Curious Sights from the Barton Fair

Today we went to the Orleans County Fair (formerly known as the Barton Fair). There were many curious sights to behold, such as this stunning family enjoying hot dogs and burgers at one of the food vendors:

And this famous couple, one of whom was celebrating his 25th birthday today watching the tractor pull event. Happy Birthday, Tyler!

Of course, there were the Ku-Klux-Klan sheep (I truly have no idea what this was all about): And, oh yes! The Pirate's Booty competition. A man dressed in a gaudy pirate's outfit threw some quarters and 1 black coin into a pit of bedding shavings. The kids had to dive in, and whoever found the single black coin would win a bicycle! It looked like fun, so we stopped to watch.

It proved to be much harder than it sounds. We watched for several minutes before moving on. But these children were determined! We bought some beautiful hand-and-chainsaw carved cedar birdhouses from "Papa Les" and "Papa Pete," woodcarvers from the Newport area.This was a strange attraction. "Rosie's Racing Pigs" was run by a man who claims to have been on that show Green Acres. he also claimed to have trained Wilbur from the movie "Charlotte's Web" and Babe the pig from the movie "Babe." For some reason, Ed wasn't buying it. I tend to agree with him, as the pig tricks he showed were kind of lame!But watching the pigs race around was pretty darned cute! But the absolute BEST part of the day was visiting with Fred Webster. If you have never heard of Fred Webster, and are interested in antique farm paraphernalia, you have GOT to meet this man. First off, he is 88 1/2 years old, and he builds these stage coaches by hand: I am a huge fan- this picture doesn't even do it justice. It is stunning. Although I have never been there (Ed, Tyler and Matt have), it is my understanding that Fred keeps an amazing collection of antique farm equipment at his farm in Coventry. He's a sweet old man, pretty sharp and spry for his age. He likes to tell what I'm sure he thinks are pretty brazen jokes (although they are mostly just cute...almost as cute as he is!). We all went home tired and full of yummy "fair food," my favorite being a "monster-sized (and it was!)" fried dough. That's a DOUGHBOY for all you Rhode-Islanders!

It was a fantastic day at the Barton Fair!

Trip to R.I.

So I had this big plan to head off to R.I., to catch up with family and friends...and especially to meet my new niece Isabella. The best part of the plan was that I was going to leave Elijah home with Ed, so I could travel more freely.

I had visions of making the drive in only 5 hours, listening to my music and enjoying the peacefulness of NOT having a toddler on board.

Fast forward to leaving day. The car was packed. I had my travel mug of coffee and my coins for the toll. I said goodbye to Ed, and leaned down to say goodbye to Elijah. One look at his sleepy little face as he sat on the floor drinking his orange juice, and I knew I wasn't going anywhere without him!

Next thing you know, I'm zipping down I-89, happily singing "The Wheels on the Bus," while Elijah acted out the movements to the song from the back seat. It only took about 7 hours and a zillion renditions of the aforementioned song to reach R.I.!

Ah, well. Maybe next time :-)

Here am, enjoying my first snuggle with Isabella:

After watching for a few seconds, Elijah got right up on the couch and announced,"Li-La mama!" (translation: "Yo, baby- that's MY Mama!")
Everyone loves to snuggle with a new baby. Here's my sister Leslee. She might have fallen asleep in this picture!

"Big Cousin" Kyle entertained Elijah with some inside toys...
While Isabella slept through it all!
Next, Kyle showed Elijah all of his outdoor toys. Excuse the construction mess. My brother-in-law Jim is nearing completion on an addition to their home.

Somehow, while pretty much single-handedly building the addition, Jim still found time to build Kyle a treehouse.
Complete with a pulley system to haul up "supplies."

New Momma Paula and our Big sister Carole (holding Isabella)

The next day we went to Grampy's house, where Brandon and Sarah entertained Elijah.

And we tried to get Elijah to pose for a picture with my Dad. Obviously, with no luck!

In the end, it was a great trip. I'm actually really glad that Elijah came along, as I would have spent the whole time missing him dreadfully. Maybe next year I'll be ready to go away without him. Or maybe the year after that!

Maine!

We just returned from a truly wonderful vacation at my family's cottage in Limerick, ME. We were so lucky to have perfect weather every single day, which is quite the rarity this summer! Here's the view across Lake Sokokis from the cottage deck:We settled into the cottage on Sunday evening. The next morning, we "kicked off" our vacation with a walk around town and a stop at the DoughBoy Donut shop. Elijah enjoyed his chocolate donut!It was a nice beach day, so we spent the whole day enjoying the sunshine.Zoe loves to swim and fetch the tennis ball!

The next day (Tuesday), we joined Paul, Lesley and the girls at Wells Beach, approximately an hour away. It was a crowded, hot day at the beach. PERFECT!I got to spend some nice time visiting with Lesley, as we cooled our feet in the Atlantic Ocean.It may appear as those I am clutching VERY tightly to Elijah...The waves might have swept him right away otherwise!

Paul, Chelsea and Lauren rode some waves. The water was not bone-chilling cold like it sometimes can be. They were able to stay in for an hour at a time, or more!

Lesley and Elijah, walking the beach:

We culminated the visit with dinner at Billy's Chowder House, which is my all-time favorite restaurant. I rarely travel to Maine without frequenting Billy's. Lesley, Ed and I had our first lobsters of the vacation! Yum!

The next day (Wednesday), we went blueberry picking at a local U-Pick farm. I forgot to bring my camera, but here are a couple shots of Elijah enjoying our bounty. As I type this, I am eating blueberry cobbler for dessert!
More time down at the beach. In case you were wondering from his absence in all these pictures so far, Ed came to Maine also- here's proof!

Our final full day was Thursday. We spent it at the York Zoo. The humidity had broken during a 5-minute rain shower Wednesday night, so the air felt very comfortable.I took dozens of pictures of the animals. Here are a couple choice shots of especially interesting animals:

I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but look at that beautiful plumage!

Although it's a little sad to see them confined, I'll obviously never get to see Bengal tigers or lions anywhere but a zoo.

There was a section of the zoo with animals you could feed, like this fallow deer.

This is a servat, a beautiful wild cat about the size of a bobcat.

I would classify Elijah as generally "disinterested" in the animals, for the most part. He liked the ones you could feed, but I guess he's still a bit young to really appreciate wild animals caged up 20 feet away. I'm not sure what he was looking at in this picture, but by the look on his face it obviously struck his fancy!

Just a cute baby goat picture.
Okay, this guy was SCARY. He looks kind of like a baboon, but he had a different name. First off, he was really large. Also, he had that baboon-like bald, shiny, red backside. He had really BIG yellow teeth and kept sneering as he slowly stalked a female sharing his cage. She seemed to want nothing to do with him, and neither would I. He was u-g-l-y!

Our last stop was to see the elephant, which you could ride. We did not do that, but it was cool to see such a big animal so close!In all, I'd say it was a perfect vacation!