This past year Theo's best friend moved to Owatonna. When we came down last May for his birthday party I saw a sign for the Steele County Fair and knew we had to come back for it. First stop is the lemonade stand.  Then we hit up the daredevil show. After going to the RV show last February, Theo gets excited to tour campers.  They're fun to look at it or rent, but sorry bud, we're sticking to tents for the most part. You know I love a fair that is connected to the historic village.  I don't know if this is a common thing, but a few of the county fairs around here have little history centers right on their fairgrounds.

This weekend we were going to stay at my grandpa's log cabin. Instead of driving straight to the cabin we stopped for the night at my parents house. Theo still loves to sleep in the crib.  I thought we could go see our new baby niece. But tbh, I just wanted to stay home for two weekends in the summer. No one really listens to me around here, so I caved in going to the hunting land. Whenever I come home there's always things for me to look through. Like this box of old toys. I found my whole collection of pogs that the kids insisted on taking home.  On July 13th our niece Viola was born. Since we were coming to Wisconsin we had to stop to meet her.   I thought having my own kids would make me comfortable holding babies but it's still scary. 

  It's fair season which means a new to us county fair.  I was driving back via the scenic route from Albert Lea earlier in the week when I saw that Waseca County was throwing their "Free Fair" this weekend. Since we were already going to nearby New Ulm, why not make a day of it? You know our first food stop is the lemonade stand, especially on this really hot day. The tanker size was a must.  We now are collecting these giant lemonade contraptions, I guess. It was hot and humid. The lemonade wouldn't last too long. Then it was lunch time.  Of course Meadow just picked sweets.

August can mean only one thing: a visit to a county fair. This year we journeyed to the Scott County Fair in Jordan, Minnesota just south of the Cities. We like to try a new county every year.  City kid Theo didn't like all the animal smells.  After the animals we looked for some lemonade and something to eat. With being so close to the cities I thought this would be a bigger fair than it was.  The kids have been doing chores every week to earn money. Meadow really wanted these fold up fans. She had just enough and it was buy one get one so she let Theo pick one too.  I guess Kirby is having a moment. Theo loved this cut out. We went all out on the food.  Meadow got some hot dog kids meal from 4-H, we got wood-fired pizza and Theo got cheese curds and pretzels. Not a bad county fair smorgasbord.  While Brooke and Meadow watched a magic show, Theo and I checked out the free advertising for Rainbow Play Systems. He actually managed to play with kids arou...

We had a lot of visitors up at the cottage this week. A "kid" my sister used to babysit was up with a couple friends fishing plus my parents. He's now in college. No longer a kid. Meadow got to open a belated birthday present.  A mermaid outfit. She had been wanting one for a long time. I carried my little gal down to the lake. Mermaids can't walk.

  We like to go to one of the county fairs every year and thought we would try out Rice County this year.   It was gonna be warm, but with 2020 canceled, in general, we had to make it out to a fair in 2021. We got there early afternoon and not too much was going on yet.   It was like 90 degrees.

Theo was here.

We have always wanted to go to a county fair here in Minnesota. Usually we are gone during fair time, but this year lucked out and we were home during the  Dakota County Fair . Once and while Meadow and Theo play without Theo crying. This picture has nothing to do with this blog post, but it sure is cute. Buds. I like how the edge of the Twin Cities metro can be so country. Wonder Woman requested a pronto pup. She's officially a Minnesotan. They had the mini ferris wheel here! Theo was POed that he couldn't ride with Meadow. Meadow really wanted to go in a floating hamster ball.  Sadly it was not included with the ride tickets, but cost extra. Instead Meadow and I went a roller coaster together.  We took a break from rides and checked out the animal buildings. The fairgrounds also has a heritage village . The Dakota City Heritage Village, to be exact. We got to explore all the old buildings and homes...