Renaissance Festival ~ June 21st, 2009

       

Colorado Renaissance Festival ~ Larkspur, CO ~ June 21st, 2009

(Pictures above: The King and Court, The Good Guys & The Bad Guys) 

Sunday morning the whole family was up a little earlier than we were wanting to get up in order to get ready for our trip the the Colorado Renaissance Festival.  I had prepared the clothes in advance the night before and everything was ready accept for the food.  I made about 8 sandwiches of varying flavors and peanut buttered celery sticks, packed apples, cookies, and jerky we'd bought the day before into a cooler along with 8 bottles of water that were either frozen or refrigerated the night before.  Sunscreen, bug spray, wipies, blankets, and an umbrella went into the van too!  After everyone ate a quick breakfast of muffins and milk we loaded up and headed out just after 9 o'clock.

The trip down to Larkspur, CO always seems to take longer than we expect, but we arrived and were parked in a space pretty close to the front gates by 9:45 am.  Jacob immediately went and purchased our tickets (only one actually since this was Military weekend and 'Buy One Get One Free" tickets w/ kids Free as well).  Meanwhile I lotioned up the kids and bug sprayed them. Then when Jacob got back we took care of ourselves and loaded up the stroller.  Michelle and her boys were coming down the road as we were loading up, she just happened to be parked just down the row from us.  (Michelle is one of our friends from Colorado Springs that Jacob went to the AF Academy with.)  We'd planned to meet and spend the day together.  So after we got the stroller loaded we headed out.  Michelle stopped to get tickets and as I pushed the stroller up the hill I realized just how difficult it was going to be to push the darn thing the whole day.  So Jacob took the stroller back and we only kept one small bag with necessities and water bottles.  (We decided that we'd just go back and get the stuff when we wanted to eat instead of lugging the thing with us the whole time.)

Our first stop was the Sky Chairs.  Everyone, except me, decided to try them out!

This is Anna with Twig the Fairy!

We started out going the opposite way than we normally go and stopped by Legacy Forge, a shop that we usually stop and admire the weapons in (at least have for the past 5 years or so).  Anyway, we handled just about every blade they had and I found a bastard sword that I really liked.  Jacob wasn't really interested in anything until he picked up this one blade and as you can see below, after 3 years of really wanting an actual practice sword, we went ahead and bought one for each of us.

Jenny's Left/Jacob's Right

Above are pictures of the family lounging after lunch at the Jousting Arena.  The 3rd picture is of David Lacock and David Nunez (our friend Michelle's son).  Picture 4 is of all my boys napping on or near me while we wait for the 2:30 show.

After the show we decided to let the kids run the Maze that they'd been asking about the whole time.  Below are Anna and John who have made it through the Maze to the Dragon Slide.

John really wanted to ride the Giant Rocking Horse...below they are standing in line waiting their turn and the second picture is of them actually on the horse.  John really liked it!  :O)

We pretty much toured the rest of the Festival checking out shops and decided to head home when everyone started to get really cranky and hot!  We left just before 5pm.  The kids fell asleep on the way home and Jacob would have too if I hadn't put some music on for him.  We were all very exhausted after and went to bed early and slept late the next day.  All except for Jacob who had to work at 6am.  Anyway, it was a good visit!