Roman Royalty & A Very Happy Little Cowboy

Craig has a lot of regulars at his restaurant, two are Melissa and Dave. They work together and come into Pei Wei once a week for lunch. Melissa is lively and likes to throw a BIG bash every Halloween. This year she insisted that Craig come. The party was to be held at her home on Saturday night. After several trips to four or five different Halloween stores we FINALLY had all that we needed for our costumes. Let the record reflect that I wanted us to dress as Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots, but Craig wanted to be a Gladiator, so I gave in and chose to be a Roman queen instead of the red robot. Craig's make-up was so good that even his close friends didn't recognize him at first. He over-did it a bit on the make-up, intending to make himself look grungy and battle-ridden, he instead looked like a blue-eyed African, and because he HAD to add battle wounds to his arms and legs, my shower looked like a crime scene as we jetted out the door for the trek across town to Melissa's house.

The party was full of people I didn't know, but the nachos were good and so was the guy who sang "Sweet Caroline" during Scaryoke. The most unfortunate part about the evening (and the reason there are no photos accompanying my past few posts) was that I asked someone to take a picture of Craig and I, and she dropped my camera on it's lens and broke it. :( For those of you who know me, you know this is a serious tragedy! Luckily, I can still get to the photos on the memory card- I just need to take it to the store, but I can't take any new photos.

For Halloween night our family was, once again, invited to the Garner's house for their annual Halloween dinner and party. Every year Pattie spends the day making homemade soups. Others bring appetisers and breads, and we have an early dinner just in time for the kids to put on their costumes as the sun is setting. The men then take the kids trick-or-treating in a large group around the neighborhood. Because I don't feel like teaching him that he is entitled to a new costume every year, this year I told Carson that I was not going to buy him a costume for Halloween, but that he needed to create one out of the costumes he already has on hand. He chose to be a cowboy, and because his 6-shooter was broken months ago, Craig decided that he would buy Carson a new one to carry in his holster on his hip. Instead of buying him the plastic one from the regular store, we bought him a metal one they were selling at a costume shop instead. It's a real working cap gun and reminds me of the old metal 6-shooter I used to tote around when I was a little girl. Carson is gaga over this gun- he thinks the fact that it is metal instead of plastic is SO special, and has carried it with him everywhere we have gone since he got it. A brand new realistic 6-shooter and a bucket o' candy.... what more reason does a little cowboy need to be very happy?

Musical Theater, Shakespeare, and... Manure???

Only in Utah could a field trip include all of these!

Monday morning we left for St. George at 9am. We checked into our room and spent a couple of hours at the pool before getting cleaned up for the evening's big event- The Little Mermaid at Tuachan!

We arrived at the red-rock ampitheater at 5 o'clock where we were wisked throughout the backstage area on a private tour. Photo ops everywhere as we saw the cast member's lounge, the costume design department, the make-up and dressing rooms, the tunnels that lead from stage left to stage right, and even got to see how they do their famous stage flooding!

Following the backstage tour we ate a dinner of pizza and Dr.Peppers at a picnic table then were entertained by a family of children violin players before finally being allowed back into the theater to take our seats for the show. We were SO excited; popcorn purchased and bundled up for the evening's chill in our jackets and blankets, the play began. We were in amazement and awe from scene one, act one until the standing ovation which met the final curtain call! The special effects were like nothing I had ever seen before, and being that I'm from Vegas and have seen more than a few shows on-strip, that is HUGE! Mine and Carson's favorite part was when prince Eric fell overboard from his ship, then sank down, down, down to the depths of the sea only to be rescued by the beautiful mermaid Ariel! Following the show were more photo-ops with key characters of the play including Sebastian, Ursula, Flounder, King Triton, and, of course, Prince Eric and Princess Ariel.

I didn't sleep hardly at all (as is usually custom for my first night in a new place) that night, so the next morning when the majority of the group set out for hiking and touring, Carson and I opted to stay behind at the hotel and do some "pool-school" along with Matt and Christine. Who does schoolwork while relaxing at the pool at a hotel!? Homeschoolers do! :)

Later that afternoon we caravaned north to Cedar City where we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant on Main Street- the BEST enchiladas verdes EVER, and don't even remind me of the stuffed churros! The only thing better than the food was the company we were in- Taylors, Morrises, Coombses, and Prescias, we love you!

Following dinner we headed to the Shakespeare Festival for the 7pm showing of A Winter's Tale. The play wasn't quite what Shakespeare wrote, but rather this director's spin on it. Although the dialog was period-correct, the costumes were not, and there was bare minimum done for stage dressing and props. This combination proved to be both confusing to me, boring to Carson, and overall disappointing to us both. I think that the next time I take him to see a Shakespearean play, he will be in middle or high school. Not everything can be perfect all the time though, right?

It was a very late night by the time we got back to St. George and got the boys in bed, and 5:30 am came early! We needed to be cleaned up, have breakfast and ready to go by 8am to make it out to the farm by 8:30. Once we arrived at Staheli Family Farm day 3 of our adventures began! Christine locked the keys in the van, we couldn't get it open (sorry to all the men who tried), and had to call the Washington Police to come open it for us. Much laughter and joking ensued, with our rescuer joining in, and once again, the Taylors, Morrises, Coombses, and Prescias proved that when we are all together there is never a dull moment! After I unsuccessfully tried to purchase the kind officer's car opening tools (for future use because this was Christine's second time in a week locking her keys in the van) we headed into town to get some lunch for our tiny farmers, all of whom were by that time, mucking stalls, riding horses, feeding the llamas and pigs, and watering chickens. When we had returned with and eaten our lunches we took a wagon ride across the street to the corn field which had been cut into an intricate maze where we turned and returned our way from beginning to end.

Christine, Matt, Carson and I returned to the hotel where we enjoyed the use of the pool for the next few hours before setting out to see the town of St. George. We wandered in the car back out toward Tuachan and into the next town, found a housing development way out in the desert with it's own fire department (where we briefly met a fireman... this makes one policeman and one fireman if you are keeping count) before navigating our way back into St. George for some Starbucks and dinner. We decided on Kneaders for our dinner, and the sandwich and soup (along with the coffee) were perfect to keep us alert for the drive back home.

What we gained: a love for musical theater and the desire to open a Kneaders here in Vegas!

Renaissance FUNstival!

It was mine and Carson's first time ever attending a Renaissance Festival. I knew the moment Carson found out he got to dress up for the event, that he was going to have a great day...
While the other kids in the group chose to go as ladies and queens, knights and kings, my son chose to go as Robin Hood. We had a talk about how Robin Hood is most known for how he stole from the rich and gave to the poor; it's seemingly romantic, but when it comes down to it, it's socialism... and theft, which is a violation of one of God's commandments. My parent-eyes are seeing lots of negative lessons being taught in glorifying manners in all medias, and while it irks me something fierce, I like the teaching opportunities that times like these provide. Carson has an extremely advanced way of rationalizing and is quick to recognize propaganda when he sees it, so talking about things like this is quite normal for us. With that in mind, I dubbed him "Carson of Locksley" instead!
We arrived at Silver Bowl Park just after 9am and waited for the last of our homeschool group to arrive before heading into the faire. Once we entered, the kids were met by a playful man who invited them to be participants in a show later that morning, but because of other shows we wanted to see, our kiddos missed being performers.
Our first show was a real jousting tournament, and Carson was in awe of the size of the clydesdale and shire horses being used for the event! Kristi and I planned on letting the kids ride them later in the day. Our knight, Sir William something-or-other, lost to the other side's knight, Sir Jacob blah-blah-blah, in a sudden-death laissez-faire round where Jacob sucker-hit William in the back before the jousting round even began, then WWF-styled him from atop his horse while William was on the ground. Oh well! Our side lost, but we got to see our knight and his horse up close after the show!
It was a quick walk from the jousting arena to the next show at Ceasar's, and the show had already started as we took our seats to watch. This was the show that the kids had been invited to participate in, but we couldn't possibly have gone to the renaissance FUNstival without attending a jousting tournament show! There was another group of kids participating instead, so we just sat and watched the slap-stick style show.
After Ceasar's, we headed on over to the giant pirate ship to watch Bird Recovery International's Pirate Parrot Show! This one was my favorite show. The birds were SOOO beautiful and colorful, and seeing them do fly-overs was absolutely magestic! Carson held up a dollar bill and one smaller bird landed on his arm, shimmied down to his hand, took the bill from his fingers, folded it twice, then flew the bill back up to the ship and put it in a jar! After the show we even got to hold a big, beautiful turquoise, yellow, and red parrot. It was awesome!
Lunchtime followed the bird show, so we spread our blankets under a big shade tree and ate a period-style lunch of turkey legs, corn-on-the cob, and grapes. The kids had slushy treats and played giant jenga with the king, his high priest and a couple of their friends afterward until it was time to hit the games!
They got to throw tomahawks where Carson hit two bullseyes! (watch out!) They battled a band of outlaws with foam swords and knives, tried on different pieces of armor and did a round of archery before we headed over to the camels for camel rides! It was $6/ person to ride the camel, but when will we ever get the opportunity to ride a camel again?! So the camel trumped the horse ride in priority! After the camel ride we hung out with different guilds. We watched a woman spin wool into thread, met her Newfoundland dog, and did some painting. Another guild was playing a knife-tossing game (crazy!) and allowed us to hang out with them, showing us an extensive collection of weaponry and armor, and teaching about each piece's use, and letting us handle them!

On our way to our final guild we stopped to buy the kids something special. for Carson that meant a mini marshmellow blowgun made from pvc pipe. Boy is that kid a great shot! We laughed so hard as the kids sneakily shot passersby with mallows then pretended nothing happened. The last guild we spent time with before heading home was that of a Venturers group (888) which was sponsored by a guild of Vikings! Our boys played bow & arrows and swords with their boys while we chatted about the scouting program and got some information from the Vikings for future use in our period studies. When their dinner arrived it was our cue to end our day and head home.
Once we were seatbelted into the car and heading out of the parking area (7:20pm), I heard Carson in the back seat turn to Matt and say, "Dude! We just had one of the most awesomest days EVER!" (Note to self: buy that grammar program), and Matt agreed!
I was truly a Renaissance FUNstival!!