All's Fair at the Fair!

NINE hours. That's how long we spent at the State Fair today - opening day. We arrived just after 9 a.m. and left at 6 p.m. The weather was beautiful - 80s, sunny, low humidity. A bit warm in the sun but no complaints! We never intended to stay all day, and we barely made it out of the north and east ends of the fairgrounds. Still, we had a nice, unhurried day and the kids were troopers. This was the first year sans wagons, strollers, etc., and they didn't complain once about tired feet or legs until late in the day. I sat down tonight and made a list of the things we did (and ate) and hopefully I got everything in so we can remember later how our day went. Here's what I can recall:

Tested out snowmobiles
Lego exhibit -the kids each won a free lego set
Alphabet forest - Ellie and Maddie got their photos taken with their names made of letters from photos of Fair signs
Kids' safety quiz, spin the wheel for prizes
Pizza (kids)
Little Farm Hands
Breakfast quesadilla
Pet Center
Parade - got to see the Budweiser Clydesdales
Snowcones
Giggles Campfire Grill - Dave had walleye fingers, the kids had a kids meal lunches of chicken bites, fries, and oreos
Lumberjack show - Aidan especially got into this!
Tested out ATVs
Checked out the RVs
Kicked some tires at Dodge/Chrysler (Dave's dreaming of a new minivan- lol!)
Kidway
Lemonade
Cheese curds (of course!)
Garlic fries - new to us this year. Very garlicky - but good!
Giant slide
DNR building - new fish tanks and exhibits of taxidermied animals- pretty cool
Sweet Martha's cookies: even with 6 of us eating them, it was still tough to remove enough to get the top on the bucket before we got on the bus!