The Jeep Show: Its a Family Thing

This past Saturday was one of the best my family has had in our eight years of living in the North Penn area. We started out with a walk over to the Lansdale Farmer's Market where we sampled our favorite things from happy face cookies from Tabora Farm (the kids) to fresh guacamole from Anita's (me) to jalapeno wine from Cardinal Hollow Winery (my husband). Mm! Confession time...I may have also gobbled up a sticky bun from Tabora, while watching the Zumba demonstration put on by the North Penn YMCA...hey, at least we walked there right?! My two-year-old enjoyed the story time while my four-year-old and seven-year-old dribbled up a storm with one of the Y's basketball coaches.

Our walk home took us through downtown Lansdale where we were able to see the progress of the Streetscape project and let the kids check out the ever-popular Kugel Ball.

After the walk home and a few necessary household chores, it was off to the Jeff Daniels Annual Jeep Show in Harleysville! We had wanted to go to the Jeep Show for years, but this was the first time we were actually able to. Given all the fun we had and the low cost of it all, it surely won't be our last time there!

We parked the family truckster in the designated "Non-Jeep" parking area across the street from the show and wandered through the grassy hills at the front of the Jeff Daniels property. Row upon row of Jeeps were there for the ogling. Some with proud owners close by, but many were left to speak for themselves while their owners toured the many vendor booths and chatted with other Jeep enthusiasts.

How interesting can it be to look through row after row of nothing but Jeeps? You may be surprised by just how many models of Jeeps there have been over the years! I certainly was and I had thought I'd heard just about everything about Jeeps already from my husband and father who are both fans. But, take a look at these photos and you'll see what I mean.

There were beautifully restored Jeeps like these.

Even Elmo was there!

There were Jeeps that practically begged you to take them on a fun family adventure.

And some that just begged for a little TLC.

This would be my personal pick for family travel; a 1980-something Grand Wagoneer. Wouldn't this Jeep be so perfect on your next family fishing trip?

My kids' favorite part of the show? The moon bounces, of course! We also checked out the Jeep painting area where washable paints and brushes were available for kids to go wild painting some real Jeeps! There was also a small sand area for kids to drive toy Jeeps around in and free face painting.

Vendors from businesses such as Tastefully Simple and 31 Gifts were also set up, giving visitors a nice variety of non-Jeep related shopping options, as well.

All in all, it was a fantastic time! My only regret is that we needed to get going by the time the live rockabilly band started to play. Much as I love rockabilly music, if we had stayed, their sounds would have been drowned out by the wails of my tired kids. But, we will definitely make the short drive back again next year. Looking for more great Jeep photos? Oodles more pics from the show are available here.

And we can't wait to see what this coming weekend brings!