Happy Labor Day, friends! I hope you’ve had a great holiday weekend so far. Mine kicked off a little early on Thursday for my annual trek to the Minnesota State Fair with Joe and my sister and her daughter. It was pretty fun. 😉
I give a special shout-out to my 15-year-old son, who is (as always) a very good sport about 1) hanging with his mother at the State Fair and 2) hanging with his 5-year-old cousin who absolutely ADORES him. I do think Joe enjoys this tradition as much as the rest of us do. But maybe that’s because I’ll buy him as many cheese curds and tubs of popcorn as he wants. 😉
Joe’s first fair food of the day … Mouth Trap Cheese Curds, which we all know are the BEST at the State Fair. 
Morgan’s first ride in the “Kidway” – because you go with rides first to keep the 5-year-old happy. 
Morgan’s final ride was a little tamer than the rest. 🙂
Time to eat! Morgan’s pic was the Rainbow Halo Roll, with Superman ice cream, cotton candy and Fruity Pebbles cereal. Morgan declared the cereal “gave this good crunch!” The rest of us were skeptical at first but then admitted we all kind of liked it. Even Joe – who doesn’t like cotton candy as a general rule but then demanded Jodi “surrender her utensil” (exact quote) so he could have another bite.
Next stop … The Blue Barn for some corn fritters with chimichurri dipping sauce and a frozen berry hard seltzer (for me; not the kids, obvi). The food was okay (not WOW), but the drink was super refreshing and a win in my books.
The buttered popcorn was also a big win with both kids. Clearly.
Overheard conversation between Morgan and her mom: “Mom, I think I felt a raindrop.” Mom/Jodi: “Morgan, I think that was butter.”
Now if that isn’t the perfect State Fair convo, I don’t know what is. 😉
Morgan and I decided we needed henna tattoos, while Jodi and Joe hit the Horticulture building. I feel like this will be a new tradition from henceforth — and this certainly speaks to the hippie child that lurks inside me to this day.
I think the henna tattoo was a great complement to Morgan’s face-painting adventure. Oddly, we couldn’t talk Joe into also doing this. (As if … )
Smores Beer from Giggles Campfire Grill – just okay. 
Duck Drummies from Giggles – definitely delish! 
Mini Donut Beer from Ballpark Cafe – yaaaaas!
We also became those annoying people that stopped in the middle of a busy street to take a selfie. (Why is my face shiny? No clue – as it wasn’t super warm that day. LOL)
Another tradition? The Sky Ride, of course! We almost didn’t get to ride it because it wasn’t running all day — but finally, as we were getting ready to leave, Morgan spied it going and we stopped everything to buy tickets. Well, and more popcorn because we passed that really good popcorn vendor again on our way to the Sky Ride.
Obligatory Sky Ride selfie! Plus also … we have the same smile, I think!
Smiley Kids! 
Moody Kids!
And this is what it means to take photos of these two kindred cousin souls … always a smiley face and always a serious face. 😉
One more thing … we had to break about 5 pm to head over to WCCO-TV so I could be on the news talking about Turkey To Go, the restaurant owned by the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. Joe, Jodi, and Morgan passed out samples of Turkey To Go while I was interviewed by the anchors (Frank Vascellaro and Amelia Santaniello) and you can watch the whole thing here if you are so inclined.
It’s weird watching myself on TV.
And the final funny quote of the night? We literally hadn’t even left the parking lot yet when Morgan proclaimed, “I’m hungry.”
Of course. 😉
And the funny thing was, my sister and I decided about halfway home that we were kind of hungry too.
Thankfully, I had grabbed some Turkey To Go sandwiches ‘to go’ and when we got back to our house, we all had something to eat. (Because clearly we hadn’t eaten nearly enough at the fair.)
I just love our State Fair tradition!
xoxo – Lara