And yes! The hippopotamus!

A bear and a hare (and another hare) went to the fair... and yes! The hippopotamus!

I was all prepared to be able to write But Not The Hippopotamus, because I seriously considered staying home from the County Fair. The thought of walking (all the walking) in the heat and the dust, smelling the livestock and deeply fried foods and all the cigarette smoke--it's a very smoky sort of crowd; in fact, I saw not one or two but many, many people who were using the cup holder on their strollers to hold their packs of smokes--anyway, the thought of all that was a bit overwhelming. But in the end, well, I like to see our kids at the fair. Even when I'd probably be better off resting at home, I hate to miss the family stuff, you know? They won't want to go to the fair with us forever. They're not always going to be thrilled with the kiddie rides, big smiles every time the motorcycles go over the teeny little hill.

But the first place we headed? Dudes, the truck pull. We could hear the engines revving the entire time we walked (and walked, and walked) from our car to the entrance. So once we were in, we headed right over. Yep, we live in truck pull country, apparently.

That orange truck up there was our favorite. I believe this was the one driven by a woman, too. That flatbed type thing it's hitched to is loaded with cinder blocks.

This is how the boys watched.

It was a little loud.

We hit the normal attractions: we looked at all the animals (Chris took them into the chicken and bunny house without me; the smell in that little place gets me even when I'm not pregnant), we ate some (non-fried) food--we ordered two strawberry shortcakes to share amongst the four of us, and Vaughan wanted to know why not four? By the time he gave up trying to eat anymore, he admitted that two was probably more than enough. While Chris investigated what else he might want to eat (he came back with something called "salt potatoes," and they were fantastic), I took the boys over to the building where the Rhode Island Spinning Guild was demonstrating, and I met some Ravelers in person while the boys carded wool and tried their hand at drop spinning. Then they headed outside to pump an old-fashioned pump and "wash" clothes against a washboard and hang them up on the clothesline. They loved that. I should have them wash the cloth diapers, no?

A couple of kiddie rides and two Del's Lemonades amongst the four of us, and we headed home. Hot, dusty, dizzy (that was me), but it was a good time at the fair.

I have to include one other picture from our weekend. Saturday afternoon we went to get ice cream.

Hee.

Today I took the kids to the beach. We hadn't been in almost three weeks. The weather the past two weeks wasn't really cooperative or dependable, with scattered thunderstorms almost every day, rain off and on, very unpredictable. But today promised to be perfect for the beach, and it was. I even got some pictures.

We were there all day, and now I'm beat. They are, too. I really wanted to get back at least one more time before we start our school schedule, though. And I even managed to knit at the beach, getting almost all the way to the toe on my second sock (finally!). I should have some finished projects to show soon.