A Fair Day

Wow.  Time is all of a sudden whizzing past.  It's actually been over a week since I've written a new post!  I can't believe it.

We did it.  We went to the magical place called the Minnesota State Fair.  Our annual trip that I look forward to every year.  This year started out tricky, but in the end, it was really a great day.  It was hot.  I don't know if I've said it before, but heat and I are not good friends.  I honestly would prefer to have two months tacked on to winter, and shorten the summer heat by a couple months.  But a move to Alaska is not practical for my little family, so here I am.  Anyway, it was hot at the fair that day.  It really is impressive how well my kids did, considering.  It is the State Fair, after all.  There are Sno-Cones.  Soda.  Lemonade.  Ice cream.

Another problem starting out the day was, well, cell phones.  For so many reasons.  First of all, we met my mom and my sister there right away in the morning.  My mom had decided not to bring her cell phone.  Why should she, after all?  My sister had hers.  what?  She has a major tendency of wandering off.  And the State Fair is honestly like a massive ocean of people, and you do NOT want to lose your people without a plan.  So my sister had to try to watch her all day, as if she was a stray toddler.  NOT an easy job.  Not that we were in much better shape--my cell phone was almost dead.  The battery has not been holding up as well lately, and it was about to die.  But we had the hubby's!  Except that all of a sudden his locked up about an hour into the fair.  Completely useless.  But A brought his!  So at this point, we had two phones between the six of us--A's and my sister's.  At this point.  More on that later.

Folks, I love the Fair.  It's a major happy place for me.  I love everything about it.  The food (which isn't all just deep fried crap on a stick, for those of you haters out there), the exhibits, the shows, the people watching, everything.  Most of all, the tradition of it all.  For me, it's a day to completely dive into being a Minnesotan.  And I LOVE my state.  I love how we have the second-largest State Fair in the country, the only one that is completely self-supported.  There is a comfort to it, walking in those gates, smelling those smells, knowing where all the buildings are, and being familiar enough with the fair to recognize what's new or different each year.  For hubby and I, it's impossible to not walk down memory lane every year, talking about childhood trips to the Fair, how much we miss his mom (who loved the fair), and being amazed at how fast our kids are growing up and how familiar they are with the fair.  They are growing up with it, just like hubby did.  They have their own favorite traditions, favorite foods.  It's become a part of our family.  We have marched in the parade.  This year we watched my nephew's best friend march in the parade.

This year we did as much as we could.  We went to the Midway for a couple rides and some carny games.  The kids won hats at a "Guess your pitch speed" game.  And then the other cell phone problem.

After the midway, we were talking about our IRRITATING phones, when all of a sudden A started panicking, searching his pockets.

He had lost his phone.  Complete and total devastation.  This is a phone that he had bought with his own money.  We ordered it on the internet, and when it came in the mail, he was crazy excited.  He was SO proud of this thing.  It was his third phone (in a very short time) due to the others breaking and going through the washing machine, and he knew we would not replace it if he lost it.  Like I said.  Devastation.  He was so crushed.  And we knew there was little to no chance of finding it, here at the GIANT fair.  So a day that was supposed to be fun, for him was ruined.  He was crying.  He was so angry at himself.  It was very sad to watch, even though we were pretty irritated.

After several hours of continuing on at the fair, watching the parade, riding the sky cars, all with a very broken-hearted A, it was almost time for mom and sister to take our kids and go home.  Hubby and I had concert tickets, we were there for the long haul.  J was over-heated, laying on the grass.  Hubby and I sat at a picnic table and figured out his phone!  Yahoo!  We got it working again.  A sat at the table, sad.  We had gone to the lost and found office, and a couple other places, fruitlessly searching for his phone.  We had called it, texted it.  He was so very sad.  In a last ditch effort, A and I decided to head to another fair office to check for it before they had to leave.

They didn't have it.

But the office was right next to the Midway, so we decided to make a quick run over there and check around.  It was hot.  Our feet and legs were sore.  We walked all the way to the end of the midway, where the roller coaster was, our very last stop, our last resort.  I ran up to the attendant and asked if a phone had been found there.  A phone with a keypad, with a picture of our cute brown dog on the screen, a phone that said "A....'s Phone" on the front.

They had it.

And I have to tell you, this was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.  I know it's silly.  It's a stupid cell phone.  It's just a thing.  But the pure joy this 10-year old felt at finding it was so huge that I couldn't help but feel it too.  This is a kid who feels everything to his core, and has little filter with sadness or joy.  He was jumping around.  Hugging me.  Dancing.  Thanking the roller coaster guy (who was watching this like it made his day).  Hollering.  Kissing his phone.  Running in circles.  And over and over again, yelling, "I'm so happy!"  And you could feel how true it was.  Holy cow.  It made my day.  I don't give much of a crap about that phone, but to see my kid that happy was an unbelievably good feeling.  It carried me for days, and obviously made the rest of our fair day, no matter how hot and tired we were, very joyful.

Well, enough babbling for now.  It really had been too long since I've written, I feel like I'm just rambling.  I need to write about school and football, so I'll write again very soon.  Maybe even tonight. Five days until school starts!