A Hot Day At The Fair

Earlier this week, Nate and I decided to take Cooper to the Monroe County Fair.  First off, let me say this.  Any parent who decided to take their kids to the fair this week deserves a "Parent of the Year" award.  It is smokin' hot in Indiana and there's something about walking into the fairgrounds that makes the heat raise about 15 degrees.  Maybe it's the manure.

Anyways, we went on bracelet night and it was somewhat a madhouse.  We only saw two family fights, so it was a relatively calm night.  Ah, the fair.  I love it.

A really neat thing about going to the fair is that I get to see a lot of animals that belong to my students, both past and present.  It's interesting because I get to see them in a school setting, but not much outside.  Like, I didn't know that little Susie has horses.  Or that Davey has pigs.  Really, it's pretty cool to see what they do.  You know, besides ignore me in class or talk about my lack of fashion.

I kid, I kid!

Well, kind of.

We started off with the horses.  Cooper really liked looking at them, but touching?  Not so much.

Then we went to the sheep.  Again, looking but no touching. 

Sure.  Do that at the fair.  But if I take you to an antique shop you'd have your hands all over everything.  And probably break a $1,000 vase.

This little guy was hilarious.  He had his head out and wanted to be pet by everybody.  He was pretty spunky.  I liked that about him.

And I'd like you to see what's happening here.  Nate takes Cooper's hand to show him to pet and...

...he instantly pulls it back.  Dude, it's not grass.  It's okay to touch it.

This guy can grow a mean beard, huh?  Don't tell him I told you this, but I think Nate might have been a little jealous.

This is the only picture that I have of the pigs.  Curious, how Nate doesn't seem too hip on petting them.

By the way, how handsome is my husband?

Never have I ever, in all of my years, seen pigeons at the county fair.  Ne-vah.  I didn't even know that you could show pigeons!  Oh Greene County, how you have sheltered me!

I thought these bunnies were awesome!  Nate knows what they were called, but as he is sleeping soundly with his back turned to me right now I can't tell you what it is.  That is, unless I wake him up.  Hmmm...

Nah, better not.

And finally, checking out the roosters.

And I know what you all are dying to know.  What did we eat?  You see, there's this little bit of a guilty pleasure I have.  I love fair food.  LOVE it.  Like, I can be a total embarrassment to anyone around me because all I want to do is eat the entire time I'm at the fair.  The smell of the pig manure can't even turn me away.  Must...have...fair food.

I ended up eating two corn dogs and drinking a lemon shake-up.  I would have ate more.  In fact, I wanted to.  But you see, Nate only had one little hot dog.  And it was then that I realized that maybe I have a problem.  But it's not one I'm willing to rehab.  Nope.  Fair food is my thing.

Boy, I wish I would have gotten an elephant ear though.

Now, Where Were We?

I have been so behind on so many things.  My list is not getting accomplished nearly as quickly as I would like, I haven't been able to update the blog as regularly as I like, and I go back to work in just over two weeks.  Holy.  Cow.

So I'm trying to get caught up and as I do I see that there are a ton of pictures that I haven't downloaded from my camera.  I certainly cannot write about everything in one post because there is just too much.  So we'll just take it day by day.  Goodness knows I won't run out of content!

On Fourth of July weekend we went to my sister-in-law Meredith's boss's house.  (Did you get that?)  Anyways, Nate goes hunting with him fairly regularly and he and his wife are good friends.  They have a BEAUTIFUL home with an awesome pool. 

So we got the kids suited up, Pa and Daddy suited up, the floaties blew up, and it was pool time!

Kinley and Pa.  Check out how cute that swimsuit is!  Her Auntie Stacia might have bought it for her.  What can I say? 

Alright, so I need a little girl.  But seriously.  If you had a niece as cute as Kinley wouldn't you buy her all sorts of adorable things too?

Before you judge let me explain.  It was hot that day.  Like, hotter than Hades hot.  And we needed to find a floatation device for my boy.  And see, we looked and looked at Toys 'R' Us, and this is all that we could find.

Yes, I understand it's pink.

Yes, I understand that he's a boy.

And yes.  The float was left behind for Kinley.

I'm pretty sure he's trying to get some point about something across to his Daddy here.  I'm sure it's important.  But I have no idea what it is.

This is Kimbo, Meredith's boss's son's (HA!) new dog.  He is a DOLL.  I wanted to put him in the diaper bag and bring him home.

Wonder what Lola would have thought about that.  I'm pretty sure she's still not over us bringing Cooper home.

The loves of my life.

Who could possibly say no to a face like that?  I have a feeling that my wallet is really going to be hurting in a few years.

I love her.  By the way, she's going to be one in just under a month.  Where did the time go?

I dare you to try to sport a Mohawk and make it look as good as what he does.

I can tell you right now.  It.  Won't.  Happen.

I often asked Nannie and Pa what it's like to be the grandparents of the two cutest kids in the world. 

And usually, there aren't words.

More Time. Please?

It has been determined that I need more time in the day. A few more hours would be great. That way, I could go grocery shopping, get work done for school, make dinner, clean my house, update the blog, and get lots of time with Cooper and Nate before it's time for bed. But unfortunately, that's not possible.

So folks, I have lots of great things to show you. Pictures from our trip to the 4-H fair last night, Cooper riding along in his new favorite toy, and more. But it will come tomorrow, as this Mama is worn out. Like, exhausted to the point of exhaustion. Please forgive me.

And now, I'm going to take these last few moments of awake time to have a serious conversation with my husband about his television watching. Seriously, he just turned on the movie Secretariat with like, 20 minutes to go and watched it. And neither of us have seen it before. Who does that?! Who turns on a movie that they have never seen just to watch the end of it? It's like starting a book with the last chapter! He's not right.

But I love him!

Wait...what?

I go back to work three week from today.

Please excuse me while I process this.

A Little Different

Tonight I was going to write a post on Cooper and how he's getting into everything and how he likes to play with the doors to the television stand. It really is quite hilarious and those doors occupy him for hours.

But then, as I started taking pictures of him, something happened.




You'll notice the large white leg in the way. See, I can't get on the floor without being interrupted. There's a certain someone in this house that feels like all of the attention should be on her if you are anywhere within the vicinity of the floor. That's her territory you see.




She likes to position herself so that she's right over you.

That's my girl. All up in your grill, making it impossible to move due to her 61 pound stature hanging all over you.




All stepping right in front of you and stuff. Making it impossible to take a good picture because she's a heavyweight and blocks your view.




But she's always there to play with the kid. She adores him. And that's important.




And she bathes him. Yeah, I'm sure that's real clean.




Uh-oh! Here she comes! Lookout folks! Big girl on the loose!

Another Trip!

I know I've been on hiatus for quite a while now. Cooper and I just got back from another trip! This time we went with Grams, Grandma, and Aunt Cheri to Dresden for a two night stay. We had a blast!

We left on Sunday afternoon and arrived in Zanesville, OH that evening. My Mom stood by her promise of getting me there by the start of Big Brother. So we got checked in, ordered out some Italian food, and got settled before the big show started.

By the way, I LOVE Jeff and Jordan. They are so cute, and so sweet, and so fun to watch.

And also, jerky and jelly beans? Oh, I could TOTALLY do that. Especially if they were buttered popcorn flavored jelly beans. Yummy!

Anyways.

The next day we got up and headed to the Longaberger Homestead. This place is not good for the wallet. They had so many things that I wanted, that I NEEDED. However, with my little one's birthday coming up I tried to keep a few pennies in the bank. And truthfully, I do mean a few.

Grandma Gloria got ahold of Coop and put him in her basket. This picture did not go over well with Daddy. He was a bit upset that maybe we were trying to, um, girl-ify him.




This picture went over a bit better. Coop made a new friend in Ohio. His name is Mucho. They're BFF. F. F. F.........




So this place had a little of everything. I'm a sucker for Longaberger pottery. I love the stuff. It's sturdy yet pretty. This picture depicts our second round of shopping. The first round was actually delivered to the van. The second and third rounds we took out ourselves.

You see, there's a common string of passion that runs through the blood of my Mother, my Grandmother, and I. Although she's not relation, it runs though Cheri too. It's a love for shopping. The thrill of seeing something, envisioning it in your house, and knowing that you HAVE to have it. We all felt it that day.

More than once.

Enough to fill up a huge van.




We then went to eat at the Homestead restaurant. Coop picked out the ham steak.

He ended up with grilled cheese.




After we ate we got the first round of shopping delivered to the van. I was not kidding when I said we take our shopping quite seriously.




After our day at Longaberger we were exhausted. BUT! We still stopped at a local shopping mall for yet more shopping.

We got back to the hotel and spent the evening eating ice cream and watching Pawn Stars and American Pickers. It was wonderfully relaxing!

The next day we loaded up and headed back to Indiana. And for the occasion, I was lucky enough to find a chicken nugget shaped like our beloved state!




But don't fear! Our story doesn't stop there! Right outside of Richmond we stopped at a fabulous shop called Warm Glow. It was AWESOME! They have all of these wonderful decorations and pretty things for the house. And the candles. Oh boy, did they smell good! I got one that smells like Snickerdoodles. Mmmm....

So, we stuffed the van until it was full to the brim.




Poor Cheri almost had to ride on the roof!




I will say this though. I think one little boy was very happy to be going home to see his Daddy. He was all shopped out!




And I now leave you with this. My vacations for the summer are all but over, so I should be much more reliable on posting blog entries! Please don't go away! Come back and visit!

Pretty soon, we've got a list to revisit!

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Vacation!

On Wednesday, Nate and I dropped Cooper off with his Nannie and headed to St. Louis with my Mom and Dad for a short vacation. We had such a great time. I took the opportunity to get in a few extra hours of shut eye and Nate and I really enjoyed our time with my folks. I'm so grateful that they asked us to go along!

We started off our trip at a Gateway Grizzlies game. This is a developmental league in East St. Louis. It's a small park but it was a blast.





They have every kind of nachos that you can imagine! Philly cheesesteak, pulled pork, Mexican, etc. And they were SO good.

Our family is also a big fan of Man vs. Food. It just so happens that Adam Richman recorded at this ballpark. Anybody remember the Krispy Kreme doughnut hamburger (also known as the Best Burger in Baseball)? Well, this is what it Iooks like...





And this is how you look eating one....





I know this will seem crazy, but it was delicious. The sweet mixed with the burger. Yummy!





We were able to meet up with Dan and Jessica Miller (college friends of Nate's and friends of mine) and of course baby Otto who I am just in love with. He's awesome! And as cute as a button.

Here is Nate, Jess, and Otto with Izzy the Grizzly.





We also were able to meet up with our good friend Tab. We try to get with her every time we go to St. Louis as she lives in Granite City. She's always a fun time!






That night we went back to the Casino Queen where we were staying and I won $67! We will not talk about how Nate did at the black jack table. It's shameful.

The next morning we got up and went to the Science Museum where we got in free but paid $9 to park. I'll let you they to figure that one out.

Our reason for going was to see a tornado documentary in 3D. My Dad is an avid weather/tornado watcher/guru so Mom did the research and found this. It was my first 3D experience and it was really neat. Quite realistic.

This is Nate and I inside the museum.





We then did some shopping and headed to another Man vs. Food spot. This place is called Pappy's and folks, if you ever go to St. Louis you MUST go there. The staff is so friendly, the environment is neat and the food, well, the food is absolutely out of this world.





The line to get in here is eternal.





We had The Adam Bomb and split it between the four of us.





It had ribs, a chicken thigh and wing, a pulled pork sandwich, a brisket sandwich, Frito Pir (Fritos topped with baked beans, cheese, onion, and link sausage) plus four side (we chose baked beans, sweet potato fries, fried corn on the cob, and potato salad). Holy moly was it a lot of food.





I have to say. This was the best barbecue I have ever had. They're homemade sauce was smooth and smokey, their meat tender and delicious. My mouth I'd watering just thinking about it.












Here we are in front of Pappy's. Nate needed some help holding his gut up as he ate more than I have ever seen him eat. Seriously. It was an eating extravaganza.






As we were getting our picture taken the owner, Mike, stepped out and said, "Say Pappy's!" He was the man that was featured on Man vs. Food. This gave us a chance to tell him how much we loved the food. And for me to have a picture taken with him!





Seriously, he is the nicest guy ever. He spoke with almost everybody. And was genuine and wholesome. It was such a pleasurable experience!

We then went back to the hotel to rest before going to see the Cardinals play.

We got on a shuttle and headed out for Busch Stadium. Mom and Dad treated us to tickets in the Champions Club. All of the food, all of the drinks you want, no charge. They had stir fry, tostadas, hot dogs, brats, nachos, a dessert bar, etc. And it was all indoors, which turned out to be helpful as the game was rain delayed 1 hour and 6 minutes.
























The game started and we got to our seats. The view was awesome. We were under an awning sitting in cushioned seats. Fabulous.





The , in the 5th, a 50 minute rain delay. Have you ever watched those guys get that tarp on and off the field? That's some serious work!

















After the game we headed back for one more night at the Casino Queen and then, it was home to pick up my buddy boy.

And as much as I loved that trip, I sure did enjoy getting back to play with him in the pool!





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