Fun at the Fair

Just a few more posts about how we made the last couple weeks of summer count - and then we'll be all caught up to school starting. Last week. Sigh.

When we went up to GR in August, in between the cabin and the birthday party, we sneaked in a trip to the Itasca County Fair. My sister and I were flooded with memories as we walked the fairgrounds. It's been many years since we've been to the local fair - and in so many ways, it felt exactly the same. My nephew Ben was working at the Moose food booth to make money for his band trip - just like I used to years ago (I did the math of how many years ago. I've decided not to share that math.). Since Ben wasn't working when we went, we hit up the Corn Palace instead for lunch. The corn was just as good as I remembered!

After lunch, Mike spent more money than we care to think about to get Midway tickets for the kids. As holders of ValleyFair season passes, we are now quite opposed to paying by the ride or having to deal with tickets in general! They decided to start out on the little roller coaster as it looked like the little one they like at ValleyFair. It was, apparently, NOT like the one at ValleyFair and Declan was not having it! The sweet ride operator stopped the ride, let Dec off, and gave him his tickets back! It was really compassionate and I was so impressed. Unfortunately, it also broke Declan for the rest of the Midway. The girls benefited greatly, as they got to use up little bro's tickets too!

Dec was willing to go on the little Jeep ride and everyone got in on the Giant Slide action. Our people, they do love a giant slide! They were even able to race each other one of the times they went. I think that Quinn won, but I'm also pretty sure she started early. She likes to get that little extra starting advantage!

After we were done on the rides (and we explained to the girls for the twelfth time that we were out of tickets and that meant they couldn't go on more rides ... they really don't get the tickets thing), we wandered over to the barns to see the animals. We saw pony rides on the way and I promised Fiona that she could ride one before we left. In the barns, we looked at the horses, cows, goats, and sheep - and all the kids were so brave. Even Quinn took part in petting some of the animals. Because of the sudden surge in bravery, both Quinn and Declan decided that they also wanted to ride the ponies!

Between midway rides, petting animals, pony rides, and their first experience with funnel cake, it was a fun few hours at the fair.