Minnesota State Fair 2018

The second adventure of my week of was the Minnesota State Fair.  I look forward to this day every year!  We brought the kids with us this year and we all had a blast.  It started out pretty chilly, but warmed to the low 70's.  It was a very cool fair this year, which is pretty rare.

We started with two fair staples and one new treat.  Cheese curds, lefse, and mini donuts!  My parents  and nephew were at the fair too and we spotted them from time to time.  That's my dad feeding the kids donuts.

The Little Farm Hands exhibit opens at 8am and we always try to hit it early, before it's crowded.  Parker wasn't interested in the apron this year, but Esme loved it.  It took some encouraging to get her started, then she did really well.  The basic concept is that you feed animals and harvest goods to sell at the farmer's market.

You get a paper dollar after selling your goods and can trade it for a treat.  Both kids got a juice box.

Parker and Jimmy took a trip down the giant slide, then we grabbed a cone of Sweet Martha's cookies!

We briefly walked through some animal barns then went on a mission for lunch.

Esme was begging to get out of the stroller at this point and I was very glad I brought my carrier.  We shared a Papa Pup and I grabbed a Jonny Pop.

Esme took a nap on my back while we met back up with my parents and Jayden to share a big bucket of fries.

We ran in to TC bear on the way to the alphabet forest.  Esme was enthralled and Parker asked him for a hug.  It was the cutest!

We spent 15 minutes or so at Alphabet forest.  Parker didn't tolerate the activities very well, but Esme could have played with the ducks all day.

One more quick stop at Rainbow play systems for Parker to burn energy and then we got two more food items and headed for the exit.

Fresh baked brownie and fry bread taco completed our fair food journey.

Until next year...

Camping with Nana and Jayden

My brother got a camper a few months back and my mom proposed we take it out with the kids for a couple nights.  I took the last week of August off to be home with Parker since he was done with adventure club, so we checked in Sunday night.  We stayed at Rice Creek Campground, which is less that an hour from home.  My mom did a great job hauling the camper and we got it set up very quickly.

The kids got comfortable with the digs, then we headed down to the beach.  It was a little mucky, but it felt nice.  Parker was testing him limits, but we were able to keep him within arms reach.

We had salad and brats for dinner and the kids had mac and cheese.

Jayden slept on the top bunk and the kids kept trying to bug him.  Parker made it up on his own, but Esme didn't get any closer than this.

I decided to try having the kids bunk together.  It took them about an hour to fall asleep, but did finally go down.  Unfortunately they woke up about 3:30 am and started giggling.  I ended up moving Parker in with my mom and stayed with Esme.  We put her in the pack and play the second night and things went much smoother.

Jayden cooked bacon for breakfast the next morning and I made omelettes.

We checked out the park in the morning and then I had to take Esme for a drive in order for her to nap after lunch.

We went swimming one more time Monday evening and had a special cupcake treat for dessert after dinner.

Tuesday was going to be mostly rainy, so we packed up pretty quickly and had to tear down in the rain.  We were back to my parents and home before lunch.  It was a really fun trip and we will be more prepared for next time.  Thanks for taking us camping Nana!