Family Fun & Fair Food

I never knew I was such a fan of alliteration before I had a blog.  Memory Monday, Movie Monday, Top Ten Tuesday, Words of Wisdom Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, Photo Friday, etc.  This marks my third post with Fair Food in the title:  2015 Fall Fun and Fair Food, and 2017 Fair Food and Fun Friends, and now a post that includes Family Fun! lol  ...I'll start with that.

We had dinner at The Ranch on Monday night to celebrate Gus and Marilyn's 50th wedding anniversary!  Marilyn brought along their wedding scrapbook, and I loved seeing this photo of the Muecke family at their wedding... Doc, Georgia, Doris, Nancy, Charlene, Gus, Bill (Havno), and Dad!

My s'mores-like Dulce de Leche dessert - (graham cracker crust, caramel ice cream, chocolate ganache, and toasted marshmallows).  Yum!  That, along with my spinach, berries, and feta salad + fried okra + au gratin potatoes + sweet potato + a bit of Dad's creamed corn and Mom's beef medallions + the appetizer bread were all excellent! =)

Gus and Marilyn, Alan and Georgia, Charlene, me (singlehandedly representing my generation), Mom and Dad, & Gene and Nancy!  Dad was buying, so I was invited to join them, and since it was The Ranch, I couldn't turn it down!  And I was thankful to be there for sure - Marilyn teared up as she talked for a few minutes about being grateful for the way they had all made her feel so welcome as part of their family, and about it being a rare gift in our world today for adult siblings to still be so close and get together regularly in their 60s and 70s, and that's very true!

*Oh, and the horse's ears in the picture behind Charlene here made me laugh!

They came by after dinner for Gus to see Dad's Mustang, then we sad our goodbyes until we see them again for Thanksgiving in a couple months!

This flyer brings me a lot of joy and gratitude... it was genuinely devastating to me when Blake was diagnosed with brain tumors in 2007, and I prayed hard that he would get his full smile back and be healed after the surgery... but God had a higher plan.  I'm so thankful to see him happily married, living close to family, and working as a doctor who is passionate about helping people feel comfortable with who they are regardless of medical conditions - such a perfect quote from him! ❤  Yay Blake, and yay God for using all things for our good and His glory!

I took a 10-minute Peloton walk inside the courthouse (up and down stairs and around different hallways) on a hot day, and this scribbly map of my journey made me laugh!

And now we come to "The Great State Fair of Oklahoma!!"  Kristin invited me to join their fam + Al, Hilary, and Amelia for a Fair trip last night, and I promptly said yes, as long as I could ride with them and not have to fight for parking there! lol

A cute and fun car ride!

We each paired up with one of the kids to make sure they were safe through the night, and Nash was my walking buddy... he was full of lively commentary on ALL THE THINGS at the fair - the food, the art, the animals, the people, etc.  And I very much enjoyed hearing his thoughts!

Truth...

This metal art installation was awesome!!  Nash was a fan of "the tangly stuff going into a little flower," as well! lol

We stopped for all the photo ops!

Three little beekeepers!

Amelia was enthralled by the chickens, and this cousins picture makes me smile!

Checking out the baby pigs!

Group pic - love this one!!  Thankful I got to join them!

Baby chicks are always a favorite for me!

It was $2 admission that day, so as you might expect, it was a mass chaos kind of crowd!!  I had some lemonade (which I poured on myself as I forgot it didn't have a lid - lol) and cheese on a stick (couldn't find the cheese curds for some reason, but this was also pretty great).  The boys had cotton candy and were pretty happy about it!  Their curiosity about everything there was entertaining!

One last photo op where Frankie joined the boys! lol

That's all I've got for you today... must be time to do some actual work and school work!!

May we always give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord,

knowing our labor in the Lord is not in vain!