The Minnesota State Fair

The Pizza Palace
The Giant Slide behind our building

Grace and I were invited by my dad "Papa John" to come up for a weekend during the MN State Fair and work with him at his restaurant the Pizza Palace. My family has been doing the fair for over 60 yrs. My children have never had a "fair experience." So we went for 4 days. Grace worked hard making Gelato and selling the pizza and gelato to customers. She also had fun playing. We rode a lot of rides, went in the haunted house. Grace went into every fun house and we went down the giant slide. We also or Grace really, had many new foods, Gelato, Big Fat Bacon on a stick, fried Oreos, fresh French Fries, Sweet Marthas Cookies, fried cheese, fresh lemonade and of course pizza! Grace and I also saw some pretty cool things, a calf being born! A huge chunk of butter sculpted into a head and lots of animals. Dad and Kathy had an exchange student from France staying with them, Ann Marie, she was our constant companion and we enjoyed hanging out with her and helping to "Americanize" her.

We spent the morning and the afternoon at the fair and then would go to my moms and visit with the rest of the family and cousins. It was so great to see Grace working hard and experiencing a part of my life that I have not yet shown my kids. I also had the chance to catch up with childhood friends and reminisce about all the years spent at the fair.

Things we did at the Minnesota State Fair

The Butterfly House


Face Painting

Working Hard Making Gelato

Ann Marie and Grace
The Butter Head
The Chair Lift Ride

Rides at the Midway with Ann Marie

Going up the Giant Slide
A 10 ft Horse!

Noels Purple Belt

Noel sparring during testing. He is on the right side of the picture.

Noel during forms. He is center with the green belt.

Noel with Master Scott, receiving his certificate.

In February Noel started a new Taekwondo school. He was able to keep his rank of green belt but had to learn 4 new forms and forget everything he had learned at his old school. He has worked very hard for the last 6 months and finally last week he was able to test for rank of purple belt. He was very excited and did a great job at testing. After it was all over and we were in the parking lot he yelled out "I got my purple belt!!" He was so excited and proud of all his hard work. Way to go Noel! We are very proud of you!

Kennedy Space Center

Launch Pad that we saw the Shuttle Endeavor take off from

The building the houses the shuttles. It is HUGE

We finally made it to Kennedy Space Center. After all the family had left Uncle Dave stayed a few days and asked if we could visit the center. We spent the whole day learning about space and space travel. It really was a great and fun place to go. All the kids enjoyed it and when we got home Noel said "I think I will be the first kid in space!" Our next goal is to watch a shuttle launch from the space center. They say it is hard to get tickets but you never know....

The Family Visits

Lucas and Ella at Disney

Uncle Brian and Noel, Nathan II, Lucas and Ella in the Gulf

Uncle Dave, Big Nathan and Birthday boy Nathan on his b-day at Epcot

Grandmom and Noel at Cocoa Beach

So I really did not know where to start with this entry because so much and so many people were involved. Nathan's family came to visit at the end of July. We had Nathan's Aunt Elaine and her daughter Liz (9) from San Antonio, TX, Marie or Grandmom, from MN, Nathan's mother, Uncle Dave from California, Nathan's brother and finally Joni and Brian, Nathan's sister and husband and their two kids Lucas, 2 and Addison, 9 months old. They had a condo in Orlando and Uncle Dave stayed with us. We had a fun week playing at the ocean, both sides, Disney World two times, a day here in our pool and a day with Uncle Dave and my kids at Kennedy Space Center. It was a joy to see everyone and have the cousins hang out together. The following are more pictures from our full week.

Family Visit Continues

Aunt Joni, Grace and Addison

Liz and Grace

Ella, Lucas and Liz

Grandmom, Ella, Noel and Adidison

A typical meal time, there were 14 of us when we were all together, half children!

My niece Addison


Aunt Joni and Noel

I had to take this picture because frequently I would see Elaine, Nathan's Aunt sitting in the middle of all the chaos with a smile on her face just watching all the happenings around her. And there was a lot happening all the time! She is the one with the baseball hat.

Stroller cousins

The happy couple, Joni and Brian