The State Fair is a coming...who is in??!!

Hi Friends...this is a letter we submitted to a contest to be tour guides at The Fair...share with us in the comments what your favorites are about The Fair...and if want, we are heading there on August 30th, we would love to have you!

Hello Rhonda,

When my friend sent me the link to this contest, I about fell out of my chair with excitement! I am not sure my husband and I would put such a label on ourselves, but it seems like whenever we start having "The Fair" conversation with friends near and far they are always like, "Whoa...so you guys are intense Fair goers..." Glances are usually exchanged between Heath and I that say, "Wow, are they weirdos...they don't do up the fair all day and eat 4 pieces of corn? LAME-Os!" I guess that right there warrants the label SUPERFAN!

Let me set the stage for you of who you are learning about here...Heath and I are high school sweethearts...we have come to The Fair since we first started dating. We grew up in a small town just outside the metro and neither of us even grew up going to The Fair, but quickly fell in love not just with each other, but the 12 hours of sun, people and food! This will be our 10th anniversary of coming to The Fair. As with all traditions, those first years were experimental. We didn't have a set day, food or agenda, but as the years have gone on, we have fallen into a Fair rhythm just our own. We really knew our love for The Fair was serious when we got married on August 25, 2001 and had to plan our Fair day into our departure/arrival of our San Fransisco honeymoon. Some say losers, we say SUPERFANS! From 2001 forward this is how we celebrate our Holy Matrimony...since this year we have started the tradition of going the first Saturday of The Fair season (this was brought on by the AM 1500 Babywalk schedule). We always throw an open invite out to our family and friends to join us in celebrating another year of marriage at The Fair. Thank God for cell phones as it works out geniusely for these people to come and go throughout our day. But we do have some die hard friends that never miss the 12 hours with us (they even told extended family they couldn't start doing the family reunions in late August due to The Fair-you can imagine the response they received.) at The Fair. We have one little guy now that we bring along and nothing touched my heart more than it being the middle of January and he looked at me straight in the eye and said, "Mommy, we going to The State Fair today?" So here it is, The Minnesota State Fair-Vosberg Style (notice we are not rigid schedule people, but more of have a flow to the day):

1. Take bus from Roseville to main entrance and arrive between 9 and 10 A.M.
2. Picture outside main entrance
3. Do our quick walk (ok, RUN!) to the corn dog stand...you know the one...first one on your left just a block in. Dan gives us the first (and the last) Corn Dog of the year. Oh the sweet taste!
4. We then meander through the mid-morning crowds towards the corn stand and buy our tickets for the day
5. We then head to the AM 1500 booth to take in the Baby Walk until noonish (from our grassy spot we then send runners to get mini-doughnuts, ice cream and corn)
6. After the show we head to the animals and do all of the fun Moo and Oink Booth activities and we check out the action at the Miracle of Birth Center (Food along the way usually entails carmel roll, pickle roll up, milk, milk shake, pork chop on a stick, apple cider freezes and cookies)
7. At this time of the day we usually head up to Machinery Hill to check out some buildings and exhibits. We always take in the parade up here at 2ish as well (Food along the way usually entail another corn dog, 1919 tap Root Beer, cotton candy, Grinders)
8. It is then time to hit up the Kiddie Midway (now that we have Kid-Os!) which is adding an interesting element into our flow, but it is worth it seeing our Kid-Os flying around having the time of their lives
9. Between 3 and 4 we head back to the Kare 11 Barn to get a prime seat, shade and rest the legs for the 5:00 news broadcast. Since 2000, we have been interviewed on the actual news 3 times and have managed to make it on an entry/exit shot EVERY YEAR (this is usually where we are called losers and we roll our eyes and say "JEALOUS!") (Food here is ALWAYS french fries-ALWAYS!)
10. We leave the news fresh and ready for the night! At this point for the next four hours we usually hit up anything we missed (Yellow Slide, Ye Old Mill, walk through the midway, grand stand building, food building, merchandise mart for the free demonstrations, music) I love this part of the night as it allows us just to rotate through and do whatever we are feeling up for! We always are getting seconds, thirds or fourths on our favorite food (cheese on a stick and corn!) and enjoy the sun going down to give us sweet relief from the hot sun. The lights start coming on and this is when the people watching REALLY starts to get interesting. We usually take in the fireworks and slowly make our way to the exit between 10 and 11. Of course we stop to visit Dan on our way to out for the last corn dog of the year!! Half asleep we ride back on the bus to our cars and start planning the next years date and adventure.

There you have it-The Minnesota State Fair-Vosberg Style!!

I do have to confess, we are shaking things up a bit (I Know, I Know!)...due to a scheduling conflict (who plans a wedding on the first Saturday of The Fair?!?!? COME ON!) and a challenge by one of our die hard friends...we are going to do The Fair the 2nd Saturday (which has its benefits as that is when The Baby Walk moved to last year AND Trampled By Turtles plays this night)...the challenge is that we go at opening with the kids until 12-1ish...come home, nap, get a sitter and head back around 4 and close 'er down! It will definitely be a challenge to throw off the whole flow, but we are also excited for what it might add to traditions!

Heath and I would be GREAT tour guides (in fact that is my dream job!)...you would not be sorry choosing us by any means!! If you need references you can ask all of our friends that call us "intense" "losers" or "weirdos." :)