Road trip!

We were all excited to go visit RD's family in Colorado, we are now only a days drive away, which is manageable. For someone who doesn't like long car rides, a.k.a. me. and Cameron, and Grace, who get carsick. Reese and Aubree aren't fond of them, but do ok.
We lived through the drive, even the bad traffic in Denver, and made it, phew! His parents live in a little wooded paradise of pine trees and rolling hills. Relaxing on the back deck, swinging on the tire swing Grandpa Packard made them, watching the hummingbirds zip around, was awesome!It was hot thre, but it didn't feel nearly as bad as home, maybe because they have lots and lots of shade. I loved just smelling the pine in the air.
One of the days we went to Elizabeth's Celtic Festival. The calendar of events looked pretty interesting, highland games, a magic show, dance and piping competition, living history village, etc.,  so we thought it'd be worth the admission $ to go.

We were totally wrong.
We walked by the 'artisan row', which was people selling jewelry and clothes and knives, and the children's glen, which was a paper crown and pipe cleaner dragon crafts. We headed over to the highland games, and saw the men's hammer toss and women's sheaf toss, and stone put.

After watching for awhile (how long can you watch people throw things, really), we went to check out the dancing, which was schoolgirls each doing the same dance over and over. We wandered over to the magic show, where we were surprised to be the whole audience. A few kids would stop by every so often, but no one stayed long, for good reason. Reese did better tricks at the kids' lawn lemonade stand a couple summers ago. RD wondered if he was high, and it was just embarrasing to watch. But we felt totally awkward getting up and leaving since we were the ONLY ones there! It was painful. The kids each were conscripted to be volunteers, since we were the only ones there. Only RD didn't have to get up, holding onto Aubree ;)

Finally it was over and we could beat a hasty retreat, as he asked for tips. We tried to redeem the day by going to the living history village, but it was just a few tent with families sitting in them with tools, horns, and burial items. The kids were not interested. In fact, they were begging to go home.
So we walked back to our (paid) car parked, relieved to go, but annoyed we had blown so much on so little.
But we'll always remember the worst magic show ever, so I guess that's something!