Busy October

We are deep into October, and the number of local activities available to enjoy is mounting. This past week was quite overwhelming for us, for personal reasons -- maybe I'll blog about that later and maybe I won't. But when the weekend comes, we are always ready to go out and about, partly because it's so difficult to stay home with the boys.

Isn't that sad? Not at all how I had envisioned parenthood. Here they are three and a half, still running roughshod over us. This morning they got into mischief before we dragged ourselves out of bed. When Rocket Boy got up (I have a cold, so was allowed to sleep in a little), he discovered that they had spilled yogurt all over the family room -- on the tinker toys, on the carpet. Why? Why? Why? They really do know better than that.

They just have so much energy, and when you put them together, that energy grows exponentially and they do crazy stupid things.

Anyway, so on the weekends we go out and about.

This weekend we had several activities to choose from. Saturday we decided to go to the Centennial of Naval Aviation Festival at Armitage Airfield at China Lake. This free event would have been a lot of fun, except that it was held in Ridgecrest on a very hot day. No, it wasn't 116, but it was 96. Fortunately, many of the displays and stuff for kids were in or near the gigantic airplane hangar:

But unfortunately, some of the best stuff was outside:

I don't think this picture conveys how hot it was. There was a plane that you could climb into and sit in the cockpit, and Baby A wanted to do that. So we waited in line for, oh, an HOUR, in the sun. I know, it's a dry heat, and there was even a bit of cloud cover (but not over the sun). But after a few hours we were all just a wreck. People were not meant to live in places like this. Yet we do, we do.

Today Rocket Boy and I were both longing for something different, so we went to Tehachapi, which is in the mountains (20 degrees cooler) and has apple orchards. Here we are at Pulford's Appletree Orchard, where we bought a peck of apples (all different varieties), and the little bottle of apple cider that Baby A is holding. It's not Michigan -- I have VERY fond memories of going to apple orchards near Ann Arbor -- but it was still fun.

I'm kind of on an apple kick right now. Fruit is free on Weight Watchers, remember, and an apple a day helps keep the digestive tract healthy. Last night I found a blog all about apples: http://adamapples.blogspot.com. Though he's in Massachusetts and they seem to have somewhat different apples there. Today we bought an apple that he hasn't reviewed yet -- Gold Blush. Looking forward to trying it!

After the apple orchard, we headed home, but since it was only about 3 pm, we decided to stop in California City, where they were having a Renaissance Festival.

I don't know, I guess I've never been a big fan of this kind of thing. Dressing up in Renaissance costumes, going around saying "Prithee" and "Sirrah" -- it just kind of leaves me cold. Except in California City, where it was in the 90s. Ha ha.

Honestly, I was expecting it to be a really pathetic fair, and it wasn't. It looked very nice. Lots of vendor booths, nonstop "entertainment," food and drink. We arrived about 90 minutes before it ended -- it had started Saturday morning -- so there weren't many spectators left and the whole thing was kind of winding down. But it looked as though it had been a very successful fair, or should I say faire.

I don't know, a Renaissance Festival in the middle of the Mojave Desert -- it just seemed weird to me.

But I was tired. We played on the jungle gym for an hour, watched some belly dancing performed by women whose bellies I would rather not have seen, but oh well, and then left before "Whack a Knight" began, because Baby A said he did not want to see any whacking.

I'm so glad tomorrow is Monday.