Goshen Fair, 2009

Last Thursday night we took the kids to the Goshen Fair. A tiny, small town, relatively filthy but fun little fair. Luke is tall enough to ride the rides, and I still am not sure who enjoyed it more, Luke, or Nate and I. Watching him go round and round on the rides while laughing and waving to everyone (we still call him the Mayor) Nate and I were cracking up. We ate dinner there, had ice cream (disaster was quickly averted when Luke's scoop fell to the ground in a soggy PLOP and we grabbed Jules cone and threw half of hers onto his cone), rode the rides, saw all of the farm animals (the kids love, LOVE cows) and then packed some hot, sticky kids back into the car and off to bed.

We went up to the Burg where Carolyn was kind enough to watch the kids so that we could play in a memorial tournament for Uncle Rick, who passed away two years ago. We had a great time seeing family and friends and were lucky enough to win the tournament! We loved the opportunity to remember Uncle Rick, who we miss greatly. We came home exhausted on Saturday afternoon. This traveling thing is great, but MAN being away every weekend with Nate gone most every week is tiring. The pace of life just feels a bit too fast right now. Summer is slipping away from me and it is making me sad. I have caught myself thinking wistfully about the NFL, and giant vats of food cooked on Sundays, and friends and fires and jeans and pumpkins.......then I chastise myself as I know that winter follows close behind. We are trying to get to the pool several times a week, and are loving going to the farm and getting our produce, play dates at the park, and have two weeks at the beach coming up. I fully intend to milk every moment of sunshine and warmth out of August, so that I will look back upon this summer with no regrets.

Ferris Wheelin

Luke went to his first small town, local fair last night. He got his first spin on a Ferris Wheel, saw some prizewinning cows and sheep, checked out the 4H produce and flower competitions, and got hot and sticky in his Bjorn. I included the pics of the cows...I would like to say that we, as parents, are very mature.....but it would simply be a lie. We had to take the pic of us with the cows out of sheer childish red faced giggling over those massive udders.......as a nursing Mom I have a whole new level of admiration for those babies. Wow! And the milkers that they were hooked up to ~ full scale industrial engine powered milk suckers! Sheesh! Anyway, I digress.

Some of MY earliest memories of rides are from this same fair when I was a little girl. I remember how big and exciting it seemed back then...I have to say I was shocked at how, um, dirty and small it seemed now as an adult! And jeez, I wish that there was some way we could maybe just skip the middle school era of Luke's life..........its almost painful to see these herds of gangly pimple faced kids running around trying to act so cool for one another ~ I cant decide if its funny or tragic, but, like the proverbial train wreck, I could not stop watching. My sweet little baby will some day be some gawky hormonal trying-to-be-cool 13 year old......Ouch. Did they really do away with those "Mothers Little Helper's" pills from the 70's? I may have to start lobbying for those to be brought back. He's only 6 months old and I already have anxiety about puberty. Oy.

I made my sweet husband humor me by taking Luke on the Ferris Wheel ~ I love all of the utterly (udderly?) silly and corny things that being a Mom allows me to do! And all under the guise of doing it "for the baby" :). It was such a hot night but the view was beautiful as the sun was sinking down into the trees ~ I like to think that Luke appreciated it, but who really knows. I sure did. We then went into WC for "First Friday" and walked around town together while Luke slept like the dead in his stroller. I love our little town. I am really going to miss it if we are unable to find another house in the borough.