State Fair!

This morning, Maisie and I went to the State Fair!

I've only been a handful of times and it wasn't something I ever really loved, but I thought Maisie would enjoy it and it would be fun to see with her. And it was!

The first fun thing we did was to park at the new football stadium, on the U of M campus, for the free park & ride. Maisie thought the bus was great! She was really into the idea of a bus that has a potty in it. (by the way, have I mentioned that Maisie is almost completely potty trained now? Nights and naps are not dry yet, but that's fine. Uh-oh, hope this was not jinxing it.)

Anyway: at the fair, we went on a bunch of rides.

We went on this beautiful carousel twice! We also went down the Giant Slide twice, and through Ye Olde Mill twice, which is this weird tunnel of love-type ride I guess? You get in a little boat together, and ride through this pitch-black tunnel that has like four or five dioramas with painted plywood cutout figures? I have never seen anything like it. It's super weird but people love it, Maisie included!

Maisie has a bee painted on her left cheek here. She got that done at a display by beekeepers. This lovely young woman was painting kids' faces. When Maisie got up to the front of the line, the woman asked her what she wanted on her face. Maisie said, without hesitating, "a spider!!" The woman said, "Oh, I can only do a bee, a butterfly, or a flower." So Maisie went with the bee. The woman looked at me like, a SPIDER?? That's my girl!

One thing people always talk about regarding the State Fair is the food.

Maisie and I didn't have anything crazy - no chocolate covered bacon, deep fried candy bars, or alligator on a stick for us. We stuck with the basics, and had walleye for lunch, followed by a huge strawberry ice cream cone!

We also went through some of the animal barns, and saw horses, rabbits, sheep, poultry, and cows, as well as the new babies in the Miracle of Birth center - we got to pet a one-day-old lamb!

All told, we were at the fair for about three hours. After all that, Maisie was exhausted. When we got back to the car, she said "I'm really sleepy, Mama. I sleep in my carseat!" And she did.