge improvement!
As some of you may remember, last year I made Bella an Alphabet at the Fair scrapbook. When we walked up to the butterheads, Bella asks, "Where's the B?" Because B is for Butterheads!
Bella, just chillin' in Baldwin Park, where she was unfortunately not entertained by the juggler (so we moved on to cows):
I stopped by J. O'Donogue Books in Heritage Square and was able to flip through the much hyped State Fair photo book, new this year. Not too impressive. I certainly have many better pictures of the fair in my collection, and I know A & J certainly could top those too. There are a few great pictures, but certainly there are some way cooler ones just hanging out on Flickr.
What a great fair day, weatherwise, companywise, foodwise, and otherwise.
What a sweltering day at the fair! I was sweating buckets. Whenever I'd see someone in long pants, I would think, "Seriously? SERIOUSLY??" So. Hot. But then right when I thought I might keel over from the smell of my own armpits, the sky very accommodatingly clouded up and even misted a little rain. Ahhhhhhhh. That's better.
But anyway, the heat didn't stop Bella and I, and about a gazillion other people, from enjoying a day at the fair. It was Fire Prevention day, so there were lots and LOTS of firetrucks hanging about. We went straight for the Super Jump to avoid lines. We still had to wait behind 5 kids, which turned out to be about 20 minutes. Bella waited patiently, clutching her ticket. She didn't get patient waiting from me, since I was busy harumphing and fidgeting and sighing loudly. But it was worth the wait.
She loved it. Later, while we were relaxing in front of a band, she said, "Remember yesterday, when I had fun on the jumper?" (Still a little foggy on the whole idea of time).
Time for a snow cone! I hate buying things I don't like to eat the remainder of. Also I hate buying things that turn stroller and occupant blue.
Little Farm Hands is as cute as ever.
Driving the tractor:
Planting a potato (with her "holer"):
Ready to go to the Farmer's Market and earn her dollar!
She used her dollar to buy an apple. Which was sour and thick-skinned if you ask me, but she enjoyed gnawing on it.
After that, we did what every farm girl does after coming in from the fields. We got our nails painted! Bella loved it so much, the woman did all ten nails, and I bought the little pens too. Because, as I learned from the guide inside the box, "Just like the clothes you wear and the way you style your hair, the designs you create on your nails will show others your true individual character."
Can you even see the nail polish on this grimy little hands?
We napped by the greenhouse/Bailey house, which turns out to actually be almost a better nap spot than my previous favorite behind the old bazaar, except that at 2 o'clock the parade goes by and that's the end of that. But we loved the parade. Smokey the Bear was a big hit with Bella.
Bella then played in the topiaries (see yesterday's pictures), talking to them, naming them, wanting her photo with them. It was so cute, maybe I should buy her one. Wait, how much are they? $4000 for a buffalo?
We got a banana instead. (As in a piece of fruit, not a banana topiary.)
Although this little guy is already winning me over. He'll wear me down during the fair. With his perky little ears. "I could live in your garden! I'll be good, I promise."
We visited the real bunnies too, and saw the most excitement I've ever seen in the bunny barn. ESCAPED BUNNIES!! A 4-H clad adult gave Bella a little shove, and as I turned to do a mommy throwdown, I saw that she was frantically trying to move in the direction of three bunnies hopping confusedly around on the floor. Pepper would have bolted out of the barn and into the Turkey-to-Go booth and chewed through their power cords before anyone could have reacted. But these little guys just milled around in a little herd, sniffing and hopping. So cute. Bella enjoyed asking every bunny, "Do you want a treat? Aw, you do? Ok." (this is normal dialog with our bunnies), which made me feel so bad for the buns. I was giving them apologetic looks behind Bella's back.
What a great day at the fair. I am looking forward to some cooler weekend weather.
Entering the fair this morning, it did feel (as Alison pointed out) that I had never left. All the time since last year was gone in the blink of an eye, and here it was, fairtime again. Just a quick photo recap:
First, a quick cup of coffee. Only $1!
First day briefing at the Cookie booth:
Giant Slide workers go for the first ride:
Mixing up a first batch of candy bar coating batter:
A quick stop up to see the new Bazaar:
This fruit booth outside the bazaar looks great:
These topiaries are one of the coolest things there:
This looks really good, although I'm waiting for Brent:
And then it was just a big bunny extravaganza, along with a misty rain and some very late fireworks.
... is you get a lot of knitting done. Latest project: Harvey Kimono, from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding.
I used the suggested yarn, Rowan Purelife 100% organic cotton. It is very soft and came in a lot of nice muted colors. I chose "Lipstick Tree."
The only problem I saw with this yarn is that when I pinned and sprayed the sweater to block it, all the orange color ran to the back. Hmmm, pretty big problem? I thought so. I flipped it over and squirted the back too, to try to reach some kind of dye equilibrium. It worked ok. But I won't be surprised if the first time I wash this sweater it comes out white.
I originally started this sweater for a tiny new addition to Brent's sister's family. However, I did so many projects inbetween, and was just so overall lazy about it, that she is now a quite jumbo and only moderately-new addition. So I figure I'll make her something bigger and more wintry. This sweater will wait for someone small again.
Hi Pepper. Remember when this blog was all about you? Ahh, the good old days. Right?
Look how wise and relaxed you look. You understand.
Pepper recently had to go to the vet. I warned them that she can be grumpy about inspections of her personal self. So they went and put on their armpit-length leather gauntlets, just to be safe. In the meantime, Pepper is snuggling a beach towel and sniffing cautiously. Obviously ferocious. They pick her up with the leather gauntlets, she snuggles into their chest. She goes to sleep. Hmmm, I said, apparently she is only grumpy about MY inspections of her personal self. They decide she needs a bath. Um, I say nervously, maybe you should wear some eye protection? But five minutes later, there's Pepper in a bath,practically cooing and smiling while they doted on her. Well!
Pepper, seven years, and do I really know you at all? You still surprise me.
We had quite a weekend, camping our hearts out at Interstate State Park (Wisconsin side). We arrived at dinner time on Friday, set up camp, and began making my Mexican feast for dinner: dutch-oven chicken enchiladas and tin foil nachos. Ole! But what is this? A real Mexican is camping with us? Oops. Well, the (Mexican) friend of a friend joining us got a good laugh out of my fiesta. Thank goodness I left the zombrero at home (due to space constraints).
We had a bit of a rough night, partly due to Bella being an overtired lunatic and partly due to the people in the next campsite. Let me give you a hint: You might be a redneck if.... you bring more than 2 dogs camping, you have so many kids that you need to bring 3 tents, and you like to shout at both dogs/kids while chopping firewood that you're going to "cut their noses off." But, as I lay listening to all the shouting and barking and chopping and tent-stake-pounding-in at 11:30 PM, I thought smugly to myself, "What goes around comes around, assholes. I will unleash my no-volume-control toddler on you at the break of dawn!" But I ended up getting no satisfaction, since they were up at the break of dawn chopping firewood on my head (I'm fairly sure it was on my head. Otherwise, how could it have been so loud?).
The next morning Bella was so excited to open a special camping treat:
She loves it so much that even at home she wants to sleep with the little dolls.
Then it was off on our first geo-cache hike! Which was pretty much a normal hike, except in the middle, five of the adults disappear and root around in the woods. Brent finally found the cache, which was disguised as a big rock!
Then it was weenie roasting time and then a quick run to the St. Croix Falls espresso bar, then swimming on a nice sandy beach, then pouring POURING buckets of gushing rain. The ranger drove around saying there was a possibility of evacuation. So we did what every good camper does when it rains... we all got in our minivans and went to see Space Chimps!!
After the movie it had cleared up and it just happened to be time for the St. Croix Falls parade.
We had a much nicer night the second night--I flashed my flashlight at the site next door in annoyance, and after that they all jumped in their trucks and left for a while. Huh. We stayed up late around the campfire, then woke up and had pancakes and sausages and packed up camp before heading on a beautiful bluff hike.
That picture looks crowded but is actually only 9 out of the 15 of us! Oh and I almost forgot to mention the craziest part... we all have the same minivan!! So if you have a Toyota Sienna and want to join the camping club, let me know!
