TBnJ

On Thanksgiving Friday, TBnJ went to the Texas Renaissance Festival with Daddy-o and Uncle S. They also briefly met up with some friends there, but due to cold weather, not as many friends attended as we had hoped. It was in the upper 40s and lower 50s all day, but it was at least dry which was an improvement over the rest of the cold, wet, dark weekend.

We had talked to the kids back in September about the possibility of attending. They wanted to know what the TRF was, and as I described it, their eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. They were positive it sounded like something fun to do. Daddy-o and I had gone once before, back in 1994 or 1995 when we were childless newlyweds. We had a lot of fun, but we also knew it would be even more fun for kids.

So Daddy-o loaded all of them in the car, and they made the almost three hour trek (including potty breaks) to near Plantersville, Texas. They got there near 11:45 a.m.

Once there, they enjoyed it all. J and T both reported liking "The Other Brothers" a lot. B liked some kind of ride that involved spinning (obviously not my child since I get pukish on those types of rides!). They all enjoyed the jousting and various shows that they saw. The maze was popular, but T didn't get to finish it before it closed which was very disappointing to him. They tried their hand at archery and watched pottery making. They didn't get to see the bird show or glass blowing, but they saw almost everything else they wanted to. They managed to stay all day until the very end when there was a fireworks show slightly after 6 pm. T insisted Daddy-o take the fireworks photo at left, demonstrating the low tech capability of our camera. But Daddy-o said the show was as good as the ones the City of Austin puts on.

It took them a while to get out of the traffic ridden parking lot, but J was asleep just minutes after that. T didn't last much longer, and B also joined the sleeping passengers in the car after he finished eating dinner.

On Saturday morning, I made a joke about going back to the Festival again that day. T and J both really wanted to. Daddy-o told them to start walking, but T said he didn't want to "walk all the way across Austin." But we did tell them it was possibly an option to return next fall. This time, they want to wear costumes (like many of the other attendees do). I told them if the Renaissance costumes were also their Halloween costumes, we'd consider it. T wants a full suit of metal armor. I don't think that's happening!

Labels: out of town