Riley has a new obsession: Star Wars. It started when he spotted a big Lego display of Kenny’s one day when he and Grandma were at Phosphor. The display included a Darth Vader minifigure, which Kenny eventually agreed to let Riley have. After he hounded him about it for weeks.
AD#1 has been in town since the end of April and decided she wanted to take the three kids shopping for this year’s birthday presents. She said it would be more fun for her to see them pick out what they wanted, even if it was early (as in Kate’s and Riley’s cases).
So after school one day, she and Nola went off to Toys ‘R Us with the three kids. They came home almost two hours later, the kids super excited and the adults worn out. Kate picked out a bunch of Frozen stuff and Rory picked out this truck:
Riley of course picked out four sets of Legos, three of which were Star Wars themed. He put one set together that night and slowly built the rest of them over the course of the next week.
He has also been after me to let him watch the Star Wars movies, but Kenny and I think he’s too young. I did, however, find a cartoon called Star Wars Rebels. He’s probably still a bit young for even that, but I’m okay with it and it seems to satisfy his obsession.
Then I happened to notice on Facebook that the first weekend in May was Star Wars weekend at the aquarium, complete with an underwater lightsaber battle in the Mayan tunnel. I knew we had to take Riley, so we went on Sunday. We had lunch at Felipe’s first and then walked over to the aquarium.
We went straight up to the otters since we arrived just before their feeding time. The trainer ended the feeding session by giving Star Wars themed ice treats to the two otters: one that looked like a Storm Trooper and one that looked like Darth Vader. Very cool.
There were lots of people walking around in costume, both employees and guests. Riley was impressed by a couple of the Storm Troopers we saw near the otters, but who he really wanted to see was Darth Vader. Kenny and I had to break it to him that we didn’t think DV would be there that day, and Riley was very disappointed.
We continued to explore the upstairs exhibits and eventually decided to head toward the Mayan tunnel to get a spot for the lightsaber show. And wouldn’t you know it, as we were walking to the elevator to go downstairs, we saw him: a completely decked out Darth Vader, with the signature breathing sounds to boot.
Riley was beyond ecstatic to meet Darth. I was afraid the rest of his day would be a letdown after that, but it actually wasn’t. After our encounter with the Dark Side, we went down to the tunnel to get a spot for the battle. I’m glad we got there early; plenty of people had already gathered. While Kenny went to let Rory walk around, Riley and I squeezed into a space right up against the tunnel wall and settled in to wait, taking silly pictures with my phone to pass the time.
Then the show started. Darth Vader entered the water first, with a red lightsaber. After a bit of a costume delay, Yoda and his green lightsaber joined in. Darth Maul and his white lightsaber rounded out the battle trio. The divers’ movements were obviously very slow underwater and I could tell it was awkward for them in their SCUBA gear. But Riley loved it.
He even made friends with a ray before we left to find Kenny and Rory.
Once we were all together again, Kenny and I decided to take the boys outside to play in front of the aquarium by the river. The plaza was recently renovated and a long line of dancing fountains were added. Rory was hesitant at first, but Riley loved that we let him run through the water in his clothes. They both ended up having a great time.
Such a fun day. I won’t forget the look on the wonk potatoes’ face when he saw a life-size Darth Vader standing in front of him for a long time.
