Stepping Back (in Time)

I dropped Cammie off at a friend's house and took Ben out to an SCA event.  We first spent some time playing at the climbing structure, which has swings and a really fast slide.  After an hour or so, his very good friend, Mr. L showed up with his mom.  While he wasn't too keen on coming to the event at first, he finally agreed since Ben was going to be there, but after a couple of hours, he wanted to come to another event in costume.  Lauri and I sat and chatted for a while (with seemingly constant interruptions from people asking questions, mostly about Ithra, which is undergoing some changes in the near future). I wish we had more time to catch up, but she had to leave around 2:00.

After Ben participated in a scavenger hunt, he discovered the joys of Youth Armored Combat!  He went out and swung a stick for 20 minutes or so.  Jolgeirr, who was in charge of YAC, asked, "why it's taken me nearly three years to get this boy over to the field?"  I laughed, but I think that had he been part of it a couple years ago, it might have been disastrous.  Now that he's had a year or so of Karate under his belt (his purple belt, in just two short weeks!), I think he's got a bit more control.   I know Cammie will LOVE getting involved in YAC as well...maybe I'll introduce her to it at May Crown, if she goes with me, and if they have YAC activities there.  I'll have to do some research.

After he finished with that activity. We said our goodbyes to our friends and hopped in the car and headed back to town.  We stopped to get Ben a jacket, since he left home in his SCA clothes and didn't bring a coat.  While we were at the store, we looked for a nearby Geocache, but this one apparently looks like a small rock...it was a sea of rocks.  We gave it a miss and went on to our dinner date near the border.

We had dinner with Mom & Dad where Dad pulled out a copy of the Naval Special Warfare magazine, the Blast, where he had his story published!  To make things even more interesting, the waiter seemed really familiar...when I first walked in, I was thinking, "Isn't he the guy who used to own that restaurant down the street?"  After we debated it for a bit, I texted Tara (who was at a volleyball tournament and couldn't make it) and asked her what the name of that guy was.  She replied "Mario".  Dad asked, and he confirmed, that he was Mario.

We had a great dinner, great conversation, and the weather held up for the evening, so afterwards, Ben and I went to hunt for a couple more Geocaches (he doesn't like to hunt in the rain--and to be honest, neither do I).  We found one overlooking the water, where this cute snail was hanging out.  I love snails!  I don't know why but these guys are so darn cute and mysterious.  This looks like the same variety of snail that I found up at Mt. St. Helens last summer, but he was about half the size.  After that we another one in a bird feeder before it got too dark to search for more.  It was a long drive home and he was fast asleep when we got there.

Sunday was a slow start, except for Emma's alarm waking me up at 6:15 again.  I could hear it from my bedroom, two closed doors away.  Ugh...  Crawled back in bed.  Went to Burlington around 1 pm to pick up Cammie.  Ben and I searched for four Geocaches before meeting up with them, and grabbed one more after.  I also went to the outlet store and got a few shirts--several of them for $10 each--and a couple pairs of summer pants.

This next week is going to be a little nutty, but we'll manage.  Cammie will be away at camp all week, so it's one less kid to chase after, but we're still double or triple booked for Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  I'm still hoping to do a little sewing tomorrow.  The machine was out to fix a pair of pants, then put away without getting any quilting done.  Maybe between loads of laundry tomorrow.