The Fair and The Fish

[We are back to catching up on all.of.August ...]

Although the kids had already been having a ton of fun up north (operating under Grandma and Grandpa's rules, which they tell me are far better than mine), Mike and I were back and wanted in on the action! Thursday morning, we made plans to meet the cousins at the county fair. The day turned out to be much hotter and sunnier than we had expected. So instead of hanging at the fair, we sweated on each other at the fair.

The day started at the animal barns, where Quinn totally shocked us and willingly held a baby chick. For the record, so did I. I think I felt about the same as Q did about it, but I was trying to be brave to have her be brave. I'm not a fan of birds. Even super cute baby ones. It was pretty cute though ... We also got to see a baby chick hatch out of an egg, which was incredibly cool! We checked out some horses and watched Otto's auntie show her horse in competition. Fiona successfully campaigned to Ot's Nana and scored an invite to come out and ride horses in the spring. She's counting the days.

Then, it was lunch time so we stopped by the Corn Palace for the best corn on the cob, shakes, nachos, and other super healthy fare. When Quinn and Dec were done, I took them for a walk around the midway while everyone else finished up. Then we met up for rides. This whole tickets for rides thing continues to confound our children. They just do not understand why they can't have unlimited rides like they do at ValleyFair. I admit, I like that route better. Because trying to get the tickets to come out even is like calculus class all over again!

I lost all my street cred during the ride extravaganza. I had told them we were out of tickets, but Brenda had just gone to buy another book so all the kiddos could ride again. Then we used up our allotment of those and I told them we were done, when Anna gave me a handful more. So when I said "we're out" for the third time, Dec looked at me like I was the mom who cried no tickets and fully expected me to produce some more. I did not. He was not a fan.

All six cousins had the best time on the rides. Poor Anna is not a huge ride person and Ot and Milo totally are! I'm pretty sure that if Milo could figure out how to work stilts, he'd be on the big roller coaster. Ot wanted to ride the kid roller coaster more than anything, so Anna recruited Fiona to ride with him. They had the very best time and Bugs was a great partner. Otto's wide eyes and their shrieks of glee had us all laughing. Otto wanted to go on whatever Dec went on, so I tended to have four blonds in tow. Hux and Quinn were excellent partners on the car ride. They were all so sweet with each other. It was awesome!

After we had really used up all the ride tickets, it was time to call it. Everyone was overheating (but especially Fiona) and we needed to restore body temperatures to regular levels. We relaxed at Gma and Gpa's and watched Descendants 2 to cool down and get in the mood for the upcoming birthday celebration. Plus, Gma and Gpa needed to know what on earth the kids were talking about with all their Descendants talk.

It was still a pretty warm afternoon, so we decided to wander down the road to Blandin Beach to take a quick swim. We had such a fun time goofing around in the water. We didn't stay long because we needed to head back up the hill for showers and pizza. Grandpa was taking us fishing after dinner and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time for that!

It was such a great evening to be out on the lake. Other than an actual bump where we dropped the boat at the landing (oooops!), it was the perfect night out. The kids all did some fishing (although I did most of Dec's) and caught fish. Grandpa kept dropping their fish in the boat, which always got a shriek or three. He pretended it was an accident each time, but he seemed to find it pretty entertaining.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, Mike hooked a really nice large mouth bass. It put up a good fight as he was reeling it in and the kids had a blast watching him land it. A memorable ending to a busy day!

Two-thirds of Mike's fish ...
I got him perfectly centered in the frame.
Doesn't a girl get credit for that ...?!?!
Ooooops ....