Oh yes, the title should give a clue as to what we have been up to! Kevin’s new HP job meant canceling the family trip this summer, as he will not have enough accrued vacation time for a trip until next year. We decided that a bunch of mini-trips were in order so that he could feel like he had some kind of vacation fun! With that in mind, we went up to the Bristol Renaissance Faire this past weekend. It was a really good time, with all there is to see and do, especially the people who go all out. It was “steampunk weekend”, so we saw some truly strange costumes.

We walked in the gates and Kayla was spotted by several employees due to the Ravenclaw shirt she wore. One “roving entertainer” chucked a large stuffed fish and small stuffed dog at the girls. They returned the critters, and the man offered them a stone from his treasure chest as a reward. Ashley picked a pretty emerald stone, and Kayla picked a blue fish. The entertainer said it was Bob the Magic Fish, and sang its theme song (to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon”):

“Bob the Magic Fish lived in the sea. He was eaten by a hungry shark and now he is…..fish poop.”

Here is Bob, and the girls with the roving entertainer. (Psst….Tiffanie….see the lizard purse?)

It would not be a trip to the Faire if we didn’t sit in the sky chairs! There was even a sky chair carousel that Kevin and Ashley rode.

All of this hard work means time to eat while we watched the Dirk & Guido Swordsmen Show. The girls had sea themed chicken patties and fries.

But that’s not all! Each girl had a specialty item at the Faire. Kayla HAD to have a giant pickle on a stick. This was all that she had left by the time I got there with the camera.

Ashley ate a “Monkey Tail”.

They ate these treats while watching the falconry show. Here are two of the hawks that we got to see in flight.

We also watched some aerial acrobats perform. Here one of them is on the ground working a Chinese dragon. Her partner is dangling up above, working the tail cables.

Then it was time to do stuff! Both girls and Kevin tried some archery, Kevin threw some knives, and the roving entertainer caught Kayla later on for a game of human Tic-Tac-Toe (using random people as X’s and O’s) which she played to a tie. Ashley found a giant hula hoop…

did some bungee jumping…

climbed a rock wall…

and then both girls decided to “hatch” dragon eggs for a souvenir.

Kayla found a nifty “garbage” dragon hanging out in a tree.

We watched the joust and by then were pretty tired. It was a long but really fun day!

I’m sorry that there are few pictures. I forgot I had a camera until the last day.
From the 7th to the 12th I was on one of the best trips ever, the great escape! On Monday the 7th the bus of campers left at 1:00 but didn’t arrive until 4:30 because of some detours. After everyone arrived and unloaded all our stuff it was time to have a little fun by the lake. Me and one of my friends built a sand volcano that collapsed when we tried to make it erupted. That evening we had the first worship, and afterward we got assigned to our teams. My team was the super duper silly sea monkeys, but someone made a mistake so it said supper duper instead. Our team cheer went ” What’s for supper? Sea monkeys!” Some of the other team names were I didn’t do it on porpoise, salmon, and shark bait ooh ha ha.
On Tuesday it was our first recreation time, and my team had Field X. At Field X there’s a giant slip and slide, the mud pit, and relay races. In the afternoon I participated in the chess tournament and got 4th place.
On Wednesday I was down at lake rec. i got super wet at all the games. I played toilet hockey where you crawl on your hands and knees and hit the puck with toilet brushes, I attempted principal hammerhead where you do an obstacle course while teammates try to dump water in a bucket on your head, and also took part in captain ball, which is sort of like catch combined with soccer.
On Thursday was the final day of rec, and it was my favorite, Field Rec! There was dodge ball, the belly bumpers, which are inflatable doughnuts with handles on them, and my favorite, human foosball! After all the games there was snow cones for every one.
On Friday there was the shaving cream war! I got a friend of mine covered because I ran up, smeared shaving cream all down his front and back, then ran away. That afternoon I went to a shop called world wide gifts, hoping that they might have some cool Chinese dragon stuff. The shop didn’t, but I got a little dragon from Mexico. that night was the final party. some of the songs that almost everybody danced to were let it go, cupid shuffle, and Y.M.C.A.
Saturday was the day all the campers left. It took forever to get home, but I slept most of the way.

Here’s my breakfast before the shaving cream fight.

Me after the fight.( and after I had stepped in the hose that lead to the arctic ocean)

My dragon from the shop. It’s supposed to be a bat, but it looks like a dragon.

I look forward to the great escape next year, the theme is supposed to be viral.