Friday, September 2, 2011

The Great Minnesota Get Together

On Wednesday afternoon we ventured out to the Minnesota State Fair aka The Great Minnesota Get Together. It is one of the biggest Fair's in the US & the biggest when it comes to daily attendance. Something like 1.5 million people attend the fair. It is only open for something like 10 days. That is crazy! We only have 5.2 million people in our State too! Again, crazy!

If you live in Minnesota & you don't like the Fair (aka my husband) you are broken. lol The Fair for us however, it very bittersweet. Our State Motto is "The Land of 10,000 Lakes" (although we have more than 12K) so we REALLY enjoy our summers here. They are really short but we really take advantage of it. The Fair has been the unofficial end of summer for as long as I can remember. It ends Labor Day and the next day kids go back to school. We all look forward to the Fair but at the same time we don't. As a kid it is such a huge mix of emotions. The Fair is so much fun & you can spend ALL day there & not see everything. But, as soon as it is over Fall is here & school is here. Urgh!

As an adult, it isn't as bad but I still am going to miss Summer. lol So besides all the facts about MN & our Fair, it is fun! And we had fun! We went with my dad, step mom & my little brothers. My kids were overjoyed that they got to spend the day with my brothers. They love them!

We met at my dads house & walked over to the church where we took the bus. It's free & it really gets you there pretty quick. We do that every year. It works grand. The bus we take has the first park & ride spot so we are dropped over literally across the street from the main gates!


The first thing we did when we go there was check out the John Deere stuff. Normally, this wouldn't be something that I would do but my dad needs to buy something there for work. Plus, kids LOVE that kind of crap.


The boys loved it. They wanted to climb on EVERY SINGLE thing there. Why not though? It isn't something that they every get to go on and they are allowed to go on it.

Across the street was Gander Mountain booth and they were givng out these hilarious fish hats! lol


All the kids wanted them but as soon as I put the hat on Karie she wasn't happy. lol Look at the face...and that HAT! hahahahaha How can you not love that? It is so funny!!!!!!

If you aren't from MN or if you haven't even been to the Fair here, it is HUGE. There is a lot of space to cover. My kiddos are little & walking the entire time is pretty rough so they got a little help.


How do you not love that? Check out the Chicken hats too! How cute are those? These hats were a HUGE hit & Kegan pretty much wore his hat the ENTIRE day! They got them at the Golden Plump booth. Another MN Fact, Golden Plump it out of Northern MN. lol

We went on Kegan's favorite thing next! The Space Needle or what it is really called "Space Tower". Pretty sure I have never heard of anyone call it that. I honestly had no idea that it was called the Space Tower until last year. I thought the real name is The Space Needle. lol It is the tallest thing there & you go to the tippy top & get the see the entire Fair AND both Minneapolis & St. Paul.


It is so cool. I love that you can see all of us in the middle. It is a slow ride, anyone can ride it. It is grand. I like to do this ride last, but the kids can't wait that long. The second my kiddos see it, they want to ride it, and it is impossible to miss!


I love how I try to get a cute picture of Kyle & Karie & this is what I end up with! The second however is adorable. Heck, they both are! lol

While we were up there we saw the Twins Booth along with a bounce house. My kiddos love the bounce how. There was also a kid sized Baseball Field, a place to see how fast you throw & a fun photo op! We had to go there.


Of course more piggy back rides & my kids failed attempt at High Fives. I love my kids but they fail hard at giving each other high fives. lol They always end up beating each other. lol


The place was pretty cool. If you are from MN, you know our love for the Twins. Even Tyler sported his Twin tee! Love it!

Of course you know me & I am always looking for photo ops. I saw the family Guy one & I was able to get 3 of the 4 kids in there for a picture.


So funny! I adore that show!!!

The next stop was the Merry Go Round. They love that. I made Kyle go on so that I could get some pictures...of course!


How cute is my family!? My brothers didn't ride on it & my kids loved being able to wave to my brothers while on the ride!

I was a bad mom that day too. My kids ate nothing but junk. Karie also had her first soda. We never have soda in the house. We just don't drink it. We buy it for parties & if it isn't all gone, it stays there until the next party. lol



I enjoy a Root Beer every once in a while. In reality I'd rather have a Root Beer float but it was hot & a Root Beer itself sounded really good. So I let Karie have some, she loved it too! lol

It was time for another ride. This ride, I HATE! It is the sky ride. It isn't scary really, but it is HIGH & goes from one end of the Fair to the other. My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE this ride so I have to suck it up & do it for them!



They spend the 5 minutes looking at everything. I spend about 10 seconds getting a good picture and the rest gripping for dear life on the door handle and looking at my feet. lol I hate this ride.

It was getting late, 5 or so hours in, and the kids were getting really tired. Kegan was on my dads back & just laying there tired.


See the Chicken hat. Still there. lol He loved that thing. I also love the lighting in these pictures. Karie was also tired. She fell asleep.



Right on Kyle's head she passed out. How cute is that! lol However it was SO hot! Kyle didn't want to have this sweaty little kid on his back for the next hour. So I took her.



Forgive my sweaty look, it was hot! lol The first picture is how she is most of the time. The second picture shows just how tired she was. lol It didn't even matter that she tipped backwards she stayed asleep. That only happened then. She normally just cuddles up. I ADORE this carrier. My Mei Tei. I got this when Kegan was a newborn. I have used it so hard the past 5 years. It comes in handy more often than you think. I had both my hands free to eat lots of nummy food!

I failed at taking pictures of all the food we ate & all the kids we did. We had a blast! Good bye Summer! Welcome Fall!

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