The Great MN Get Together or

...otherwise known as the state fair in other states, was graced by our presence last night along with 10's of thousands of other people. We've been hearing good things about this fair since we moved here and we weren't disappointed. I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture but there are hundreds and hundreds of people behind me- I can't imagine what it is like on the weekends, but there have been upwards of 90,000 people there daily.

Our first stop of the night was a the "Birthing Barn." Yes, you read that right we went to a barn full of pigs, cows, ponies, chickens, turkeys and more, ready to give birth. We were lucky enough to see a cow an hour or so postpartum withering in pain. Her calf was 135 lbs and the usual birth weight is 75-90 lbs. Ouch! This pig I was forcing Ladd to touch in the pic below was only an hour old.

The rest of our time was spent trying to decide what fried food to eat. First were these amazing little doughnuts.

Then we has some roasted corn. This was probably our favorite.

Then Doug and Ladd shared the traditional Pronto Pup (corn dog).

Followed by some homemade root beer, tacos, and finished off the night with some great ice cream from the Dairy. What a great family night!

Minne what?

This weekend we decided to explore beautiful Minneapolis. Our destination was Minnehaha Park. It is a huge, very popular park that is centered around this awesome natural waterfall. We had fun chasing Ladd around and afterwards we went to The Grand Old Creamery and it lived up to its yummy reputation. Honestly the ice cream was awesome- I'd probably consider it some of the best I've eaten and if you know me you know I've eaten my fair share of ice cream. What a great weekend!

A sign of things to come...

Ladd is constantly on the go. If he's not climbing, in this case to grab a handful of pie crust, he is falling and making himself look like an abused child. Below is a picture of the black eye and skinned nose/lip he got this past weekend. His eye is looking a lot better. I have to hand it to the little guy because he is really tough. He hardly ever cries unless he gets hurt really bad.