When I first moved to Raleigh from Florida, my now-husband was very excited to play tour guide for my first visit to the NC State Fair. In the weeks before the fair, I listened to him describe the fair and his yearly trek through the fried food booths and remember being a bit perplexed about why the fair was such an important event. Eleven state fairs and a few fried Snickers bars later, the fair is an important family tradition and I can’t imagine not heading out to the fairgrounds in October.

Since he grew up in the Triangle, Trent had a list of things that he saw and did at the fair every year that he was eager to share with me. On that first chilly Saturday afternoon, he showed me the giant "mutant vegetables", bought me a huge lollipop from the Candy House, and made me walk through the cow barn with him. The next year when we went to the fair, we had had just gotten engaged and I remember mentally planning our wedding as we looked at the wedding cake contest entries.

A few years later, I went to the fair 11 days before my daughter was born in a futile attempt to take my mind of being hugely pregnant. I vividly remember sitting a chair at the very back of the fair next the Cheerwine booth and thinking that there was no way that I could make it back to the car. To this day, I cannot bear to drink Cheerwine or even see the logo. A year later I held my almost one-year-old daughter onto a wooden horse for her first carousal ride as my husband snapped a million pictures.

Over the years, our family has added new rituals to our state fair to-do list. We always park in the same lot and go in the same entrance. For me, my visit to the fair must begin with eating an ear of roasted corn slathered in salt and butter. The kids insist on milking a real cow (complete with a free carton of chocolate milk afterward) each year. They also look forward to picking "vegetables" at the Field of Dreams exhibit and then "selling" their bounty at the farmer’s market in exchange for a coloring book. The past few years the kids have become interested in the rides and the Caterpillar rollercoaster is now on the list.

But no matter what gets added to our fair agenda, no trip to the fair will be ever complete for the Gregory family without stocking up on lollipops and looking at the "mutant vegetables."

Jennifer appears Mondays on TriangleMom2Mom.