Chicago Trip Day 1- the Medieval Times

We started the morning of our trip with a wrap up of swimming lessons for the kids. After lessons we headed out for Chicago. It took longer to get of town than we planned with a few stops to make but we finally got on the road. I have to admit I was a little nervous about doing the trip with all 5 of them but they did great in the car. The only thing that would have made it better is if I could have convince Brenna to actually nap in the car. By the time we got unstuck from traffic and to the hotel she was tired but we had tickets to Medieval Times and we soon headed out for our first grand adventure of the trip.


Medieval Times is a dinner and show with knights, horses, a king and princess. Upon arrival they assign you seats and your seats indicate which Knight you should cheer for. We were assigned to Red and Yellow Knight.
Doesn't he look so friendly, he looks as friendly as he acted too but more about that later. They offer lots of options of extra bonus things you can pay for most of them we decided were not cost effective for a family of 7. We did relent to letting the big boys be officially knighted by the King in honor of their upcoming birthdays. It was really neat and the boys got a big kick out of it.

First up was Sir Landon, he went with out hesitation to kneel before the king and seemed to take it all very seriously.

Then Sir Liam was up. He was much more hesitant and nervous, but soon was kneeling before the King to be officially knighted.


After the knighting ceremony, they opened the doors and we were able to go in and find out seats and get ready for the show and dinner. Dinner is served sans utensils, so now spoons, forks, or knives which made for some interesting eating. Brenna and Liam were not interested in eating at all but Lexi and Landon were all about it.
The dinner was vegetable soup, garlic bread, baby dragon (half a chicken), ribs, and potatoes. As you can see Landon was all about the eating with your hands and the baby dragon. At the end of the meal they were kind enough to bring each of us a warm baby wipe to hose down with but after that they brought this yummy, flaky, apple pie like desert. Brenna and Liam managed to make themselves eat the pie. :)
The show was fun but it was near impossible to get a good picture as it was dark and they were moving and the flash just made the pictures of the heads of the people in front of turn out great but the knights and horses still weren't great. Here is one picture that turned out OK at least you can see the knights and their horses. The show was cute. I missed most of the story of the show between trying to convince Brenna her food was so yummy, taking pictures and trying to hear all the comments Landon and Alexis wanted to share with me. It was still really neat to watch even if I didn't follow the story. The knights were amazing the horses were great. They had different challenges and if your not was the winner the princess would throw him a flower and he in turn would throw the flower to a lucky lady in the audience. Alexis was lucky to be chosen to receive a flower and then the next flower our knight won he gave to Brenna. They both looked so proud of their flowers.
















Wubba was not as thrilled with the whole experience and since it started after his bedtime he was cranky and unhappy and after a little fit went to sleep and missed the whole end of the show, which I am sure Jason was happy about as he was wrestling him in his lap. After the show all of the knights, the king and the princess came out to sign autographs with the fans. We had bought each of the kids a cloth flag and they got autographs on the flags. Our red and yellow knight seemed less than enthused with the autograph portion of his responsibilty and begrudingly obliged to sign for people. That is until little Brenna got up to him and put up her flag for him to sign and he just looked down at her and stared at him. He expected her to say "Could you sign this please" but she just stared back and him and refused to speak and our dear knight refused to sign her flag. So her not so happy Mommy who was shocked at his rudeness may have mumbled something not so nice under her breathe and walked Ms. Brenna over to very nice Princess and King to get her's signed by them.

After we got the autographs it was time to take our new knighted Knights and princesses back to the hotel and prepare for bedtime battle of trying to get them to sleep in a hotel in bed with a sibling. However thankfully the excitement wore off before we got back and they surprised us by quickly going to sleep excited about the next days adventure. Turn in next time to see day 2 of our adventures in Chicago.