Summer Fun: State Fair

The State Fair has started to be a end-of-summer tradition around here. I have to admit, I have not always been a fan of the State Fair. We went when we first moved here, and again when Trevor was little, but I'd always found it to be totally overwhelming and overpriced. Over the past few years, however, it's started to grow on me. I think I'm slowing turning into a Minnesotan. I've come to accept the fact that to be truly Minnesotan, you have to go!

Grandma Sandi has decided to make it an end-of-summer tradition, as well. Yes, we couldn't find parking remotely close to the Fair. Yes, we paid $10 to park in some nearby business' parking lot. Yes, we walked about a mile to get to the entrance. But, we were ready for some Fair fun.

Our family highlights of the fair:

#1. All of the farm equipment. Kevin had to sit on anything remotely tractor-like.

This year, we also added cars and boats to the equipment we had to try out. Ethan has recently taken an extreme interest in cars and we had to seek out each car-maker's latest catalog of the their models. (The Ford exhibit was pretty cool, I have to say.) He was also enthusiastic about us buying this boat. Sorry, kid...not happening.

#2: Free stuff. Our favorite free stuff this year: building kits from Home Depot. Each child got a free kit to assemble there.


Ethan made a boat.

Trevor made a helicopter.

And Kevin made a helicopter. (I have to say, one of the helicopters did not make it home it one piece. I wasn't prepared for that large of an object to carry around!)

#3: Food. Our favorite this year: corn. It was also our favorite last year. We are not die-hard fair-goers, so we haven't tried all of the deep fried candy bars, alligator on a stick, and other crazy stuff like that. We just like the corn...and the Sweet Martha's cookies.

#4: Cool stuff to see and do. This year we had a lot of fun at the Twins' exhibit. They had a pick-up game of baseball going on. Trevor and Ethan joined in. I loved the blow-up stadium backdrops!

I'm sure this guy didn't get paid enough for all of the wiffle balls he pitched to the kids!

Too funny. You've just got to love your Minnesota turkeys. We also visited the "Miracle of Birth" Center. You get to see baby farm animals, and, if you're lucky, the actual birth of some of those animals. We missed out on the birthing scene...Robert was so disappointed. We also stumbled upon one of the rodeo shows. The boys were totally enthralled...Kevin pretended to rope cows for days afterward.


#5: The Rides. Our favorite ride: the Giant Slide, of course. The best deal at the fair, in my opinion. We went on this thing at least 5 times. Here's Trevor with some random kid next to him. Up a little bit, in the red shirt, is Ethan. For some reason they just couldn't manage going down together.

Grandma Sandi and Kevin!

The swings...another favorite. My kids aren't huge ride-goers, but they do like a few of them.

You can just make out Ethan in the red sweatshirt, and Trevor a couple of swings behind him.

Kevin is probably the most enthusiastic ride-goer. We had to tear him away. I think his favorite was this airplane ride.

Robert got Ethan and, later, Trevor to go on the Tilt-a-Whirl...a new frontier for us!

All in all, it was a great day! We were totally exhausted and stuffed with junk food, but isn't that what it's all about?