State Fair

My mom's group trip to the zoo was cancelled due to rain, but that did not stop us from going to the State Fair! Donnie really loves going, and this is his only day off. Rain or shine, we were going. We bought umbrellas and barely needed them! But we were glad to have them.
I have one major goal at the fair, and so does Donnie. He wants to try all the food on a stick there is, and I want to get all the freebies. He also wants to go to the political booth, and I want to hit the local Christian music station booth. We managed to get it all squeezed in.
We started with the most amazing new food, Scotch Eggs! It is a hard boiled egg wrapped completely in sausage and deep fried and on a stick, then they offer a selection of dips, maple syrup, ranch dressing, honey mustard sauce. Oh my gosh, it was amazing! We are going to try to make this on our own.
Then we had a deep fried Snickers bar on a stick. They put batter on them and deep fry them, oh so good! And that was Sam's favorite! Next we had a pork chop tenderloin on a stick with amazing barbeque sauce. Oh, it was sooo tender!
We did not stop there! We had to have the deep fried macaroni and cheese and the sloppy joe on a stick! The mac 'n cheese is wadded up and battered and deep fried, the sloppy joe mix is put in a hot dog casing and then battered with what they say is hamburger bun, but not sure about that, then deep fried and on a stick with a side of the tomato sauce. Way too good. I do not like mac'n cheese, so you'll have to take Sam and Donnie's word on it being good, because I think its nasty.
Then we had a foot long corn dog on a stick. And a thing of garlic fries.
What we didn't try was the Hotdish on a stick at the Ole and Lena booth! I heard it was great, though. Or the "New Egg Sandwiches." Or the gator on a stick. We did the gator last year, it was ok, but not worth buying again.

Sam was awake until we were walking to the car. He had a great time waving at everyone! He also did not nurse the whole time we were gone today, and only nursed a little bit when we got home. I have decided that I am going to nurse along with giving him some more foods and milk in a bottle. He was not all that excited about the chocolate milk, but today he had strawberry milk and was ga-ga over it! I am going to work on not nursing him at night, just before bed and then his breakfast time around 7am. (he doesn't actually get up then, or I would make it a bowl of oatmeal or something) I refused to nurse him last night, and it did work. I had to get up and walk him a couple of times, but I did not nurse him.

I had a great time getting my freebies, I am actually going to have to go and count all the free bags I got. No less than 3 from colleges, probably 4, and at least 2 others, I'm thinking 6, not including what we gave to my mother-in-law. And two from the radio station. Tons of pencils and college information for Kaytlin. 4 seedling trees, Sam got a pair of sunglasses. We got a ruler, a pen, and who knows what else I got!

Then we got to go to the airport. We made it there about 15 minutes before we expected Devon's plane to arrive. Donnie was tired and has to work in the morning, so I left him to sleep in the car and Sam and I head out to find Devon. He plane info says he is on time. And we have no idea if he tried to call and say there was anything wrong or delays because the kids did something that unplugged the phone all afternoon! Well, after the plane was 1/2 an hour late they finally updated the screen and said the plane would be just over an hour late! The time went quickly for me because Sam was entertaining person after person and having a grand time with all the attention!

Then Donnie came in to see what was up, and soon Devon's plane landed. Oh, the joy of seeing Devon! Sam just hugged him and squealed! He couldn't stop grinning! But his joy could not match the exuberance of Trinity's first sight of Devon when we got home. She started squealing "Devon" at the top of her lungs, in spite of it being nearly midnight. In spite of the neighbors being asleep, and some not having A/C, so they have their windows open.

Apparently my mom embarrassed Devon quite thoroughly at the airport before he left. I warned him it was coming, but it still surprised him. My mom is a crier. She cries, no, bawls, whenever we have to part. We feel so bad for her that we hardly want to see her to make her cry that hard! Devon said he was getting all settled and everything was fine, and then she was bawling, sobbing, loudly. Drew and Kaytlin went through it, too, and they did NOT warn him or want to warn him. And mom said that she cried so hard that when he got out of sight she had to go sit down to get through it. I can honestly say that no one in our family ever wonders if my mom loves them.