Bacon Fest-Viva Las Bacon

Bacon Fest virgin no longer! Yesterday was Des Moines, Iowa's 7th Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. Yes that's right, a festival dedicated to "ohhhh bacon!" Tickets sold out in 42 minutes, all 12,000 of them. That is up from the nearly 10,000 last year. I was not really ever interested in going but a co-worker happened to be selling her tickets and I thought, what a great "date day" for the hubs and I. We have never been and it's in our own backyard! All of a sudden you start to feel like part of the "in" crowd because you are going to THE Bacon Fest.We didn't know what to expect so I looked it up on the website blueribbonbaconfestival.com. I had no clue what the website was talking about so we just went in completely blind, which can be good sometimes when you have no expectations. I mean, how can bacon fail you? Same brown, marbalized, long strip of flavor it has always been. Hard to change that! The recommendation we got was to go at 11:00 a.m. and leave by 3:00p.m., so we did. Maybe not the best time to arrive. We left our house at 10:45 after prepping my Mom & Dad on how to get the baby to take a bottle and me squeezing in a quick feeding to tie her over longer in hopes of not receiving any "get home" phone calls. We should've left our house at 12:00 as we did not get into the actual fest until then. That was traffic, parking, and the line to get in. Yes, I said line. I have never seen a line that long, even for the fair, and are you sure only 12,000 people went? Did everyone drive seperate? This genius, yes me, decided not to wear a coat for the fear the bacon smell would never come out of it. Not sure if that was the smartest decision on a day that was 18 degrees and a line that took over 30 minutes to get through. A drone was flying above the line we were waiting in and all I wanted was for it to drop something warm, perhaps a slice of bacon?

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After waiting in line we were shuffled into the Elwell building where we were carded and tickets were scanned. Ahhh warmth. We are IN! Well, not yet. Grab your goody bag (5 food tickets, 2 drink tickets, t-shirt, lid loosener thing, pamplets, and a coozie of course,) buy more tickets, and then head back outside to either the Varied Industries building or the Jacobson building. The VI is closer so we are going there following a herd of bacon lovers. We entered by the craft beer station and by looking around, you better stop there first. One of my favorite local breweries was there serving up my favorite brew, PeaceTree's Blonde Fatale. Homerun. If you are ever in Knoxville, Iowa check them out!

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Next up is food! Free slices of bacon tied us over while waiting in line for more bacon. No one should ever leave this place hungry! We stopped over to say hello to our Templeton Rye buddies ( if you like whisky, buy a bottle of this,) then we started with La Mie bakery. A bacon and cheddar croissant kicked off the party in my mouth! It was heavenly, but would've been more heavenly if they added eggs and served it warm!

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The only thing I could not wait to try was the cro-nut ( croissant/donut) from Zombie Burger, so over to the Jacobson building we went. Another large dwelling packed with bacon lovers drinking and eating, oh and a wedding complete with a bacon bouquet. I can't make this stuff up people. I love donuts and right there at the entrance it was. Dipped in a chocolate bacon glaze, topped with crumbled bacon and chocolate sprinkles for fun. It was a good thought and needs some perfecting. All I could taste was the bacon grease it was fried in :( Sad day for me. But it did look pretty.

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We ran into a few friends, shared a few laughs, and headed back over to the less crowded VI building, if that was even possible. I checked my phone to see if I had any messages from Mom, and nothing. Whew! Our last food tickets were burning a hole in our pocket so naturally we needed to eat again. My husband chose the Bacon Explosion from the guys at BBQ Addicts and I chose HyVee's bacon bread pudding after drooling over someone else eating it. This is seriously a tribute to each of our personalities. He picks the salty food and I go straight for the sugar! Both were delicious and worth the wait!

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We officially felt like if we ate one more thing we would barf. After watching a butt quarter contest ( I can't even begin to explain,) and some great music from Rumble Seat Riot, a Rock/Rockabilly/Road House group, we decided to call it a successful day. Walking the mile back to the car felt great, as if we were working off some of the lard we just consumed. A quick text to Mom stating we were on our way home and a text back saying that the baby was sleeping. All is well.

All in all it was about the experience. Will I sit at my computer for next year trying to beat out thousands of people for tickets...probably not. There are a few kinks that need to be worked out and if it keeps expanding, why not just make it a summer event? Seriously, just make it a bacon fair. This is Iowa ya know :) And for all of you that read my blog post Breast & Bottle, my child did not eat for my parents, she kindly waited for me to get home. Diva. We will just keep working on it. Until then, I have a baby and will keep living! Ohhhh Bacon :)

Breast & Bottle

Don't worry, this post is not going to compare the two ways of simply feeding your child. Quite frankly, I don't care how you feed your child, as long as they are fed and loved. I also have no judgement when it comes to people's preferences or beliefs about this topic. I do what I can with what I know from my own personal expierences and right now I am begging and asking for help :) The situation is this: I was pre-warned about this and thought I took all precautionary steps to prevent it but I have a stubborn, strong willed baby girl. Ya know, kinda like her Mom. Awesome. I introduced the bottle to her a few weeks after she was home from the hospital, she didn't mind it at all. Score. I never bought a bunch of bottles knowing that some babies prefer one nipple over another. She liked the Avent natural nipple best. So like most people, I went out and bought a few more of them. I quit pumping as often as I was (once a day) because I thought why do I need all of this milk in my freezer when I am mostly going to be with her? I also quit pumping as often because I despise pumping. Finding time, hooking it up, listening to my machine say "black car" as I am pumping ( I swear it does, just listen next time), and then cleaning everything when your all done. It is much easier to unhook your bra! God bless all of you dedicated souls out there pumping and bottling, or the breadtfeeders who go back to work, you all rock! I would have thrown in the towel a long time ago if my child didn't latch on. She would've been having a cocktail called formula :)

So recently, my husband and I went to dinner and I decided to pump so we could just have it handy. Bonefish bar didn't seem like the atmosphere to get my let down on if you know what I mean. My wonderful child slept right through dinner and what else do happening couples do on a Friday night?? Walk the mall of course and join all of the other happening parents out there. Just about the time I want to shop, she wakes up. No biggie, we have the bottle, my hubby can feed her. Problem is, now she is refusing to take it and is acting like she has no idea what we are shoving in her mouth and proceeds to push her tounge out, spitting milk everywhere all while screaming bloody murder. We know how to get attention. By the way, I love how random people look at you like, "Ummm your child is crying." Well duh people, I can hear and I am trying to make it stop. So if you hear a baby crying, please just smile at the Mom or simply look away. I would give mu baby a pacifier but that is a whole other story, and to sum that up, I wanted her to have a paci, binky, dummy, or whatever you want to call it and she wants no part of that either. We left the mall for home where I unlatched my bra and once again all is well with 3 ounces wasted.

We have an event this weekend so we decided to really work on this bottle taking thing. I regressed and re-tried the other bottles she originally wouldn't take such as; Medela, Similac, Playtex, Tommee Tippee, and the original Avent nipple. She was not having any of them until the Tommee Tippee. She would scream, spit, cry, and now we are wasting this milk that I hate pumping out. So again, like most people I went out and bought 2 more Tommee Tipee bottles because she was taking those. When the time came to feed again, I whipped out her bottle she loves and BAM! Back to hating it and acting like she has never done this before. A lightbulb came on, let's try glucose water. Nope, wouldn't take it. Husband tried formula ( her first time tasting it), wouldn't take it. I did a Target run today, bought 2 new bottles, Gerber and Nuk. Success after a few screams but the Nuk has won the day. 1 ounce down and in the books but this momma is not going to go buy any more bottles or we will go broke.

So help a Mother out! I have no idea how to get her to take a bottle better or just simply taking a bottle would be nice. I feel as if I have expired all options except letting her starve. Not sure I can do that one. I need some advice/suggestions. Until then, we will keep trying the Nuk and if history repeats itself, I will just unlatch the bra and all is well, until the sitter comes.