Tomorrow = Family Road Trip! Peep!

Both Hubby and I dislike driving, we don't trust other drivers or other cars or earth's animals or poor counties' roads or God's acts, et ceteralious, so going 1.5 hours north for a fair is a fairly big deal for us. Tomorrow we are driving from Portland to Unity for The Common Ground Fair.

The Common Ground Fair is held annually on the 3rd weekend after Labor Day and is pretty hippy-dippy (they ask attendees to leave the disposable diapers at home) and those looking for deep-fried CRAP are s.o.l. This fair food is all fresh and organic, you have to walk about a mile through the woods to reach the fairgrounds from the parking field, and Smokey's Greater Shows is NOT invited...a point of distinction as Wally and I trust traveling fair rides almost as much as we trust New Hampshire drivers (sorry NH drivers...but we never know what you're gonna do! Live free, die, or just run the other way!!) There are presentations on sustainable living and tables of crafts and expos dedicated to alternative medicine, alternative energy, and alternative alternatives in general.

But I think my favorite activity is visiting the animals, particularly the baby chickies. It was on the ride home from one year's trip to the CGF that I cornered my staunch "Never Gonna Have Kids" hubby into changing his mind. Until then it was a bit of an ISSUE and I wasn't at all sure of any outcome...I was intimidated by the whole situation, it was very difficult for me to address, my best friend had just become pregnant with her first and it was time for me to air my increasing feelings about becoming a family. I ended up using the fair's baby chickies as a euphemism to avoid uttering the grief-potent "impregnate me." I was putting my heart on the line, so imagine its glee when he side-glanced at me, flexed his jaw back and forth, held up an index finger and pumped his arm to the beat of each word of "JUST ONE." Within moments his jaw relaxed into a smile and series of chirps and "peep, peep, peeps!" came out. By the following year's fair I was pregnant, our family has become the most important aspect of our lives and to this day we smile when we come across stuffed or real chicks and we refer to Jimmy as our Peep Peep Peep! And it didn't hurt that the Poster/Newspaper Cover Art for that year's fair matched our theme.

Yet as wonderful our little Peep is, he can get a little antsy after too many waking moments in the car so I bought this mega-active Melissa and Doug Latches Board:



And this Thomas Crayon Roll from Etsy.com:



I think these along with juice, animal crackers, and a decent nap should do the trick.

And last but not least, this year's trip will be charmed with something new--Wally will be PERFORMING with David Mallett/The Mallett Brothers Band at the fairground's Amphitheater. It will be the first time Jimmy sees his daddy playing on stage in front of an audience, we are so excited!!!