A Busy Day in Minnesota

We spent the day with Grammie today!

In the morning, Christa & Marcus came over to play! It was fun!

For lunch we had a picnic at Gomsrud park. It was a pretty day for a picnic! Grammie packed SUCH a yummy lunch! One of the most popular items was a watermelon. Grammie wanted to give some to Serena, but I knew (from experience!) how messy it would be with Serena, so we waited until Serena had eaten everything else we'd brought for her. Then, we took off her clothes and sat her down in the grass and gave her a slice of watermelon. As you can see, she loved it! She devoured two or three slices!

Yummy watermelon, but WHAT a MESS!!!

"So, why is it that you get to sit on that comfy blanket and I have to sit over here in the grass?"

Well, now with such a sticky mess of a baby on our hands, we had to get her cleaned up! Grammie had planned ahead and brought along a wet washcloth, but it kind of reminded me of the phrase, "Putting out a wildfire with a teaspoon" or however that goes! Jordan said we should just go dip her in the lake, but I thought the water would be too cold. Jordan reassured me that it would not be too cold and offered to carry Serena over there himself. So, off we went to the lake! I removed Serena's diaper and Jordan plopped her down right in the water! I was curious if she would be upset about sitting bare-bummed in the rocks, but it didn't seem to bother her whatsoever! She sat there quite happily for a good 20 minutes or so before I finally took her out so we could go swing for a little bit!

I especially love the one where you can see her little bum cheeks crinkled up!

We went home for a few hours and then headed out to the fair for the evening. Our first order of business was to find something to eat for supper. Lucky for us, we ran into Jessica's friend Katelyn and her dad, who generously gave us coupons for free pork chops on a stick! They were SO YUMMY!!!! I shared mine with Serena, who loved it SO much that when it was gone she became very upset. I mean crying-upset! Haha! If it hadn't been so pathetic, it would have been funny! We walked around looking at stuff (Jordan was pushing the stroller), but every time Serena saw me she would get upset about it all over again! Finally, Jordan suggested that he just take Serena alone for a while and see if he could get her to forget about it. We met up again at the sheep barn maybe a half hour later, and it was all fine again!

Serena likes riding on Daddy's shoulders, but it's kinda hard on Daddy's ears, eyes, and hair! ;)

Next, we went to the petting zoo. Serena was fascinated by all the animals and not afraid of them a bit (of course, she had Daddy holding her, so what is there to be afraid of?!)! It's also nice that she already has lots of experience with petting the dogs nicely so she knew how to treat the animals. There was a pen with these little Highland calves in it. They were so cute with their long fluffy coats! Serena is very interested in the fact that she has hair these days, and apparently those cows' hair reminded her of her own (as you can see in the top right picture below)! Things were going along great with the little cows until one of them decided Serena's cheek looked pretty tasty! He reached his nose through the bars and out came his long tongue and he gave Serena a big lick!!! I think his tongue must have felt pretty rough on her baby skin; she started crying SO hard!!! Jordan tried to calm her, and finally had to take her out of the tent until he could get her to stop crying! In spite of that traumatic experience, though, she came back with Jordan and pet the cow again and then went on to pet all the other animals with renewed interest and zeal!

Serena's experience with the Highland calf

These cute little goats were so friendly!

Besides the animals, Serena also loved all the people, lights, and especially the MUSIC of the fair! We went to the carnival part so Jess & Katelyn could go on a ride and Serena was bopping and clapping to the music almost the whole time!

Serena with her new friend, Katelyn

Right before we left, we sat down to enjoy some cheese curds and live music. After the pork chop experience, I decided to play it safe and gave Serena grapes to eat! ;)

Serena & Grammie