Tasty Bites in Washington State

.  I mentioned last week that I was headed to Washington State to help my daddio out with the Tasty Bites trailer at the Central Washington State Fair.  Remember?  Okay.  Well what I may not have mentioned is that the majority of my relatives live out there as well, so I was not only being a great daughter [wink, wink] but also getting to spend some time with my wonderful cousins, aunts, and uncles.

I'm fairly certain I've discussed my relatives with you before, but just for remembrance sake, we can talk a bit more about them.  Sadly, most of my life has been spent halfway across the country from my family because we moved to Minnesota when I was only 8 years old.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore Minnesota and the life I had there, but one can probably agree there's no replacement for family.

Also sadly, I never made the trip back to Washington to visit quite as often as I would have liked.  You know, life gets in the way and what do you know, 10+ years have passed by.  But it seems that I'm trying to make up for lost time this year, what with the reunion and now this more recent trip.  I jokingly told one of my cousins that I'd seen her more in the past month than I had in the past 15 years!  Not joking either.

Anywho, I had an absolutely whirlwind of a time this last weekend with all of my relatives and even got to see more of them than I expected because [being the supportive, tight knit family we are] several of them traveled to Yakima just to see my dad and help out!  See?  My family is amazing.  And I also got to live out some of my greatest childhood memores at the State Fair, too, which is always a beautiful thing.

As you can probably tell, there was more than enough that went on this weekend that I wouldn't  be able to explain in words that you wouldn't eventually get bored by.  So like usual, I'm chronicling my weekend adventures via pictures.  They're much more exciting and will keep your interest that much longer.  Or at least I hope so.  I obviously couldn't include every picture that both myself, my dad, and relatives took, but I tried to get in as many as I could.
Here we go!

Had to start this picture frenzy off with the cutest thing I saw all weekend: Oliver.  He's the newest addition to our family, my cousin's first born, and could he be any more adorable?  Nope!

My first shift at Tasty Bites this last weekend was with my beautiful cousins.  They are absolutely wonderful, genuine people and have always been ladies I've looked up to.

Me and the pops!  Love this man for all he is and everything he passed on to me.

Told you I'm obsessed.  He was in my arms whenever he was within five feet of me.  Okay, maybe I exaggerated.  But that's still fairly accurate.

Remember how I said that I got to relive my greatest childhood memories at the fair?  Well, that there dear friends, is one of those great memories: the Elephant Ear.  If you've never had one of these cinnamon-sugar-butter-ladened fluffy pieces of dough, then you ain't living.  L.I.V.I.N.G.  Oh, and PHOTOBOMB!!

Another one of my fair traditions is gawking at the beautiful horses.  I've always had an admiration for them since before I can remember.  So if my parents didn't let me see the horses at the fair, pouting ensued.  I think I only visited the horses 7 or 8 times this last weekend.

One of my favorite guys ever.  That's Christopher and before the family reunion, the last time I had seen him was when he was a wee little tike.  My how time flies!

The fair actually had some pretty neat exhibits.  The picture of the tiger is of Sheena and she's only 15 months old.  How beautiful is that creature?  She slept most of the day but while we were walking out late one night after shutting down, she was up and I got to snap a great picture of her.  In a way I do feel bad for her because no tiger should be living in a cage, but I could write a novel about that.

And then, the fair had a rodeo and horse shows going on all weekend and guess what?!  I got to catch a peak at the bronco riders and bull riders with my Uncle and his wife.  I was truly awestruck, all of the rides were so intense!

Lastly, I must thank each and every long lost high school friend of my dad's, aunts, uncles, and cousins for supporting my dad the way you have.  You'll never know how much you all mean to our family, and of course, my dad, for the encouragement with his venture.  You are all truly a blessing.