We made plans to take Sophie and Luke to the Fair today, since we knew they wouldn't get another chance to go. I HATE the Fair, but I LOVE the kids, and I wanted to see my mom's memorial brick by the Grandstand. ( My mom loved the fair and went many times a year, every year. I went with her and Jill last year to make it easier for her in the wheelchair she was using. It was the first time in 30+ years that I had gone.)
Of course we got off to a rough start, since Sarah showed up without Luke, who had stayed at Molly's for an end of daycare overnight. It was also freezing and windy and I had to choose warmer clothes for the kids. But we picked him up and off we went. We started off at the barns. Luke noticed the poop right off the bat. He was skipping to try to avoid it.We had a discussion about horses dietary habits from the clues i the poop. We saw the lambs, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, llamas, alpacas and pigs. We went to the baby animal barn to pet, what else, baby animals. We saw chickens hatching from eggs, 6 day old piglets-18 of them, calves, lambs, rabbits, all one cuter than the other. Sophie was much braver than Luke in touching them.
We went straight to the All-You-Can-Drink Milk booth (from which the trip to the barns had totally put me off of), but the kids loaded up on chocolate milk. I had told them that chocolate milk came from brown cows. City Kids!
Next stop was the Department of Natural Resources building and pond with all its Minnesota wildlife - dead and alive. On the way out the kids stopped to watch an owl and touch a snake. I passed.
As it was nearing lunch, our next stop was the Beer Gardens, as it used to be known back in the day. While the kids and I settled in, Bob ran from place to place for food. We started the kids off on hot dogs and french fries, but they only wanted the garlic french fries. We then plowed our way through the cheese curds.
We stopped for a potty break, which Luke found endlessly fascinating. "Did you know there are 12 sinks? Did you know one of them has a different faucet than the others? How many toilets are there?" After he dried his clean hands on his pants, we were a short jaunt to the Giant Slide.
Sophie was big talk until she saw it, then declined. Luke wanted to go on by himself, which I took to mean on his own burlap sack, but Grandpa took to mean "all alone." So , Sophie and I are sitting on a bench, watching the top Grandpa's head wind his way through the line, and all of a sudden, Bob turns around and comes back. Sans Luke! I push my way through the hoards of people at the fence, and see him climbing the Giant Stairs to the Giant Slide ALL ALONE, looking over his shoulder at the crowd. I frantically wave my arms for him to spot me, and yell. He comes down the GIANT SLIDE like a trooper but nervously looks around until he sees me, and says " I thought I was lost." I HAD WORDS with Grandpa! Luke recovered immediately, and blew it off.
We went to the Grandstand to find my mom's brick, which I finally find, only to burst into tears! The kids are running in the courtyard and don't see me. Luke finds bricks with his name on it. We walk through the Grandstand but no merchandise is calling our names, so after letting them play with carved wooden frogs that "ribbit", we are off again.
We make our way through the crowds deciding between mini doughnuts and Sweet Martha's cookies, and end up with both. We top them off on the milk booth again before heading for home. By now the kids are asking to go.
We met our proposed goals set that morning, and got home in time to hand off 2 screaming, fighting, sugar-jittering kids to Patrick for a long, long, long ride to Wisconsin. Sorry Patrick. I hope they napped! All in all, a good day at the Fair.
