Minnesota State Fair

We live real close the the Minnesota State Fair Grounds. We had 12 days of fire works that would make our glasses shake in the cupboard and heard all sorts of concerts. Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, Weird Al, KISS... that's all that comes to mind right now. It was a big to do round here. I saw on the fair's website that 1,776,211 peeps attended this massive fair in 2010. We were some of those peeps.

Can you believe how crowded that is? For a fair? It was like Disneyland crowds.

This is what Miles thought of all the animals.

Crazy ears-- I never knew pigs had funny ears like that.

Ginormous.

There was a ridiculous amount of food at this fair. Everything fried or on a stick that you could ever imagine. There was a huge line at these Australian battered potatoes so we figured they had to be good.

They were pretty good, and it was just my fried speed. There is no way I could have eaten a fried cheeseburger or something like that.

These pictures have got to make you one of two things: uncomfortable between your legs or thirsty.

I guess it made us thirsty because we took advantage of the "all you can drink milk for $1."

But these donuts were by far the best.

And Miles loved watching them cook in the grease and flip over.

There were several free concerts scattered throughout the fairground, but The Grandstand Show of the night we went was none other than KISS.

Gotta get your KISS paint...

We didn't actually go to the show, but we heard plenty of it:

KISS from DAM FAM on Vimeo.

I was so glad there were so many people and lights for Miles to look at-- he just hung out in the stroller the whole time.

It was by far the biggest fair I'd ever seen. We didn't even see everything and we were there for five hours hours. Five hours of memory making bliss. See you next year Fair. Maybe.

For the Record

I can't believe we packed up and moved only two weeks ago. It seems like it's been longer.

I've never said anything about our life on this here blog these past few months.... It was all just so unknown and annoying and some other adjectives, I'm sure. So, here's the brief story:

So, you may or may not know that Dave was attending Washington State University to get a Masters degree in health policy and administration. Whoopee! It was a great gig-- he had a full ride and a job. His professor worked him into the ground his first semester, and it was real nice to have a Christmas break. When he went back to school in January, he started hearing about some major issues the program was having and things weren't looking good. For a long time it was totally unknown whether or not the program would get cut due to state funding or lose their accreditation, etc etc etc, blah blah blah. It was kind of a sucker punch to the gut to find out that it all just may fall apart. Given the circumstances, Dave applied to the University of Minnesota as a back up plan. If things really went south at WSU, hopefully he'd get in to UM and hopefully we'd have something to fall back on. He only applied to Minnesota because they are number 2 in the nation for healthcare administration and their poop basically smells like roses (#1 ranked Michigan had stinky poop). Dave said, "If I'm going to go somewhere else, it's going to be the best." So it was done. He applied. He got the last interview spot. He got accepted. And then it all got complicated.

From the time we found out he got in (04/08/2010) to the very second we left Dave debated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over what to do. It was a real tough decision, and I'll spare you the details. Obviously he decided to come, and I only sort of kicked his butt out the door. So here we are. Minnesota. Reset minus 11 credits. Class of 2012. I'm 100% confident it will totally be worth it. Literally not a doubt in my mind.

We sure did have to pack up in a hurry, though. Even after we had our truck reserved, our deposit paid on our apartment in MN, Dave just about pulled the plug on the whole deal. It was Monday and our truck was supposed to be loaded on Wednesday and I went to Barnes and Noble by myself and sat on the floor reading children's books. By the end of that day I had totally come to terms with the fact that we were going to be staying in Idaho and at WSU and I was glad I hadn't packed anything. But the tables turned and the next week to week and a half were a whirlwind of insanity. We never could have done it without all the help we got. So thanks.

Toys are rubbish. All you need is a hose and some dirt.

This is what Miles did for I don't know how many hours while we packed up and loaded the truck.

We stayed the night at my parent's house and this was our last view of the lovely lake. And lots of gnats.

Our last view of Miles. He couldn't have cared any less that we were leaving. Grandma Sally is number one.

Dave, nervous and scared beyond all get out, about to dry heave.

Throughout this process, I dubbed Dave's brain his "toilet." He thought about the same crap every waking moment of every day, but couldn't ever come to a conclusion. No flush. So there he is, spinning around in his toilet.

Bye bye, Idaho. Bye bye, West.

We stopped in Belfield, ND. Thanks to my sister, Lindsey, we scored this motel.

We were a little scared of the possibilities at first, but it was shockingly clean, and we were so exhausted we were never happier to see a bed. We were especially happy to see two. Seriously, we each took one.

This, my friends, is the great state of North Dakota.

Home of the largest collection of steel art statues or something or other.

Sunflower fields. Everywhere.

Occasional.... mountains?

Take a good look at it, because it may be your only opportunity to see the LARGEST COW IN THE WORLD.

I really don't know the details... but there you go.

Bad day to be a butterfly.

I didn't take a single picture through the whole state of Montana-- don't know why. Maybe because I've driven through parts of it so often. Montana is beautiful. Dave and I were shocked in North Dakota. There were like 10 million times more people populating it than I ever expected to see from the freeway. And Bismarck looked like a downright nice city. Go North Dakota.

Ah, Minnesota. Home sweet home.

We pulled up with all this...

...needing to fit into one of those. People were looking at us like we were stark naked. We felt so incredibly dumb. (For the record, we didn't fill that truck, but it was a better deal than the smaller truck.)

Pretty awesome looking places, though, right? We walked in and were like, "Let's go back to the Cowboy Inn." I'm so bummed I didn't take any pictures of our place when it was piled to the ceiling with boxes. Now that I've made it all livable you won't even feel bad for me. But you know, every time we pull up to the complex Miles starts saying, "Ome" (home) in his adorable little sing song voice. And he's right. It is home, and it's a heck of a lot better than a box or a dumpster. Even more than a heck-- it's way better than those. I'm ashamed that we were ever such spoiled brats.

Anyway, it's been a long, exhausting, challenging few months. But, I for one, am so glad we are here. Our family is going to have so many opportunities to learn and grow. We are already needing to grow in patience since you can't stand to be in the kitchen or bathroom with more than half of yourself. Oh, but it makes me laugh already. This is the stuff memories are made of. And, I have complete confidence in my husband, his abilities, and the fact that his poop will also start to smell like roses because he now attends the big bad U of M, and all this is going to be beyond worth it. You're the best, Dave. I love you. Lots.

When you know you lived in North Idaho too long

My mom was so kind and watched Miles for us while we made the trek out here. She even gave us a couple days to starve to death without food in our fridge. We wouldn't starve too long; our late night run to Taco Bell 4 nights in a row got us by. Also got us to the toilet, but you win some and you lose some, right? I don't know how we would have got through our first Friday to Monday in Minnesota if Miles had been with us. I didn't take any pictures (unfortunately), but our place was piled with boxes everywhere. Walking/living was a joke and I'm so grateful we didn't have to throw toys into the mix, let alone a child to feed when we had no food. It was the biggest help ever, and we couldn't be more grateful. As if that wasn't enough help, my mom flew out with Miles and stayed and helped me get more unpacked/organized for another day.

Anyway, we are a bit of a minority here at our housing joint. Well, not a bit. A lot. While my mom was here she took Miles out for a walk around the place. I didn't see it for myself, but apparently, while Miles was walking along, he saw an Asian man. Must have been scary because my mom said he turned around and ran faster and longer than she'd ever seen him run. She said she thought he was going to do a face plant since he's not a practiced runner, and it was far beyond his usual speed. Haha, we all had a good laugh, and that's how you know you lived in North Idaho/Eastern Washington too long.