Ft. Sisseton's Mascot

Last weekend Maxim, Brecken and I went to Fort Sisseton Days with my dad and his chuck wagon, which I found out is named "Sweet Sally Sue"...more on that later.

Last year Brecken went with dad and he raved about how much fun he had for a year, so I thought Maxim and I had better go this year. (Steph also had a garage sale last weekend so I wanted to get out of town.)

It is a lot like a Renaissance Festival for Cowboys and 1880's lovers.  We spent the weekend living out of a chuck wagon, cooking off the open fire and eating dessert right out of dutch ovens.  It was interesting to actually "live" the life the settlers in this are probably lived, but I'll take my pillow-top bed over the floor of a chuck wagon any day.

Maxim and Brecken played pretty hard, and for the first time as a parent I kind of just let the boys go and didn't parent them, I didn't tell them to "be careful" or when to eat or not to get too far away.  I let them go.  In our world of "bad people" that is tough to do, you always worry that your child is going to get stolen and end up on a milk carton somewhere.  But I have faith in God to protect my kids and so I let them roam the FORT.

Maxim being the less socially-needy of my 2 boys would come back to camp to check in and check out every 2 hours or so.  He would do what all 1880's prairie-bound boys would do...read another Star Wars book or play his Nintendo DS until the battery drained.  (at one point he actually went 28 hours with out some sort of electronic device and didn't complain)

Brecken on the other hand has become a sort of celebrity at Ft. Sisseton.  He is dressed in cowboy gear the entire time and he is gone the entire time.  He lives off of food he begs from other people, candy, the occasional portion of grilled meat and endless bottles of water.  Otherwise it is 90 mph play time.  Cowboys and Indians, good guy vs. bad guy, and just running all over the place.   Fort Sisseton is a gem of South Dakota and if you have never been there it is well worth the trip.  I want to go back sometime when the festival is not going on and just soak in the history of the area...it is beautiful, I even kicked myself for not bringing along a fishing pole...yeah, me wishing I had a fishing pole.

Here are some images of the weekend.