medieval madness!

I went to one major festival in my whole life. That was the Civil War Reenactment that our school encouraged us to go to every year (and it was awesome!!!) But other than that, my big fair & festival count is zero. Well, Sarasota has this HUGE medieval fair...I think every year?...and we went to that yesterday. It was pretty darn intense.

There were seriously sooo many booths there that we didn't even try to visit every single one. James had his fun with some more than others...

He took these pictures to send to his friends and I had to take like 6 because I was laughing so hard.

They had camel rides...yes...real camel rides!! And if it wasn't so expensive, I would've done it! The camels I heard were not that nice though, so maybe that was a good thing?

Although, I did catch a picture of one that looked like he sure was having a good time! He even smiled for me!...

I think the coolest part was the activities. They had this booth where you could make those ribbon dancer things, try on costumes, and a freakin jousting activity where these kids can slide down a zip line and try to get a jousting stick through a ring (and even though it was for kids, I was very tempted to say the least). Then for the adults, they had a fire eater, a man who did all these tricks on this giant hamster wheel, and these awesome games (that frankly, no one was good at. The men of those days must have had serious aim!)

They also had a gigantic human chess game going on at times throughout the day and it was PACKED! That was probably the most popular event I'd say. It was cool to watch....for like 2 minutes. We couldn't hear and I couldn't see so it was lost on me for sure. James had to get these pictures for me (kudos to me for marrying a tall man!)

And of course, there was an actual jousting match. Now that show was worth waiting for! They didn't try to hit each other, which was a relief since we had all these little kids and we did not need them to be learning that! Instead, there were targets painted on bales of hay.

As you can see, everyone was very into it.

The other most fun part of the day was when we watched a show called "The Washing Wenches,' which a comedy show with these two cousins who are "wenches" that wash everyone's clothes for a living. It was HILARIOUS. I found out that they travel all over the world doing this because everyone loves it so much, so if you get that chance, you don't have a choice - you have to see them. The show is a little dirty, but since I'm a married lady, it wasn't so bad...that is, until they called James up to participate.

I did get a video, but I'm not going to share it, and here's why. I feel like it makes me look like a bad wife. They called him up and it was pretty funny at first. But then they asked me if I was a jealous woman, and even though I'll admit that when it comes to James--YES! But I didn't want to be one of those lame participators. So I said no, and that made it worse for James. They were all over him. Even I was suuuuper uncomfortable when they reached up his shirt and were twisting his nips. But, I really didn't know what to do! Poor poor James. When they asked me that, he was shaking his head up & down like a mad man but I had already said no at the same time. I felt like a terrible wife the rest of the day. But the show WAS super funny! Our friend Melissa's husband, Bo, also got called up and he ended up getting all wet. So it was still a fun show, even though I was apologizing to James the rest of the day. Haha

This festival will surely have to go on our "Fun Family Things to Do" list. It was a lot of fun and I was really glad I broke that "no festival" streak. I hope we go again in the future so I can try one of those GIANT turkey legs...and maybe share it with a camel for a ride! ;)