The Year Amanda Didn't Go to the Fair

It has been a fairly difficult few weeks since Nathan came home. That has left the majority of the heavy lifting to Shube and me when I'm home.

 The highlight of our summers, especially for Amanda, is the Minnesota State Fair. We have gone every year that we've lived here and we love it. You know Amanda isn't feeling well, when she decides to opt out of the fair. We thought of every possible way to make it work but it just wasn't going to be. So yesterday, I loaded up the four oldest and we headed out. We tried to take pictures of all of the things we did and ate to share with Amanda when we got home. It was a great time and it made me thankful all over again for Amanda. Over and over again while I was there I just thanked God for how much work she put in with our family.

I felt like this year, we really got a good sense of the fair.  We saw some things that we hadn't before.  We did the barns, ate tons of fair food and watched most of our usual shows.  We also went to the coliseum and watched girls barrel riding.  This was a lot of fun and you could see the time and energy that each contestant had put into the fair.

Mini Donuts! Our fist stop every year.

Biggest pumpkin

All you can drink milk for $1

Ben and Matthew get ready to ride the Stratosphere.

Pickles and french fries for lunch

While we were doing lunch near the stage in carousel park, a guy from Cub grocery store came up and asked if the boys wanted to do a trivia contest on stage.  So up they went.  It was fun.  They got to do it with the Minnesota Timber Wolves mascot Crush.  Plus they gave us two $10 Cub gift cards.

All in all, it was a great day.  We certainly missed Amanda and Lucy.  But we had a great time just the five of us.

MOTLEY CREW