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The birthday fairy came early for Alex. Today he got his own set of golf clubs! (For those of you who weren't aware, Alex has recently become obsessed with golf... and requested the clubs for his birthday. I had a moment of weakness and decided to get the clubs a few weeks early for him, so he could get some use out of them before the snow started falling... which could be any time now!)

Today we went to "Tiger Links" to play a 'short" game of golf. It was a 6-hole course, and the longest hole was about 85 yards.

It was a lot of fun. I even played. All you really need are two clubs.

Of course we had an assortment of 12 to choose from. (But Alex made sure we only used the correct ones. He's a "pro" now.)

After the game of golf, we went to the Driving Range and got a couple of buckets of balls. It was a great day to be out enjoying the weather, and a nice way to officially end the summer.

The End of Summer

We started and ended the summer the same way. Attending a party at John & Louise's house. This is becoming a summer tradition!

Alex enjoys going to their house, he gets to make fancy (non-alcoholic) drinks for himself...

And he can golf on the expansive front lawn over looking the river...

They also put him to work chopping down the tree stump in the front yard.

Eric helped too.

It was quite the stubborn stump.

John helped push it down.

And down it falls...

Then the sun went down and Louise built her usual amazing fire in the fire pit. Alex takes it all in.

A perfect end to a great summer...

And Now for Something Completely Different

Guess what?! I went to the Fair today! That's different, huh? Well, I think I might be done for the year. I'm completely burnt out. We went for fun today, just me and Eric. The following photos are all through the eyes of Eric... I figured you might be getting tired of looking at my fair pictures! (The above is our "self-portrait"... can you find us?!)

The big Ferris Wheel. (Yes, I finally made it to the midway!)

And I played the water-squirt game. But lost. Eric however won. A basketball. Which he got to carry around for the rest of the day...

It was a crowded, warm day at the Fair...

But it's never too warm for fried dough! Yes, that was mine... all mine! (Eric ate some fried ice cream instead.)

And we found a tractor for Paula... it was during the nightly parade. What do you think Paula?? Should Gary get one for ya?!

The Fair and The Furlough

A friend took a photo of Alex and I yesterday while we were working at the Fair. This is pretty much what I did for 7 days. I held up signs, hooted & hollered to get the crowd going. (The free t-shirts we threw to the crowd also helped!)

I had a great time this year helping out at the Fair and am even a teeny bit sad that's it's over and back to work as usual. Well, back to work after next week. I'm on furlough next week. But I have a very long list of "Things to Do" to keep me busy! (And I'm sure it will give me lots to blog about too!)

But for now, I'm just looking forward to a nice long weekend with the family, the weather continues to be spectacular. Hopefully we can squeeze in a few more BBQ's on the deck before summer officially ends. Tuesday the kids head back to school... I think this was by far the shortest summer break ever! Does anyone else feel that way?!

God Bless the USA

Lee Greenwood visited our show this morning! I've had his song in my head all day. Not a bad song to have stuck in your head... He was a great guest and brought lots of great energy to the show. I really enjoyed his segment, as did the audience. Today was "Veterans Day" at the Fair, so there were a lot of Veterans in the audience. Mr. Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" was a very fitting tribute to the Veterans.

After his segment, he signed some autographs for guests.

And look who else visited the Fairgrounds today... Alex! I put him to work passing out bags to the audience. He was a huge help all morning and was willing to do whatever anybody asked of him. He seemed to enjoy the day, but not enough to want to go back tomorrow and help again... Oh well. At least I got one day out of him. It was good for him to get up early... the first day of school is coming soon and he's going to have to start getting up early again! (Heh heh heh...)

A Chef, a Sundae and Jessie's Girl

Today on our morning show, Bobby Flay joined us live and in person! I'm a huge Food Network fan and was thrilled to get to see him. He gave a great interview!

Our audience today was as full of energy as it was yesterday, I think these live guests are great! Can't wait for tomorrow... I hear we have another celebrity joining us!

And lunch at the Fair today was one of my all-time favorites: The Hot Beef Sundae. I could eat them all day long. They are AMAZING. (And they're in the Dairy Building if anyone goes looking for them!)

This evening, the family went back to the Fairgrounds for the free Rick Springfield concert. This would be the 3rd time I've seen him in concert. One thing I noticed this time that I hadn't noticed in the past were the older (um, my age and above) adults who brought their pre-teens/teens with them to the concert... and just how BORED they all were! (Especially ours!) But that's ok... I didn't let them get me down!

Here he is on the jumbo-tron... singing "Jessie's Girl"... it never gets old!

Sha Na Na

We have had some spectacular weather this week for the State Fair. It has been sunny and gorgeous every single day. And we're expecting the rest of the week to be the same. You really can't get any better than that. Look at that perfect blue sky...

And what a perfect day for Sha Na Na! They put on a fun show for us this morning. Reggie, Donny, Screamin' Scott, Jocko and the rest of the greasers were a lot of fun to watch. (And yes, I had to look up their names... I remember them, but not that well!)

A close-up shot of Donny.

Beebs (posted with his permission) is behind the camera while Sha Na Na performs for the crowd.

We had a huge crowd today and they all loved Sha Na Na, the energy they created was really a lot of fun to be part of. I've been having such a fun time getting to help out with our show out at the Fairgrounds... Oh! And guess who is going to be a guest on tomorrow's show?? Well... you'll just have to wait and see!