Apropos of Cole: Minnesota State Fair

Whew! The time has just flown by. I barely know where to start in order to catch everyone up on what we've been doing with ourselves lately. Okay, I'll start with Labor Day Weekend. It was jam-packed in honor of Cole's Aunt Jill's visit. There always seems to be a lot going on in Minnesota so it's never difficult to entertain visitors (hint, hint). Going into the weekend, we left plenty of time for whim with only the state fair and a Twins game on the 'Must Do' list.

The Minnesota State Fair. Wow, I've never seen a fair get so much television coverage. Coley and I watched entire news broadcasts from and about the state fair for days. From our cozy view on the couch it looked exciting, huge, and at times mystifying. We couldn't wait to go but we were patient and waited until the last weekend so that Aunt Jill would be able to experience it with us as well.

First off, Cole was blown away by his first-ever bus ride. He didn't know which way to look. I mean there's the whole being up high and able to look down into the cars of strangers, and then there's the great diversity amongst your fellow bus riders, and there are all those loud, mysterious noises as the bus bounces along. It soon became apparent that Cole was partial to the enormous bus windows that provided him a cushy view of roads, overpasses, and the interior of all those cars. His Dad did catch him long enough to take snag this photo marking Cole's first-ever bus ride.

Once we were on firm ground again Cole was not about to sit in his stroller. He wanted to walk amongst the people and feel the gravel crunching beneath his feet. But that would have to wait until later. As we passed through the main gates, we were blown away by the sheer volume of everything.

There were people for miles and miles no matter where you looked. There were the familiar, and not-so-familiar, scents swirling about to tease our senses with memories of past visits to fairs and new memories to come.

Then, of course, there were all those booths to peak our curiosity. Booths with brightly colors hats and noisy toys for kids. Booths and barns with information and freebies for the grown-ups. Barns full of animals - a chicken barn, a cow barn, a horse barn, just to name a few.

Absolutely amazing. Looking at it from Cole's point of view, made it seem all that more impressive.

He was tickled by the chickens and he was captivated by the horses.

That's his hand petting the horse's nose.

Scott pulled him back just before Cole stuck his hand up the horse's nostril. Good call.

I think the cows puzzled him more than anything - they were just sitting there quietly watching him as if he was the exhibit rather than the other way around.
Oh, but then there was the carnival area of the fair. At this point Cole's preferred mode of transportation was atop his dad's shoulders and his usual expression was open-mouthed awe as his mind was blown left and right.

Here are some more shots of things that caught our eye. Check out the french fry stand that's been serving fries to perfection for 35 years now from that very location.

Or, how about that slide ride? They say it's worth the hour-long wait. Guess we'll find out next year.

Now, if you were to look up you would see, from all corners of the fair, these colorful cable cars zipping along in order to give their patrons a real bird's eye view.

But you know what really makes a fair great? The people. The people you're with that's where it's at.

Scott's cousin Liz met up with us and gave us the grand tour highlighting her favorite bits like the Gizmo sandwich and the apple-cicle (I don't recall what it was really called) which was soo refreshing.

A real group favorite was most definitely the bucket of chocolate chip cookies being sold everywhere by Aunt Martha. Someone should give that woman her own day for all the goodness she packs into those sweet morsels. Everywhere we went you could see people toting their overflowing buckets of her cookies. Yum!

While we were partaking in our apple-based treats,

Cole surprised us all by falling asleep.

I thought for sure he would wake up as soon as we left the air-conditioned pavilion but no, that nap reached heroic heights despite noise, smells, flashing lights, and color. An amazing thing to behold.

But like everything else, it too came to an end, and Cole woke up wanting more. More sights, more smells, more people to stare at, and for sure more cookies.

So after a quick goodbye to Cousin Liz and a much dwindled crowd, Cole eagerly accepted Aunt Jill's hand and felt the crunch of fair gravel beneath his feet for the first time.
All that walking really must've taken a lot out of Cole. As the sunset, he began to act a little zany. He started humming, "I Wear My Sunglasses At Night," and asked us to take his picture. Now, believe me he is quite the ham but this seemed over the top even for him.