As some of you might recall, I went out to Baldwin City, Kansas a couple weeks ago, to attend the Maple Leaf festival with my friends-practically-since-birth, Stefanie and Mandi. And, in true Katie fashion, I took tons of pictures. Also in true Katie fashion, though, I let them fester on my hard drive up until *NOW*, when I’m finally posting them. What can I say, I’ve gotta stick with what I know!
Everybody was so happy to see me, even the fridge greeted me!
Of its own volition, I assume.
Stefanie’s mom and her grandma came down for the day. And look what Stef and her mom did!
Oh yes, that’s inadvertently -matching shirts. Aren’t they cute? I promised I wouldn’t blog about it, but….whoops! 
Had to start the day off on the right foot. And there’s no better foot than….funnel cake foot.
Seriously though, kids, don’t fool around with funnel cake too early in the day. It’ll make your tummy hurt. Take my word for it.
As soon as we finished our breakfasts, it was parade time!
Look! A Delorean!
Look! Old-fashioned bicycles! We had a huge discussion about how, exactly, one mounts those things. I think the final consensus involved hay bales, tall dogs, midgets, or simply that they never got off of them.
I wanted this car!
Wheat State Pizza (remember this location!) and a sample of the crowd. There were about 40,000 people there!
That afternoon, we just chilled out in the girls’ apartment for a while, where I took these t rippy pictures of Stefanie:
But what you didn’t know (until now!) is that I took those from all the way across the room, using a 55-200mm zoom lens belonging to a friend of theirs. I <3 that lens. I added one to my Amazon wish list. I’m just sayin’ , is all (anonymous benefactors out there?).
Here’s another example. The zoom capability of my kit lens:
Compare that to the 55-200mm zoom lens:
Me wantey. But alas, me wantey food and shelter more right now. Poo.
Saturday night’s dinner:
Wheat State Pizza.
Mine was whole wheat crust, organic sauce, portabella mushrooms, and parmesan cheese:
I miss that pizza. We had a great friendship while it lasted. ::burp::
Mandi knitting while Stefanie frogged:
Sunday had a smaller crowd, so we started out bright and early again, with shopping and eating as our only two goals.
Mandi and Stef browse painted window wall hangy things:
Doesn’t look posed at all, does it?
We also looked at lots and lots and lots of jewelry:
Mandi and I bought matching earrings from this lady, ’cause we’re awesome that way:
Lunch was Wheat State again for Mandi:
While Stef was thrilled to lose her Giant Turkey Leg virginity:
Clearly an orgasmic experience:
I was just honored to be present at this occasion:
I love this photo, because it reminds me of one of those ones that they put in the newspaper alongside the headline “festivalgoer finds maggots in turkey leg” or something. Not that there really were maggots in Stef’s turkey leg or anything. K I’ll shut up now.
One final one, an then I’m *really* done posting pictures of Stefanie gnawing on a giant hunk of meat (yes I meant it to sound that way):
To swiftly change topics…
We were sitting near the first tree in Baldwin City to change color every year. This was the only really bright foliage we saw all weekend:
And after a short excursion to the kettle corn stand, my purpose in life became fulfilled:
I love kettle corn:
Here are the souvenirs I came home with. First, a SOUP-er cute soup mug:
And the aforementioned earrings which match Mandi’s (hers are blue, though):
aren’t they cute? 
And the piece de resistance of my shopping adventure…a stoneware oil lamp!
Sweet!!! I love this thing! Makes me feel very Laura Ingalls Wilder-ish to use it. Except Jeff won’t let me turn off all the lights and use it to carry around the house…wonder why?
I had such a good time visiting my far-flung friends. I’ll have to fling myself back to them sometime soon My only disappointment with Maple Leaf was the lack of yarn or yarn-related objects, but hey…I can find those any other day of the year! It really was an awesome experience and I had sooooo much fun
