A Fair to Remember.

2012 is the year I went home from the fair as if I had eaten at home. Much too good, what's happening to me? I tried to get someone to bite on my last attempt of ordering a funnel cake walking towards the gate and I had no nibbles from my family. Elie replied, "I hate Funnel Cakes"... thank god. I saved the calories and was at the gym at 5:45 am for my usual Thursday meeting with my exercise team.

The Iowa State Fair is such a great experience because every year you approach it differently. Sure you have your traditions, like the big yellow slide, lamb jerky, horse barn and the largest boar. Meet Reggie, the big Boar who beat out Buddy for the blue ribbon. Weighing in at over 1,200 pounds. It's no wonder he's snoozing. I wonder if he can even stand?

But then you add a little flair to the experience to make it seem like new. For example, Ye Old Mill. Sure, we've supported the Mill in years past. I was always the one who stood back with Katy in the stroller or Andy took her as she got older. Now it was my turn. And I must say, I was ready to do it.

At least until we began our journey, gradually lifting high above the crowds. Ok, so I have a little height anxiety. Like the fact they don't strap you in with a belt of some sort. We're free. And it appears that the bars are safe as every person we passed was hanging over them like a security blanket. Me on the other hand tried to remain calm. Laughing to mask the fear. I thought, cool I will take photos. Only one was captured. Then I quickly put my phone back in case I were to drop it. Katy began to notice my fear. Maybe it's when I stroked her hair and said, "oh honey, it's ok there's no reason to be scared or nevous"... she looked at me smiling and said, "mom, I'm not scared"... oh fine so it's me. It's when I grabbed her pigtail to hold onto when she began to get nervous for me! It could have been the laughter to turning to tears moment too. Thank goodness the end was nearly there. I began to feel more confident, letting go of the security bar, screeching "look at me Katy, no hands"... she laughed, "we're two inches from the ground, mom"...

Ok, so that new moment doesn't need to be repeated. So we move on. Katy found her "new" at the fair. The wall of icee flavors. We passed it at the beginning of the night and she wouldn't order a drink until we went back, hours later.  Guess what flavor she chose?

We saw a random pumpkin hanging out, 2nd place. I would have voted 1st for this beauty. The color and shape was much better than the opaque winner.

I wanted to eat the new bacon wrapped double fried corn dog, but passed. Andy and I shared sweet potato fries and a Gismo (Italian Beef sandwich). Elie and Katy each had a Corn Dog. Nothing sweet. beyond the potato. I guess we are all better on a week night vs. the weekend.

We stopped by and sampled products from an asparagus farm from Oklahoma. We ended up purchasing hot pepper asparagus jelly and BBQ sauce. Another something to remember.

 The visual "new" to the fair were these cement ice cream cones that kept popping up everywhere. It was an artist judged contest and it made the fair feel even cooler than it already is. We love the Iowa State Fair.

Every year we say, we don't need to go every year but something always brings us back. Even if it's for a few hours. Wednesday night was new for us. What wasn't new is running into people we know at the fair in this great city of Des Moines. That is tradition, wondering who we might bump paths with. Happy is life's sweet journey.