End of summer adventures

I have some catching up to do so I am going to lump several adventures into one post.
Back in August we went up to Townsend for a day and Ben loved showing off his new skills from swimming lessons.

 Jimmy even got in on the action in his special floating sphere.

 Doodoo busted out the hobie cat for a sail.

 A Dirty Dancing lift fail.

 Martin and Aaron out for a spin on the yacht.

 The next day wasn't nearly as nice, but we still enjoyed the views.

We went to the State Fair on the record attendance day.  I am not kidding.  Here.Here

 252,000 people were there that day.  I had huge plans for the carnival section and cheese curds and fried pickels but by lunch time navigating the double stroller was near impossible so we bailed.  We succesfully visited a little farm section for the kids and got a PonchoPup and Chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick.  Martin is already saying he is going to take a half day so we never have to go on a weekend again.

We went to Blue Heron Days in Lino Lakes which was Ben and Jimmy's first parade. He hasn't too sure to begin with at the parade, but once he realized that with a wave and a cute smile you could get candy he was loving it.

 We got cheese curds and corn dogs for lunch.  The food of champions.

 Jimmy was just having fun sitting in a new location.

 That bucket of candy was Ben's.  He wouldn't sit in the car without his bucket.  Let's backtrack.  The last float was Target and they were throwing out items from their dollar section.  Amazing. Bucket was a useful acquisition. 

 Then we got to our destination, I thought he had been sleeping.  Nope.  He was unwrapping every single sucker he had gotten and was simultaneously eating them all.

We went to Taylor's Falls and St. Croix Falls and visited Fawn-Doe-Rosa.

 Ben liked all the animals except the llamas.  He was not a fan of the llamas.  Martin was though, so he gets the llama picture. 

 Ben even suffured through a pony ride.  And yelled YeeHaw about 12 times.  He is adorable.

 He didn't get spat at or bitten once.  He wasn't chased by geese and I didn't see any ticks or mangy looking animals to infect him.  There were handwashing stations and no poop was snuck into the car on a shoe.  By far the most successful petting zoo experience I have ever been part of.  And I got to pet a skunk.

And with this we bid the summer of 2014 adieu.