Monday, March 1, 2010

A Medieval Adventure

Good morning! Well, the Dunganlets made it through another successful weekend. The highlight was the celebration of Grahamster's 6th birthday. On Saturday evening we invited two of his friends, Bryce and Bryce, for a fun filled evening at Medieval Times. It turned out that there would be nine of us in attendance. This meant that we would need to take two cars. Somehow, I ended up driving the suburban assault vehicle with the 5 kiddos, while my wife, mother, and mother-in-law drove comfortably in a Mercedes. I know, many will not be surprised that I was stuck in the kiddo car, but I would have appreciated a little help in the chaos department.

In all due honest,y the kiddos and I had a great time. It was loud and raucous but nowhere near as chaotic as the little adrenaline-filled sword-wielding kiddos would make the drive home. Let's just leave it at this: I should have known better that to sit three little sugar-filled 6 year old plastic sword carrying little boys right next to each other. The good news is that there were no injuries. It was just a very, very boisterous car ride home.

For those of you that have never been to Medieval Times dinner and tournament, it is exactly what it sounds like. It is a little boy's dream come true (and a mothers as well, but, I will get to that later. The whole experience is staged around the idea of a 11th century medieval tournament complete with princesses, knights, horses, jousting, and sword fighting. All of the patrons sit around an indoor arena while the action takes place on a dirt floor in the center. Food is served in period fashion. There are no forks and knives. It is all fingers. The fair was not bad. It included a piece of garlic bread, tomato bisque soup, a hunk of potato, a side of chicken, a pork spare rib, and an apple turnover. All in all, again, not bad, but the treat is really the show - not the food.

I must admit it was all pretty impressive. With six knights battling to win the tournament with every weapon imaginable and fighting at full force I was quite impressed. Lynley was impressed as well, but I think that is more because she finally discovered what Chippendale's dancers did when they were not stripping. Apparently they bring their muscles and there long flowing locks to Medieval Times for a nice workout with swords. For those that were not Chippendale's dancers, they must have come straight from shooting covers for trashy romance novels. None the less, my point is, while us boys were grunting at the violent action playing out before us the girls were undoubtedly captivated by some other action playing out in their minds.

All in all, the point is that we all really had a pretty good time. It is one of those things that, if you ever get the chance, is probably worth your while. I am glad we added that notch to our belts but I have no designs on returning soon. Although, Ainsley is already trying to convince us to have her birthday party there as well.

Most importantly, Graham had a great time and a spectacular birthday.

Fully rested, we are all ready to get back to purpose.

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