Fun Times at the Renaissance Festival

Last weekend Lover, my brother, my other brother's girlfriend and her sister and I (are you confused yet?) went to the Sterling Renaissance Festival. We also brought along some other friends, their parents and the friends' kids. What a crowd! However, the friends didn't make it into this picture. :-)

The festival is so much fun, there are tons of shows to watch, shops to browse and impromptu skits in the middle of all of the people.

We love the glass blowing exhibit (so much so that I forgot to take pictures of it!) and this wood shop was pretty cool. Here's my brother looking cool as usual in a chair carved from a tree trunk.

Then I did my best impression of a garden gnome that was also hanging out in this shop.

Dead on, right? I could totally moonlight as a garden gnome. :-) Well, except for the beard. Our favorite show by far is Johnny Fox. He is a sword swallowing- sleight of hand - magician turned comedian. While the sword swallowing is impressive, he is just genuinely funny, and we always laugh our heads off.

Of course, there are beautiful horses at the festival, and most participate in the jousting tournament. Here's my new friend that Lover wouldn't let me bring home. :-)

I was also chosen to be the queen in a Human Chess Match, and we won! My move was the one that checkmated the black, which I am very proud of :-)

And lastly, the obligatory self portrait that we always take on trips. We had such a great time, a great way to spend the weekend!