Skip to main content

The Farbers Come to Mpls for the Renaissance Festival

 

Brittany and family came to visit for the first time in 5 years. 

I finished up the temporary guest room just in time. 

It'll do, pig.

The reason for their visit was to go the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We had a lot of fun the last time they came and as it's Theo's last year being free we wanted to go again. 

We left our house around 11. Google Maps showed there was a slowdown as you get closer to the festival. What we thought was going to be a 20 minute slow down turned into 4 hours. 

It was nuts. We even though we found a faster route in, but apparently everybody had the same idea.

Had we not already bought tickets, and had them come just for this, we would have skipped it. 


Despite the very long wait we were excited to explore. 

Even the lines for the food were just as bad. 

I'm not sure if it was the dreary weather, the long wait to get in, but it wasn't quite as magical as last time.


I love people watching here. Sadly we missed most of the shows. 

We checked out a few of the shops. 

This year we dressed up. Jeff's costume was the best. 

Well, everyone except for me. I don't have any good costumes lying around. Next time, I guess I'll need to put a ren fest outfit together.

Meadow, Jeff and I all wanted pickles. They're giant and the cheapest thing around.


And we couldn't skip kettle corn.


Meadow wanted to see the mermaids. 

She's getting older and didn't seem as excited this time.
 
Last time they were handing out little gems. I think she was expecting to get one again. 

Jeff's costume was one of the best we saw. But don't get confused he's just a wizard, not Gandalf.

Theo looked super cool in his Link outfit. I should've been Ganon or one of the champions from Breath of the Wild.

We got at least one ride in. But Meadow was the only one that wanted to go on one. Theo panicked and changed his mind he saw the ride attendant buckles you.

Theo couldn't stop eating kettle corn.

Marina's Princess Mononoke costume was top notch and got compliments from a few grown ups.


Meadow and Theo loved the tiara store. 

I so wanted to get her one. 

We basically ate pickles and drank beer for two hours.



Meadow also really wanted a cape. 

How did I miss this?

Theo loved Jeff's bubble blowing pipe.

Staying until the festival closes means getting to watch the animals get put away for the night. 

Jeff and Brittany wanted a family pick. I snuck Marina in even though she's too cool for school.

I guess our kids aren't any better. Ha.

The next morning I made kaiserscharrn for the first time in ages. That seemed to be the theme of the weekend.

While Scott watched the Packer's game we took the kids to Hyland Park to play at the big playground. Lucky kids got to play for hours. 

Good thing I watched. The season wouldn't get much better than that sludge match.

For dinner we took them to Sushi Train. Afterwards we walked across the street to Peavy Plaza. I didn't realize there was water in the plaza. Despite cooler temps the kids had a blast running through the water. I guess throughout the summer there's performances here. We'll definitely have to come back for that or just to play in the water. 

They used to have ice skating here before the renovation. Wonder why it never came back.

The next morning I picked up donuts from Bogarts

Brittany, Marina and I went thrifting while Meadow and Theo went to their annual checkups. 

Marina became my model for trying on clothes for Meadow. 

We must've forgot to mention that they brought their bunny with. Only found one "cocoa puff"a few days later.

We took the girls to another playground at Meadow's school. 

Jeff not missing his teacher days.

We finished their visit by treating them to Miner's Enchiladas. One of our favorite meals we had in Mexico. It comes out pretty good at home, but Guanajuato good. 

Until next time, Farbers.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Yardwork, Ikea and Pumpkins

My new parents-in-law got us a dehydrator for the wedding. Knowing we were going to be cleaning up the garden and going to farmer's market, we took a gander at our millionth kitchen device during breakfast.   Scott added granola to his oatmeal.  The oatmeal was rather bland, just the way Brooke likes it.   Scott was actually cleaning up so I had to take a quick photo of him as proof.  Scott told me he was, "putting a blanket down for Peanut," while singing. During the winter months peanut needs a warm place to peer through the window. Seeing as it was nearly November, I setup his blanket for him. Seeing as the farmers market season is dwindling down, we headed to the market...once again. The close proximity to the cities central farmer's market has to be one of the best assets of living in NoMi. We were both amazed by the bounty of produce still on sale. We quickly filled up our first bag and took it back to the car....

Chicago Chrismukkah + Michigander Xmas

 Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...

With Spring Comes Biking

Whenever daylight savings changes I flip the mattress. (I know I'm a little late) Every new season I change the duvet cover.  Scott actually helps me this time. Yup, I'm cool like that. I was a little worried we had too much dough so we got out every pan that could be used for muffins. I was wrong, we only needed two pans. By the time we actually eat "breakfast," at least that's what Brooke calls it, Peanut has already finished most of his Organmix. I know, we spoil the little runt. Speaking of Brooke's fascination with breakfast, she will not eat anything that resembles lunch for her first meal of the day. So, even on the laziest Sunday, breakfast comes before lunch. As you can see Brooklyn really loved her muffin-fast -- even if it was already 1 p.m. While I finish up some dishes Brooke cleans the kitchen. Did you know that Brooke is a cleaning expert (really, she'll clean your house or cook for you. H...