Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Auntie Cam is in the house!

After several years of hearing about all the fun and excitement of the MN State Fair, Auntie Cam decided to finally make a trip up to experience it for herself. Unfortunately Wyatt also had a hockey tournament that weekend, so the only time we could go was friday night. We weren't able to spend as much time there as in years past, but it was still really great and we always like to leave before everyone gets burned out!
Getting our pronto pups--Wyatt had the Papa Pup!
Enjoying a few of the kiddie rides--Wyatt's such a great sport about going on the smaller rides with Blake!
The kids' slide..Wyatt is going down on the left and Blake and Sadie are up top getting ready still
..and then they were off!
The kids LOVE the gondola--it's a quick way to get to the other side of the fair AND a great way to show Cammie just how huge the state fair is! (The Grandstand was just behind Cam and Sadie)
But this was what we were really eyeing.....one of my newfound favorites at the fair--fried pickles, better known as 'frickles'. 

Everyone loving the frickles!
 (Cammie was a bit unsure but she was quickly convinced that frickles are indeed amazing!)
Sadie's favorite part--seeing and petting the animals
And Blake was pretty excited to sit on this plastic horse.....I think this kid is going to LOVE farm camp next summer!
Checkin' out that big pig!
The owners let the kids give the pig his water, which actually comes out of this squirt-bottle contraption that you pump and then squirt towards their mouths. Blake wanted Auntie Cam to do it for him....
..but Sadie wanted to do it all on her own!
Then it was time for the kids to test their strength! Wyatt got it all the way to the top...
..and Sadie, after a few tries, also did! That mallet it quite heavy!
Then the kids looked on as Matt showed them how it's done!

And then we got these lovely prizes to carry around for the rest of the evening!
We can't go by the agriculture building without checking out the christmas trees, to see if my aunt and uncle's christmas tree farm has any winning trees....and just like every other year, they had some blue ribbon winners!!
Then I took Cammie over to my other favorite fair food place--the Wine barn. But I don't get the wine--I get the wine-infused ice cream that is to die for! And since you have to show an ID just to get a scoop, it's all mine! 
Cam was a fan as well!
Then it was on to the giant slide--Sadie was pretty reluctant after our incident last year (her foot got caught under the carpet and she got a pretty nasty burn along the length of her foot from the friction of the slide--and it took awhile to heal!). But she was a trooper and rode with Auntie Cam--you could hear the two of them from what seemed like miles away, screaming and laughing the entire way down!
(Cam and Sadie are on the right, then Matt and Blake are just to the left of them and then Wyatt's in the middle of the picture in the bright green)
We ended our night with some Sweet Martha's cookies and cold milk--what could be better?!
The next morning was spent here.......as well as the afternoon. (Cammie took Sadie for a little pedicure/manicure date during the morning game)

After Wyatt's 2nd game, we went to dinner in Stillwater and walked along the river for awhile. It was a gorgeous night and the texmex food we ate was delish! 

But I had to show Cammie this store in Stillwater called Mara Mi (same company as the line of paper products at Target) and I knew she'd feel right at home there. It's a paper products store with a full coffee bar and Izzy's ice cream shop inside. 
Matt and I split the salted caramel affogato---we had never had an affogato before, but it's an italian dessert that is ice cream with espresso (think root beer float but sub espresso for the soda)---it was absolutely amazing and my mouth is watering just thinking about it right now!
Blake enjoyed his ice cream with an Izzy scoop (Izzy's allows you to pick a flavor of ice cream and then you get a 'bonus' mini scoop of any other flavor--how genius is that?!)
Cammie found some great stuff in the store (as did I), but the boys loved playing with these display cases that she bought! Oh dear....
And Wyatt finally got the Kendama!! Many kids at school have these and they seem to be all the rage, but I could never find them anywhere. Apparently they are only sold in speciality-type boutiques and Wyatt was ecstatic to finally find one (thankfully he had enough money to buy one too!)
Probably one of Sadie's favorite things about having Auntie Cam visit
Wyatt had a hockey game Sunday morning before church, so he and Matt met the rest of us at church and then we all went out for a super yummy brunch at Pier500 in Hudson (our favorite!)
After brunch, Cammie took off for Madison and we headed back to the rink for the championship game. We actually ended up playing the '04 Warrior team in the championship game (Wyatt's an '05), so we were anticipating that the older kids would win. But Wyatt's team is pretty feisty and fought back from a 3-goal deficit to win! Of course it was another OT win, just like last spring--seriously I think it's harder to be a parent than a player in that situation. 
We just loved this team, though. Great coaches, great kids and great families--and unfortunately we will all be split up next year since some of the kids (and both coaches) were from Blaine and they'll be starting their own AAA team up there with Warrior.
Pretty proud!

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