Highlights, part 2....

There's a HUGE Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, CO - about an hour south of us. We went once before when boys were teeny-tiny and had a blast! We went again this year with some friends and had a great day. It's amazing how in-character everyone in the Faire is - we are "milord" and "milady" all day long.
We brought along a pair of wings for CC and she wore them all day - here she is with her new friend Unicorn.
This picture is hilarious - I don't even know what this guy is exactly (feel free to tell me if you know! Death?) - he was just sitting there on the bench all alone, boys sat down with him and he didn't move a muscle the whole time. Love the wary look on Andrew's face.
They had a little children's area with a couple of free rides and petting zoo. It's a little butterfly CC is sitting in, she rode it about 3 times in a row. Brendan tried to get in one but he was too big!! We went to 2 separate jousting shows. Pretty cool except they had the entire crowd chanting "TO THE DEATH!" when the bad guy challenged the honor of the good guy. When they jousted, there was even fake (?) blood that came spurting out, to the boys delight. Below a little reenactment. (Andrew, apparently, is the bad guy)
Next up - each year we participate in the Children's Reading Program at the library, where you are rewarded for reading a certain number of hours in the summer. One of the prizes is free tickets to Lakeside, a verrrryyy old amusement park in Denver. It's fun to go, it's so "retro" - they have a ridiculously old, rickety, wooden roller coaster that we rode this year for the first time. I'm not a huge roller-coaster person anymore, and riding this one all I could see was the peeling paint, the perceived missing wood-pieces, etc. CC loved it and rode it twice (with Jason) - I couldn't believe it. I just love the letters in this sign! We start out in the Kiddie part of Lakeside - and work our way up. Here you can see Andrew's enthusiasm for the Chariot Ride. : )

Kids all love this one - the Frog Hopper. So cute!

Here's CC making sure Brendan is listening to her...ha!

And - another benefit in the Summer Reading Program - free tickets to the Colorado Rapids - local Major League Soccer team. We'd never been before so it was fun to experience it. Here the kids are with Marco Van Bison (really) one of the mascots. The game ended up tied 1-1...so weird to leave a major league game without a winner!
Here we are up at Standley Lake cooking out with friends Steph & Jay (newlyweds, can't believe it's been nearly a year since we were all in their wedding! Ah to see the boys in those suits again!) You can't see the geese that were VERY aggresively trying to eat dinner with us.