Renaissance Faire

Our friends invited us to go to the Renaissance festival today. Being that the kids had no school it was the perfect opportunity. Jr and I both had never been so we figured... why not?

We woke up early and we're all ready by 9:30am. Right on schedule!

We picked up our nephew Anthony at my brother-in-law's and then called our friends to make sure they were ready. Turns out. our phone call woke them up.

So... we took the kids to McDonalds for breakfast. But it was 10:30 so they started serving lunch... even better because I wasn't in the mood for breakfast.

We killed some time and then drove to our friend's house. They were pretty much ready so we didn't wait too long for them. But a 15 minute wait was too much for Arielle and she started getting fussy. 11:30 and we were on our way. We figured as soon as we hit the road she'd calm down since we were moving.

WRONG!

She cried and screamed the entire 45 minutes to Apache Junction... and once we hit AJ... the traffic was one lane for the last 7 miles to get to the festival. So she continued to scream her head off. After 1 hr and half of being in the car... Jr had to pee and got our of line, off at the next exit, stopped at a gas station, and got a Monster to calm him stress down. He also got Arielle down with him for about 10 minutes. Then it was back into the long line.

And for the last 20 minutes she continued with the screaming and crying until about 10 minutes before we parked. By this time it was almost 1:30!

But finally we were there. Thank Goodness! Unloaded the kids the stroller and all our stuff and it was a hike to the entrance gate. Or at least it felt like it.

First stop Potty break! Where Diego posed for me. (Don't mind his hair lately... he wants to grow it out. And this growing out phase is annoying me... grow!)


Once inside there was lots of interesting things to see. So pretty much we walked around taking in the sights and the people.












Our friend Louie loved the helmets...


And Jr decided he wanted to try and climb the rock wall. He got higher than the 5 guys before him... but still fell off.








And the day was hot and miserable. Yes last week it was still cold for us... rainy even. But the heat today was telling us that winter never lasts long in Phoenix.

So Jr decided to have the boys tortured. They were good sports.

First Jr got to throw little sponges at them


Then the man took bigger sponges and teased them... wetting the tops of their heads and down their backs




And then ended with a full bucket of water!


They came out looking like this:


They thought it was hilarious... I did not.

Food there was extremely expensive so I went prepared with capri suns and lots of snacks. Bad enough Jr HAD to have soda and HAD to have a caramel apple. And I think he also got steak on a stick or something like that. He just HAD to. So after walking around a while longer and giving the kids some snacks we headed to the petting zoo.










Then Jr and Diego wanted to do the catapult thing.

Jr flipped his heart out although he said it was intense feeling.




Diego thought he was prepared... but one good bounce up and he was stiff as a board. And he was making faces to prove it... I thought he's have a heart attack.







But if you ask him... he'll say he wasn't scared at all. Mom knows otherwise.

So then we had accident. Layna peed her pants as we were looking to find the restrooms. Luckily Mom goes everywhere prepared and we had extra clothes. So we found a restroom, changed her, did our potty break, and rested on some rocks while the kids ate more snacks.















And by this time I was extremely tired, my feet were swollen in my boots, I was still hot because I forgot my hair tie in the van, I was hungry (and there was not way as cheap as I am would buy food from there), and overall grouchy. Not to mention I had to deal with Alayna during he pee incident. (It was an accident but still tiring nonetheless...) Ugh.

But Jr made my day and we bought Alayna a pair of fairy wings! She asked all day for them... and I was eyeing them too. She picked out a pretty pair and I was relieved because some were not so pretty.




Then we found a picture taking thing where you stick your head through the holes... it was fun.






And seeing Alayna looking all pixie-ish and cute I had to pull her aside for some pictures.






Then it was time to go... and I was SO ready!


And we met back with our friends who we had separated from for a while. And their girls had wings too. So we took a picture.


And I couldn't help but get some more of my fairy girl.




And once back in the car I was so relieved.

That is until we moved 5 feet got into the line to get out and sat there in the SAME spot for an hour and 15 minutes! With a hungry tired me, hungry tired kids, and a screaming crying almost 2 year old... again. We had to unbuckle the kids and let them play since we weren't moving. It was horrible! Turns out that right when we were getting into our cars, there was a multiple car accident on the freeway (which as you remember was only one lane anyway) and it blocked the exit of the Faire. So officers and fire department hurried to get the lines moving... but we lasted 1hr 15 mins.

And then we started moving.

Once back on the road I told Jr... I don't care what you want but I need food and I need food now. I was beyond frustrated and tired at this point. Swollen, achy, and HUNGRY! So we called our friends (who were following us) and told them we were stopping at the very first restaurant we saw.

Luckily we got to a shopping center and there was a chinese place. We pulled over and ate.


The food was good and it hit the spot. And then I slept the whole way home. As did the kids. And after dropping off our nephew we had finally gotten home about 9:30pm. Although we technically got into our car to go home at 5:45pm.

WHAT A DAY!