Lamb E Umptum

You know it must be autumn when…..

The monarchs start migrating through. Look what I found on my zinnia the other afternoon. And, it stayed still long enough for me to snap a few pictures.

The Renaissance Festival is back. Thanks to free tickets won by listening to KBIA, I returned to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival after about a ten year boycott. It’s just that the last time I went, it was rainy and the day was so miserable and the ticket prices are so high that I just couldn’t get excited about going again. So, as other family members gleefully went year after year, I happily stayed home. However, free tickets and a free weekend and the chance to parade Sadie around was too tempting so I returned with Steve, Beckie, Steven, Tamara, Jason Bell, and Melanie Johnsen on Saturday. We had a great time and this was Tamara, Jason, and Melanie’s first experience with the Renaissance Festival. The weather was perfect in the shade – a bit warm in the sun but thankfully there was a breeze. The shops, the events, and the scenes at the festival were all the same. I saw someone carrying around a wax hand (really, they still do those?) We savored delicious cinnamon almonds and admired the yummy turkey legs (but no one bought one). We even found our Sarah in one of the shops. Seriously – take a look!

She attended last year and I guess the shop owner took her photo. We attended the Dr. Dumpe show and it was as entertaining as ever. While Steve and I walked out to the car to retrieve our lunches, the others watched the jousting tournament. We also went to the hypnotist show and the Steves were hypnotized just while sitting in the audience! We saw ALL kinds of characters in (and out) of Renaissance costumes attending the festival. And, everyone LOVED Sadie and Max.

I made royal capes and Beckie fashioned royal headpieces for them to wear – which they did for about 40 seconds.

That is also about how long they actually walked, too. Most of the time, they were carried around in purses and backpacks.

Both were very well behaved and both just collapsed in a sleeping heap during the drive home, they were so tuckered out.

It is vet time. Alfred was due for his yearly check-up and rabies shot so I loaded him up in the pet carrier Wednesday morning and he yowled at me all the way there. He is healthy as ever and he now weighs 17.2 pounds!!!! What a lunk.

Not much else to write about this week. Most of you readers already know of Sarah’s big news – that she will come home the end of this week for just two months because she returns to New England to be the Environmental Educator at the Merryspring Nature Center in Camden, Maine from January to mid-November. Both Steve and I are excited about this opportunity for growth, both in her career and personally. The church she will attend is a branch. In fact, the stake she will be in, the Bangor Maine Stake, has twelve units and most are branches – only five wards. So, I know the Rockland Branch will be very happy to have Sarah join their ranks for almost eleven months if only for the fact that she can play the hymns and lead the singing in a functional beat pattern!

Notice I did not say much about the changing leaves. That is because our color this year has so far been very subtle. Supposedly due to the lack of rain. Our backyard maple has only one branch that has turned red. I guess the rest of leaves didn't get the memo.......