Minnesota State Fair

On Friday, we grabbed a shuttle near our hotel to the great Minnesota State Fair.  (The girls had a great time on the bus ride there!) People at work told me (Marel) it's the second largest in the nation (second only to Texas, of course).  Verdict:  It was, in fact, a very large state fair.  Certainly bigger than Alaska's (though that is not difficult).

Our first stop, once there, was the "Wild West Dog Show."  This was a wise move on our part as it was the highlight of the girls' day at the fair.  The dogs balanced on heads and hands, jumped over children, and climbed up ladders with cute little helmets on.  Big hit with the ladies.

After the doggie show, we went to see the extreme trampoline show.  This was one of my favorite parts of the fair.  NBC didn't show nearly enough trampoline in the Olympics.  The show was fun because they show the routines that all trampolinists (?) have to do to qualify for the Olympics.  But then they did crazy things like bounce with snowboards and skis on.  And these guys we saw hold the world record for highest bounce (which they demonstrated).  Sabrina, however, fell asleep and Celia kept saying:  "When are they going to stop jumping?"  Everything was anti-climactic after the doggie show.

Celia and I got to explore lots of farm stuff.  We played on diggers, tractors, and loaders and saw a ton of other farm equipment (and wind turbines!).  

The girls liked sticking their heads in the farmer pictures.

The girls loved this cute little cabin.

And we saw a few tornado cars.  Weird lookin' things.  

There's ONE thing that is NOT bigger at the Minnesota State Fair.  And that is cabbage.  Here is me with their winner for "biggest cabbage."  You kidding me?  What is that tiny thing?  

In contrast, here's this year's winner for "biggest cabbage" at this year's Alaska State Fair.  Don't mess with our ability to grow giant cabbage.  You will always lose.

The food options at the Minnesota State Fair were varied, to say the least.  We took pictures of Deep Fried Alligator and deep fried candy bars, but we stuck to a French chicken pesto dinner crepe and good ole' fashioned Elephant Ear (which was amazingly hard to find).  

The girls made silly faces whilst eating.  They are also modeling some of the many hats we got at the fair.  These ones are the pig variety.

Tom and I ended up as heads of corn.

And the girls got sweet foam John Deere hats (that they're still wearing around the house!).  This was, by far, the coolest part of the Minnesota State Fair.  The girls checked into the "kids farm" and got aprons, John Deere hats, and buckets and were given farming tasks to do.  They had to drive a tractor, plant a seed and get a vegetable, pick an apple from a mini apple orchard, feed the chickens and get an egg, and milk a pretend cow and get a milk carton.

At the very end of it, they turned in their goods (ie: egg, milk carton, vegetable, and apple) in exchange for a pretend dollar.  Then there was a little store where they could choose a snack with their dollar: chips, jerky, oatmeal, or apples.  The girls chose apples and sat down next to farmer Charlie Brown to celebrate a job well done.  It was a great lesson on how those things work.  I thought it was super neat (and free!).

Overall, we had a great time at the fair.  It was hot, smelled like deep fried food, and the girls came home with a solid layer of dust and dirt.  Proof we had a fun time!

5 States in 5 days

Nevermind that we saw the first 4 states on the first day, and then stayed in the fifth for a week...

A couple weeks ago we took a trip over to the midwest. Built around Marel's business trip, it gave us the opportunity to see a variety of family members from varying locales. We started with a stopover in Seattle. We've learned that when the only flight choices are red-eyes, we can sometimes find a flight with an overnight layover instead. Since my (Tom's) parents live in Seattle we have a place to stay and the girls get some brief grandparent time. (So I suppose that actually makes it 6 states in 10 or so days.) We're always amused to fly from Alaska to Washington and then see the Alaska Lodge restaurant in the Sea-Tac Airport. 

We flew from Seattle to Kansas City, which, of course, is in Missouri. 

But wait, there's also a Kansas City, Kansas.

We drove from the Missouri side of KC to the Kansas side to eat dinner because none of our family had ever been in Kansas before. We stopped at a nice Mexican restaurant there where I had an horchata and Marel had dos horchatas. Delicioso! (We also had a tasty dinner with our horchatas)

The whole area was very brown. As we were leaving the rental car place at the airport, there were a couple raindrops and the lady checking us out said "It's raining! Isn't this great? It's been months!"

After dinner we went back into Missouri to see church history sites in Independence and Liberty. First to Independence, where the land of the original Mormon settlement is split between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Community of Christ, and the Church of Christ (Temple Lot). Most prominent is the Community of Christ Temple, which is a striking building--unlike anything else we've seen. It also felt oddly ominous, though--the glittering spiral towering over the somewhat run-down surroundings. It felt to us sort of like a distopian sci-fi movie.

The actual temple lot is owned by the denomination called Church of Christ (Temple Lot), listed on the sign as simply the Church of Christ. It's a nondescript little field that's hardly larger than the infield of a baseball diamond.

Then there's an LDS visitor's center alongside a stake center. It has areas with information on the Church in general, with some of the same exhibits as the visitor's centers in Salt Lake City, as well as exhibits specific to the history of the Church in Missouri. The girls enjoyed their brief stint as pioneers.

We then headed up to Liberty to see the reconstruction of the Liberty Jail. The missionaries there happily gave us the presentation even though we arrived not long before closing. They explained how Joseph Smith and the others were kept on the bottom portion that can only be exited through the hatch in the ceiling, and that the guards stayed on top. The guards' door had no handle on the inside and could only be opened from the outside. As the Sister was explaining this to us, she asked us to look at the door and asked "What's missing?" Sabrina replied "Bugs!" Part of the presentation had cricket sounds, but when Sabrina looked at the door, she didn't see any bugs.

On our way out of town we swung by the recently dedicated Kansas City Temple. A beautiful new temple with a classic design.

After that it was on to the Rodriguez house in Omaha. (Unfortunately we don't have a picture of a welcome to Nebraska sign because we crossed the state line in the dead of night.)

The morning after we arrived in Omaha, we all went to the zoo. It's quite a good zoo, with very immersive habitats. We happened to be there on the first day of rain in Omaha in months. Nobody seemed to mind, though, as the Nebraskans have been hurting for rain, and we Alaskans were happy with the warm rain.

A lot of time was spent holding kids up to windows...

The also got some race car stroller rides from Uncle Evan and Aunt McKenzie.

We then went to a Mexican restaurant where the kids joined a frog band. (Peekaboo, Evan!)

We're lucky to have both Marel's sister and my brother living in Omaha. When we went to church that weekend, Allyson stood up and said "This is my sister, Marel," Evan stood up and said "This is my brother, Tom," and then the two of us said "And we're married!" It makes for some unusual photos, such as this one, where Balo and Clara couldn't help but join in the Stock family photo.

After the weekend in Omaha, it was off to Minneapolis for Marel to go to work. Much of the drive is through Iowa.

We stopped in Des Moines for dinner and drove by the state capitol.

We also took a few minutes to run around the Des Moines Sculpture Park.

The favorite was the man made of letters.

The drive from Omaha to Minneapolis is mostly cornfields with frequent clusters of wind turbines. The cornfields in Missouri and Nebraska were all brown due to the lack of rain, but as we drove north through Iowa the cornfields become more green.

In some areas it smelled bad, and when Celia wondered what it was we explained that sometimes the farmers use animal poop to help the corn grow. Then Celia recorded this question for us all to ponder:

We crossed the Minnesota state line just as it was getting dark, but it was still just light enough to get a picture of the sign.

While in Minneapolis, Marel spent 3 days in the office. The girls and I spent our time going to parks. We'd have picnic lunches and try to find the best playgrounds.

We'd also go back to the hotel for Sabrina to take a nap. She would sleep in the main room while Celia and I had room time in the bedroom. One day Celia played in her fort (the small area between the bed and the wall) for a while, and then fell asleep.

All four of us also went to the Minnesota State Fair one day. We'll talk about that in a separate post since this one is already too long.

After Marel's days in the office and our day at the fair, Allyson and Billy and the kids drove up to stay with us in our hotel room for the weekend. We spent a lot of time in the hotel pool, and Celia and Balo liked playing hide and seek for Clara and Sabrina to find them, though by the end they always hid in the same spot.

Also that weekend was the wedding of Krystal and Slavik, our friends from here in Alaska. Marel and I went to the ceremony on the Mississippi River, and then took the girls to the reception. They had a photo booth there, which the girls remembered from Evan and McKenzie's wedding (which will come in a later post, even though it happened a few months ago). So they enjoyed that, as did Marel and I.

They had a Ukrainian folk band playing at the reception, so Celia and I had a lot of fun dancing to the music.

Also there for the wedding were Mark and Tami, cousins from Oregon, and Taylor and Travis, cousins from here in Alaska. So we met up with them and the Rodriguezes at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden for a mini Trusty Family Reunion.

Sabrina and Clara liked seeing the giant cherry on the spoon, and Celia was so excited to pretend like she was eating it.

Celia was also very excited about the hibiscus she found in the garden.

We took the opportunity to take a few family pictures.

And Travis documented the behind-the-camera entertainment used to get the kids to smile.

We finished up the evening with a delicious Indian dinner at the Dancing Ganesha restaurant (not pictured). Then the next day, just for fun, Marel and Sabrina tried on bowler hats.

 Then it was back to Alaska to finish our summer projects around the house and catch up with a summer's worth of blogs...

A Day in the Life

Since I've neglected the blog (we're working on catching up... maybe after October...)... I wanted to capture life, everyday these days.  Here's the girls playing what Sabrina calls "footsie wootsie" (because that's what I said it was called) and what Celia calls: "fight with feet!"

We're still figuring things out since getting back from vacation and Celia starting preschool, but most of our preschool days (Tuesday-Thursday) go pretty much like today:

8AM - Girls wake up.  Celia comes out of her room by herself (sometimes dressed).  Sabrina is in her bed saying: "Wake up now mommy!  Binky away.  Wake up now, Mommy."

8:30AM - The girls are playing around while I finish up cooking the oatmeal.  Celia usually goes right for the paper and crayons and starts drawing elaborate pictures.  Sabrina gets out the stickers and puts them all over paper and herself.  (Yesterday she put stickers all over the lenses of her glasses and wanted to see herself in the mirror but looked pretty drunk trying to walk to the mirror without being able to see through the stickers.)

9AM - We start the oatmeal.  Some days this goes pretty quickly.  Other days, this can go until after 10.  Celia helps Sabrina take bites (though Sabrina usually does it all by herself, sometimes she just wants Celia to feed her and other times she just wants attention).  I read the girls a story from the scriptures using the gospel art book.  I told them about the City of Enoch: "Everyone in the city was so good, Heavenly Father took them all up to heaven to live with Him."  Celia:  "Everyone was nice?  And they shared all their toys?  And they even always took turns even?"  Shocking, I know.

9:30-10:30ishAM - I do my chore (really trying to implement my own chore chart) take a shower and the girls do their chore (also implementing chore chart: dusting, sanitizing light switches, mopping, etc... changes everyday).  Celia takes this really seriously and shows Sabrina what to do.  Sabrina usually goes through about ten wipes in the process of whatever they're doing.

10:30-11:30 - The girls play with toys, color, Celia complains about preschool not starting yet.

11:30-12 - The girls eat lunch.  Way too slowly (probably because they just finished breakfast).  This usually involves Sabrina poking a big hole in her sandwich and both girls shoving as many peas as they can through the hole.  And, inevitably, food in Sabrina's hair.

12:15 - We take Celia to school.  In the car, Celia says: "Mom!  I see a sign that says: 'One Way.'"  I say: "Good reading, Celia!"  Sabrina says:  "Sign say 'one way.'  Good reading, too?"  I say:  "Yes, very good Sabrina."  (Celia is a full reader now.  She can read anything she wants.  If she tries, she can get the hard words, too, but sometimes she gets lazy.)

12:30 - We drop Celia off at preschool.  I have to take her downstairs to her classroom to sign her in.  Sabrina often insists on taking her coat off and walking around the room for a few seconds so she can feel like she went to preschool too.  We give Celia hugs and kisses and we get back in the car.

12:45 - I read Sabrina a story, give her a Toy Story board book and a binky, and put her to bed.  She screams:  "No Mommy!  Wake up now!"  But once she gets in her bed and has a binky, she doesn't protest and falls asleep immediately.  (I get in my bed upstairs and work during the nap.)

2:35 - I wake Sabrina up.  She always stands up immediately, says: "Hi Mommy," and puts her binky away on the shelf next to the bed (it's actually just a leaf to our dining room table that's propped up on it's side... perfect binky table).  We put on shoes and coats and get in the car to go get Celia.  There are always lots of school buses around on the way to pick up Celia.  Sabrina narrates our ride: "Woah!  School bus!  Right there!  Giant mommy one!  Mommy school bus, mommy.  Passed it though.  Another one later.  Oh!  Right there!  Another one school bus!  Baby one!"

3:00 - Celia is outside playing on the playground with the other kids.  We have to go into her classroom to sign her out.  Sabrina comes with me and then we go to the window to find Celia.  Sabrina says:  "Oh!  Eee-aaa (Celia) outside now.  ARRRREEE YOUUUU EEE-AAA!  Oh!  There eee is!" and we go outside to get her.  Celia very seriously says:  "No, Mommy.  I want to go down the slide one. more. time."  Sabrina shakes her hands together (much like Wallace does in Wallace and Gromit) and says:  "me too!  me too!"  Once they go down the slide, we get in the car and head home.

3:15-4 - Celia is so tired after preschool, so we all climb in my bed with books and I read to them for 45 minutes.  We also pretend to sleep and wake up.  (Sabrina uses this as a good excuse not to wear her glasses.)

4:00PM - We make sure the house is still clean of toys and I turn on one show for the girls to watch (usually Super Why).  Celia is grumpy and complains that she can only watch one show.  But we play.  She attacks me and I fall over and get her.  Then Sabrina needs a diaper change, so I do that.  Then Celia says: "Mommy.  Let's play a game."  I say: "Okay, what would you like to play."  Celia: "Let's play the game we were just playing."  Me:  "What game was that?"  Celia:  "It's called: Mommy be crazy now.  Kid knocks it over."  (I appreciated the double title a la old movies or the subtitle a la scholarly papers... either route she takes will be approved.)  We play tackle again.

5:00PM - The girls head downstairs to pick out some busy bags, or dry erase boards, and come up and play together.  We usually listen to Disney music on Pandora (though Celia's favorite is when they play "Call me Maybe."  She goes crazy.)  Tom has to take the bus or ride his bike on preschool days, so he doesn't usually get home until 5:30 or 6ish.

6:00ish - We eat dinner.  Celia says:  "But I don't LIKE this" (if it's anything but nachos).

7:00 - We turn on Shakira's "It's time for Africa" on my phone and Celia takes it downstairs to get ready for bed.  She has two songs to sit on the potty and put her jammies on.  We read stories.  The girls wrestle in Celia's bed for a few minutes (About a third of the time, someone gets hurt.  They're tired.)

7:45-8ish - Why has this taken an hour?  We're finally done and they're in bed.  Celia usually reads in her bed for 20-90 minutes (depending on if she had preschool that day).  She opens her curtains (to be able to read) and when she gets tired, she closes them, tucks herself in, and goes to sleep.  Sabrina often makes up reasons for Tom to come visit.  "Daddy!  Nosewipe please daddy!"  After 2-3 times, she falls right to sleep.