'That's you, baby,' I whispered to Piper, as I have every year since she smiled for the picture as an infant. It featured the sweetest baby girl swathed in pink, pretend angel wings fastened to her soft shoulders. Ahead, on my right, I saw the Alaska Right to Life (RTL) booth, where a poster caught my eye, taking my breath away. A local dance troupe took to the stage and the music blared, competing with the constant hum of generators and squealing kids on rides. Like a family conga line, we wound our way among the vendors and exhibits: from pork chops on a stick to kettle corn, veggie weigh-ins, and livestock competitions. When are they gonna ramp up drilling?'Ī robin's egg sky arced overhead, the brisk kick in the air hinting at winter's approach.

'Price of energy's pretty high, Governor. 'Oh, my goodness, is that the new little one? Let me say hi to him. Every few moments, I pulled my right arm free from baby duty to shake hands with folks who wanted to say hello. For the most part, she was comfortable watching the grip-and-grin photos and hearing the friendly chitchat with constituents that I enjoyed as part of my job as governor of the state.

Piper, seven, my constant sidekick since the moment she was born, bounced along at my hip, pinching off fluffs of cotton candy, her reward for patiently accommodating my stop-and-go progress through the crowd.

Bristol and Willow, our teenage daughters, roamed ahead with friends, heads together, laughing, thumbs tapping cell phones. Inching through rivers of people with Trig, our four-month-old son, cradled in my arms, I zigzagged from booth to booth, from driftwood art to honeybee keeping to home-brewed salmon-berry wine. Banjo music playing at the Blue Bonnet Stage, baleen etchings, grass-woven Eskimo baskets, and record-breaking giant vegetables grown under the midnight sun. With the gray Talkeetna Mountains in the distance and the first light covering of snow about to descend on Pioneer Peak, I breathed in an autumn bouquet that combined everything small-town America with rugged splashes of the Last Frontier. It was the Alaska State Fair, August 2008. I don't believe that God put us on earth to be ordinary. Read the excerpt below, and then head to the 'GMA' Library to find more good reads. 2 on the Republican 2008 presidential ticket, shares her life story in 'Going Rogue: An American Life.' Sarah Palin, who captured the nation's attention as the No.

Going rogue an american life