Today, began around 9:30 am, meeting cousins, parking at the house. Another Saturday at the fair. In the past, I usually avoided the weekends, due to the massive crowds. With the exception of my afternoon volunteer shifts and the talent show with mom, I stayed home. Tonight is the County Talent Show finals, so I know I’ll be up late. I’m not sure what possessed me to go early, other than the lure of family, many that I haven’t seen for a while and it was going to be another glorious weather day! It saddens me a little to think these are the last parking pictures at the homestead.

We met up at the Education Building, some people wanted a St. Thomas bag. We checked the Pronto/Corn dog tally. The machine was up and running again.

Still a close race.

I took the opportunity to look over all the incredible art, created by school kids across the state.

I love the Alphabet collage!

Creations by little kids under age eight!

Some older kids work

We walked up the street to find a traveling interactive berry truck! We waited in quite a line, but the rewards were worth it!

We took advantage of the traveling photo op

I took a few texts, but we connected with lots more cousins! I was excited to spend the day with family and share all the fun, free stuff I’ve discovered for kids. And they were excited to learn some of my State Fair secrets and have a skilled tour guide to help make the most of the day!

I suggested we head to check out the Angry Birds exhibit, before the lines got too long. We all had so much fun!

Not more than 15-20 minute waits and the kids got to try all the really fun stuff!

There was a movie room, coloring & animation zone, lots of interactive activities with fulcrums, balancing, cogs and construction zones!

The kids were ready to go explore other fun places! We stopped at Math on a Stick and the whole cousin clan helped me get my date stamp photo!

As the kids were all making the family name noodle, I turned around and there was Donna Erickson, the star of Donna’s Day. A wonderful show on PBS back when Gray was a little baby!

It was almost parade time, so the family went to secure a bench and I went to fulfill my plan to “top the tater!” First I got a bucket of fries to share and I put some of the fries into my saved Tipsy pie tins from earlier. Second, I went to the traveling “Top the Tater” booth to have the guy make good on the promise to cover any food with the stuff!

We added cheese curds to the mix and the other guys got sample cups of the “Zesty Buffalo” flavor!

The parade came by and I got a drive by selfie with Crunch the Wolves mascot, realizing it might be my last chance!

The Native American dancers had the most beautiful costumes.

After the parade, the gang was ready to go see the DNR. Today was gearing up to be another record breaker. We were at the beginning of the parade route, and it would still be making its way around. I knew better than to take the family in that direction. I had them follow closely as we cut through Ag/Hort, crossed the street through a parade vehicle gap, and went down behind the Territorial Pioneer log cabin. No crowds, no delays!

The kids (and adults) had lots of fun checking out the wildlife and interactive displays that I had scoped out earlier in the week.

I think that this snake was concerned he might be someone’s lunch!

We were just across the street from the bench, so we stopped there to remember!

We walked down to the animal barns, but really just went there for the food and beverages! Some wanted to try the Dilly Dog, and it was time to get All You Can Drink Milk to go with the cookies that were saved from earlier in the morning!

Corn on the cob was the final stop and the kids were getting tired! Pull up a curb and some dead grass for a rest today. No benches available at all. It was so crowded!

Harper is showing an indomitable State Fair spirit, the boys might be wearing out! A girl after my own heart!

Harper really wanted to go through the butterfly house, so I took the boys over to the Rainbow Play system area, and they had a great time climbing and sliding while we waited.

I needed to get to the Baldwin Park Stage early, to get seats for the County Talent Show Finals. The group followed and we were so early there were seats available to sit and watch the Sean Emery Show. He’s been performing out here for 28 years! He’s a magician and comedian (?!?), and did make me laugh out loud when he referred to our State Fair as a “special gated community”.

We watch the whole talent show and I summed up the acts as being a whole bunch of melancholy dancers. I don’t remember who won, but I also did not spend very many evenings up here watching the preliminary rounds. As always, my talent show companions were here too. The seats were strangely empty before the show. In past years, we struggled to save seats!

After the show I don’t remember who all went, but we took a walk through the Midway. There is usually a featured ride at the entrance and this year it wasn’t so photogenic. The giant swing has held that gateway place in the past. This year it was sort of in the middle.

The New York New York is beautiful at night too!

We closed out the day with most of the starting lineup! We waited near the grandstand so these guys could witness the infamous corn dance!

It was a fun, family filled day. Every day is made special, not only by the things I do and see, but more so by the people I spend the day with!

Only two days left to pack in all I could.