Sunday, May 25, 2008

Old Ephraim Mountain Man Rendezvous

On Saturday we walked down to the park with the kids because it was the first time since Monday that it wasn't raining. While we were at the park, I had the idea that we should take the kids & go to Willow Park (our "zoo"). Travis suggested we take them to the Mountain Man Rendevous instead. I had never been & neither had the kids. Travis went several times when he was in high school and thought we had gone with the kids once before (I was kind enough to remind him that he was building a house 2 years ago & last year he was crazy insane with work during the summer).
So, we headed back home and loaded up the truck. We weren't sure where to park when we got there so we just parked where we saw vehicles first. Turns out we had to walk 1/2 a mile after we parked! Travis said he knew we could park farther up but he knew I needed the exercise (I told you the pregosaurus comments would kick in soon!)
There weren't a whole lot of people there (we didn't get there until about 4 or so). The kids were pretty excited to see all the people dressed up like cowboys, mountain men, pioneers & Indians. Our neighbors (whose daughter Samantha would be attached to at the hip if I let her) participate in the rendevous every year. Samantha was pretty excited to see her little friend Jolie dressed up like a little Indian girl. At one point we even saw a lady with the carrying contraption on her back with a baby (papoose) in it. Samantha thought that was pretty crazy to carry a baby on your back like that!
We walked around for awhile and the kids got a kick out of seeing all the stuff for trade/sale. Somewhere they were shooting guns & occassionally a cannon would go off. Nash wasn't too sure about the cannon! We ended up getting Nash a wood machete (I'll take slivers over lost appendages any day!) & Samantha picked out a butterfly ring. Travis found himself a powder horn that he can take hunting with him this fall. (Did I ever mention he drew out for the big game draw? He's still grinning ear to ear about that one!)
Anyway, we had a good time and if it hadn't rained all week I think there would have been a lot more people there (personally I'm glad there wasn't more people there!).