Minnesota Dreaming ...

We had another memorable Minnesota weekend, and though between my mom, sister, Grandma, and I, we took over 200 pictures, I'll share just a handful here.  Sara and I flew up late Friday night.  She was the last one to wake up Saturday morning, and when she did, her hair looked like this.  Now that's a hard sleep.

Our first order of business was to hit the MN State Fair.  It's huge, crowded, full of various types of food and entertainment, and we just love it.  We stopped in the animal barns as soon as we arrived.  Sara enjoyed petting some goats, which were on her level.  We did get a glance of this year's largest boar (1450 lbs.), though it didn't interest her much since it just laid in a heap.  Bacon, anyone?

Fair food was enjoyed by all.  Sara's corn dog lasted a good three hours, and in between bites of it, she tried a variety of other new items, all of which she enjoyed.  My favorites were the new fried mashed potato balls, the classic walleye cakes, and the chocolate-dipped frozen bananas. 

My mom made us take this picture.  One of us looks cute and the other one just looks like a huge dork.

Sisters.

Oh, yes we did eat Hotdish on a Stick.  We hadn't planned to, but while my mom and sis were in line for the fried mashed potato balls, Todd spotted this stand and said, "What the heck?" and bought one for us to sample.  I wouldn't call it a staple on my state fair food list, but it was good.  And its pure existence makes me laugh.

Sara enjoyed "working on the farm" where she planted seeds, fed chickens, rode a tractor, and milked a cow.  She also may have eaten some of the hard, yellowish-brown, touched-by-many kernels of corn.  Oh, well.

The fam at the fair!

On Sunday evening, Foggy Notion played at a Labor Day party at the Lafayette Club on Lake Minnetonka.  We weren't sure what to expect as we'd never been to the event, but it was very family friendly with lots of entertainment, good food and spirits, and a phenomenal fireworks display.  Sara took a turn in the kiddie bounce house.  She mostly rolled around like this while the bigger kids jumped.

She also went on a pony ride!  At first I wasn't sure whether she'd actually get on the pony, but she did and she loved it.  She's concentrating hard in this picture.

Look at that face (Sara's, not mine)!  She just loved the cool air and the open fairways on which to run.  And run, she did.  We took turns chasing her all over the place.  She had an absolute blast!

Auntie and Sara.

While we were at G & G's house, my mom pulled out this old tee-pee that my sister got for Christmas many years ago.  We loved playing in it as kids, and my mom kept it for some special people like Sara.  As soon as she set it up, Sara was in tee-pee heaven.  She gathered all of her toys from around the house and stuffed them into the tee-pee.  The joys of having a small, quiet place to call our own ... 

Thanks for an unforgettable weekend, Mom, Todd, Mel, and G Lou.  Can't wait to do it again!