one glorious day at the state fair

Dacia and Dane and I went to the MN State Fair on Monday, August 25! Dacia and I volunteered at the Crossroads Chapel helping kids make salvation crosses out of the beads that match the colors of the wordless book! It was 4 hours of work that was SO FUN! I loved it! I will totally do it again! It went really fast and then, we had the rest of the day to explore the fair food. We rated everything by a 5 Pronto pup rating system.

This is what we had:

Tatortots on a stick (delicious! cheese and onion stuffed in a big tatertot and then put on a stick) 3 1/2 pronto pups
Fried Fruit in a stick 2 1/2 pronto pups
Shrimp on a stick 1 pronto pup (it was not so great!)
Norwegian Chees Curds 5 pronto pups (with lingenberry dipping sauce! Delicious!)
Nitro Ice Cream 5 pronto pups
Fried Reese’s Peanut butter cups (we didn’t actually rate this one because we forgot being so tired! We decided the fried milky ways are better)
Milk No rating needed! It’s just good!
Foot Long Pizza on a stick–4 pronto pups The quote of the day: Gianna “I don’t know about this…it’s just pizza!” Dacia (with a look of incredulousness), “And your point is….?”

Classic–Sweet Martha’s chocolate chip cookies! Of course that one is a 5 pronto pup winner!

4 cups of milk from the all you can drink milk stand. We had a guzzling contest with the chocolate. It was so cold that my head killed! And I was convinced I would puke halfway through. It was mind over matter. And I thought, “It’s delicious chocolate milk!” And I kept it down!

I know it’s a bit blurry! Bummer!
Who doesn’t belong?
Dane, Dacia, Dave Clutter, Gianna

It’s totally Dane! The rest of us are over 30 and either went to NWC or are working for the radio station.
Okay, so it’s totally Dave! The rest of us were at Dane’s birth.
Okay, so it’s totally Dacia because she is wearing a pink shirt!

For one thing, it ISN’T me! I totally belong! (even though my name doesn’t start with a D)

We stopped by the Kare 11 barn at the fair and I got the autographs of Julie Nelson and Mike Pomeranz–my favorite news anchors (except for Rick Kupchella on a stick). I also asked Mike if he knew of a public phone that wasn’t a pay phone because I didn’t have any change on me. He offered me his cell phone, but I felt funny taking his and borrowed the guy’s phone who was next to me in line. Then, I asked Julie Nelson if she knew Kari Hamel (now Berglund) because for some reason I thought they were related. She had NO idea who I was talking about. Sorry, Kari. I think I may have embarrassed you if you had been there. I’m glad you weren’t. I was a little embarrassed myself! But I covered it up, I think. Don’t you just love this picture. Julie Nelson and I smiling so nicely for the camera and Mike Pomeranz thinking the picture was of him so he was trying to look good, but his eyes are totally closed! I think it’s great! Dane got on TV! Dacia and I (and of course Dane) went to the news at 4:00 (which we aren’t huge fans of Pat Evans, but I thought it would be fun anyway). It was super fun because we had terrible seats pretty much right behind the camera man. At one point, I was trying to get Dane in the view of the camera when he turned to show the crowd. The camera man said, “Don’t worry, I’ll get him.” And he DID! He trained the camera right on Dane and said, “Get Ready.” And when the show came back on, there was Dane and only Dane for like 10 seconds. No Gianna, no Dacia, no one else in the crowd–just DANE! Yeehaw! Dane has had his moment of fame and he wasn’t even old enough to know!

On a side note: My fair buddy is usually Jillayne, and I drag her around to everything I want to do. She has NOT been replaced, but I didn’t think she would want to volunteer at Crossroads for the entire morning. When I told her that, she said, “You know me so well!”