It has been tradition for us to go to the county fair every summer. This year we moved, so I new it would be a little different. We totally missed the Hennepin County Fair and I thought we would be able to go to the Crow Wing County Fair, but it was earlier than in past years.
I just thought we were out of luck, until I got the mail a couple of weeks ago. We got a piece of mail from the library. It was addressed to Abigail and I figured it was just a late fee notice. I opened it up and it said that Abigail had won the drawing for two free tickets to the state fair. I immediately showed it to her and she was exhilarated. After that, whenever she would see a commercial or hear the words “State Fair” she would excitedly ask how long it would be until we could go there.
Yesterday was THE day. We decide to go on the first day because we heard that it would be cleaner, cheaper and possibly less crowded. Well, two out of three aren’t bad. The crowds weren’t so bad in the morning, but by afternoon it was pretty packed. We had great weather, (a little hot and a little windy), so I suspect that had something to do with it.
We started out by taking sky ride over the fair in the cable cars. It was a nice way to begin so we could all see a sample of what was there. After walking through a few buildings, we went and did my new favorite thing at the fair, The Little Farm. I had done it once before with the girls at last years county fair, so I was excited to see Joel do it this year. The kids get to learn what farmers do. They start by getting an apron on and a pail to carry. Their first stop was to get some corn to feed the animals. Then they got some cool John Deere hats to wear (which was new to us) and drove the hay bails around on little tractors. The first animal to feed was the chickens, then of course they had to put the chickens eggs in their pail. Then they picked up a seed and shovel, put on their gloves and planted vegetables. The girls planted potatoes, so the got to put a potato in their pail. Next stop was the sheep, which they fed and got some wool from. From there the went to the cow barn. They fed the cow, milked it and received a milk carton for their pail. Then they picked an apple from the orchard. The next step was to sell their food at the farmers market, where they put everything back in its appropriate basket. They are then paid for their produce and get to buy a snack. It is such a great and fun learning experience. Kudos to whoever thought it up.
We stopped for a lunch break and then went to the giant slide. You know the one where you slide down on a potato sack. We found out that Abigail was the only kid tall enough to ride by herself, so Lydia and Joel went down with daddy on his potato sack. This was the kids favorite thing to do at the fair this year.
Our next stop was a memorial building to JFK. We peeked in and saw the car he was shot in. We thought that looked intriguing so we stepped inside. It was actually a replica, but it was fun to see all the memorabilia. They had a presidential podium so Jonathan, of course, had to take advantage of that photo op.
We decided to take a little break and try out some fair food. One of my favorites is cotton candy. Jonathan hates it, but I thought the kids could enjoy it with me. Abigail loved it, but Joel and Lydia made some disgusted faces when they put it in their mouth. So, they decided to share a pretzel with Jonathan.
One of our last stops was the space tower, which was Jonathan’s favorite part of the fair. Joel was also very excited about getting to go on it. It is a permanent structure that many people can ride on. It goes up on a pole 330 feet and turns in a circle so that you get a great view of the fair and the Twin Cities. We all enjoyed the ride.
We were all tired by the end of the day but had a great time.