Canning, Natalie, State Fair

The summer days are flying by so fast, I can hardly believe it's the end of August. My son, Shane, turned 19 years old today (August 28th). We went to the Minnesota State Fair yesterday and spent time together as a family. I have been busy canning beans, spaghetti sauce, and dewberry jelly, and freezing corn. Zack, Becky and Natalie came to visit last Sunday. Whew...no wonder August flew by!!

Here are pictures of my accomplishments!

The dewberry jelly turned out awesome!
Pretty good for my first time making jelly.



Looked at all those berries! This is AFTER I made 10 pints of jelly!
With all these berries I made 12 half pint jars of jelly.

Here is Natalie eating her sweet potatoes. She is a GOOD eater.
She is using Dad as a high chair as Mom feeds her.

Becky said she put her in this 18 month size dress, and it just fits.
Does that tell you something???

She had just filled her diaper and it took both Mom and Dad to change her.
Now she's clean and happy again.

Well, it's State Fair time again. We look forward to going every year. The only time we have missed the Fair is when Shane was born. His birthday is August 28th, right in the middle of Fairtime. But, it was worth missing the Fair 19 years ago!

Shane went with Kelly and I this year. He missed the last three years because he had football practice. Those days are over now that he graduated. We arrived at 9:00 a.m. and had our annual breakfast at the Fair.

The guys are taking a break and waiting for me as
I shopped around in Heritage Square.

Now it's my time to wait for them as they try to shoot the star out of the center.
They both almost did it. But notice no stuffed animals in hand!!!

There was a record crowd on the first day. All you see as you look down the street is a sea of people. The kids waiting in line to get a corn dog noticed I was taking a picture. I told them they'd be on my blog!! Kelly is in line behind them waiting his turn. His favorite thing at the Fair is corn dogs (and beer)!

We always take a break and ride the chair lift which goes up over Machinery Hill
to the other end of the Fair. Then we walk all the way back down.
I know...it doesn't make sense, but it's become a tradition.

Here's Shane behind us looking thrilled with the whole thing!
Actually, he was a good sport and didn't complain a bit as he
spent the entire day with his wonderful parents!!

A view from above.

Of course we had to stop at the Marines booth.
Shane refused to let me take his picture by the poster.

We had a wonderful day and the weather was absolutely beautiful. We did not leave the Fair until 8:00 p.m. Our feet were telling us it was time to go home. The sad part is we didn't see even half of the exhibits. Well, there's always next year.

Enjoy the remaining days of summer!

Sheilda