Branson Trip Part 2

Day two of the Branson trip was a bit of a let-down, to tell you the truth. We went to the Butterfly Palace. We thought Elise would LOVE it. She is a fan of bugs, and we went to a smaller-scale exhibit at the STL Zoo last year with PaPoo and Kathy that she really enjoyed.

However, she was NOT a big fan of the butterflies at the Butterfly Palace. She was okay as long as they stayed very far away from her. If they came anywhere remotely close to her, she'd flip out.

I was able to get some deceptively cute pics while we were there, but she seriously didn't have very much fun. We were there about an hour, and then she said she was ready to go.

I would like to say that in no way was the actual Butterfly Palace a let-down. It was a neat place to visit. They had a mirror maze, a jungle maze, a room of jungle lizards, frogs, and the like, all in addition to the Butterfly Palace.

As far as Branson attractions go, it was relatively inexpensive. I got a discount for having a SDC season pass, and Elise was free, so we only spent $40. Sadly, that was $40 for ONE HOUR, thanks to our little scaredy-cat!

Sean had the camera on zoom, so he didn't get much of her face in this pic, but you can see the terror in the upper-left corner of the pic. The other bad thing: the butterflies REALLY liked Elise. We think it is because we had pancakes before we went and knowing Elise she had half-a-bottle of syrup on her shirt.

A bummer end, but overall a GREAT family vacation! Since I have a season pass, we'll be hitting up SDC one more time this year: I can't wait to see Elise's reaction to the Christmas Lights!

Branson Trip Part 1

This weekend, we had our first family vacation just the three of us. Yes, Elise is nearly 3 years old, but this is the first time we really thought she'd enjoy it (and the first time we had the nerve to try!)

We started our adventure at Silver Dollar City. This part of the trip turned out way better than we expected. For one, she was tall enough to ride most all of the children rides with an adult, and for two, NO ACCIDENTS ALL DAY!

Elise is a ride dare-devil like her parents. No ride scared her! She loved the roller coaster with Daddy ("Look, Ma, no hands!"), the swings by herself, and the elephants with Mommy. After she'd finish each ride, she'd say "I want to do it again!"

This is our family before the only ride she DIDN'T really enjoy. It was the pirate ship, and she liked it at first, but we think she started to get queasy because she cried the last two swings of it. She was perfectly fine after it stopped.

I took a pic of these two like this a few years ago at the Branson Landing and decided I wanted another one to compare the two. Let me tell you, Elise has GROWN! :)

This is us before the train. Elise really likes trains in general, so we knew she'd enjoy taking a train ride. She was really vocal and said and did everything the conductor told us to do!

Elise has rode quite a few carousels in her day, and she loves each and every one!

This was Elise's form of transportation when she got tired (which wasn't too often, actually). Daddy didn't want us to have to worry about the stroller, so we didn't take it in. That made me pretty nervous--but she did really good. And we packed light!

Our next stop was our hotel: http://www.castlerockbranson.com/. WHAT A GREAT PLACE FOR FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN! Check out the website--this is the only pic we got of the place :) But the water park is perfect for youngsters. Word to the wise: the big slides require kids to be 42" tall, but Elise didn't even act like she cared that she couldn't go on those. She had plenty of fun on the little slides and in the "river". We were lucky enough to get a 1/2 price deal right before I booked, so we got our room for CHEAP. And water park tickets for the whole family are included in the room!

More details from the trip to come...

Link's FIRST Birthday!

Before we talk about Link's 1st Birthday, I just had to share the cutest pic of the kids in the bath together last week. I kept Link overnight (by myself with TWO kids, AHH!) so his parents could go to the annual Labor Day Weekend horse ride, and they did pretty good together. Until 30 seconds after I took this pic and Elise tried to drown Link. But that's their love/hate relationship :)Link's 1st Birthday was a farm-themed one. The kid loves farms, and Lacy had all sorts of cute decorations. Part of my gift to Link was the cake, and as always I turned to Stephanie Dill who made yet another masterpiece!

Before the party got started, Link and Elise had to try out the noise-makers.

I had to put this one in here: I told Lacy that Link really started looking like her to me this past weekend. The kid gives me the same glares that Lacy has been giving me for 25 years!

Link knows how to mow a cupcake!

To end, this is Link doing one of the things he does best: "driving" his cars and making the little noise. I wish I would've turned on the video camera for this, because it's so darn cute!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, LINK! WE LOVE YOU!

Potty Training Milestone!

We were so thrilled today to hit a Potty Training Milestone: SEVEN DAYS WITHOUT AN ACCIDENT! Unfortunately, this is the second potty chart we made with Elise--she had 4 lines on her last chart, and sadly never made it to the seventh day in a row... until NOW!

We had got an amazing dollhouse from my friend Kristie two months ago. We only showed Elise the outside of the house, folded up, and told her that if she went 7 days in a row without an accident, the dollhouse would be her reward. She called it her "castle" and talked about it often.

Two weeks ago, she made it to the 6th day. About two hours before "deadline", when she would've received her castle, she had an accident :( We were all really bummed, but rules and rules and we are good parents!

Today, Elise's seventh day, she was staying at Nan and Pop's. The great-grandparents' houses have been the biggest challenge--she's having way too much fun when she's there to stop and go to the bathroom. But Nan and Pop were diligent, knowing today was a big day, and when Elise got home, she got her long-awaited-for "castle"!

Unfortunately, we can't call her "potty trained" just yet. She got to play with the castle for 30 minutes while Mommy and Daddy were cooking dinner. While she was playing with it, she pooped her pants, and the castle went back to the garage :( But we told her for every day she doesn't have an accident, we'll get it out and let her play with it. Now that she's actually had some time with it, let's hope it motivates her to truly "get potty-trained"!

Box Fun and Rory

The rest of July was relatively quiet, at least from a picture standpoint. Mommy and Daddy went to KC in the middle of the month to watch Courtney dance at the KC Command game. We went to the lake at the end of the month, which was very relaxing, but we started missing our hilarious girl! Especially when she does things like drink tea, while being a cowgirl in her boxcar.

The Weatheralls came for a visit at the end of the month too--we are SOO excited that by this time next month they will be full-time SW MO residents, but we'll miss our little slumber parties at Chateau de Jackson and Chateau de Weatherall. Of course, the girls will probably still have plenty of slumber parties as their dads both travel and their mommies get lonely! In the pic above, Elise wanted to ride Beast, and she wanted Rory to ride Bug. Rory needed a little help, but seemed to have fun!

We are looking forward to a relatively quiet August, without any major plans in the works. But September will be busy with Link's 1st Birthday, a Jackson Family weekend trip (Location TBD), and maybe even a little more R&R (if we're lucky)!

4th of July Fun!

4th of July weekend in Marshfield is always momentous. It's just how we do 4th of Julys! This year was even more busy than usual because Mommy had her 10 year class reunion on Saturday. Elise had fun staying with Will and Jessie and actually enjoyed fireworks for the first time when they took her to a BBQ that included fireworks!

Elise was dressed in 4th of July outfit #1 for the Family Picnic of the Class of 2001. Only 15 people came out (plus kids) due to the intense heat, but it was still a good time and the kiddos had a great time running around together!

Another reason that 4th of July is such a big deal is because of the Independence Day Parade. It's the longest-running parade west of the Mississippi! There was even a PBS special about it once (I swear--I saw it!) Elise's MawMaw, Mammy, and Nana joined us for the festivities, as well as Jessie and Sean Viets.

Check out that cheese-face! She is ready for the parade and rocking 4th of July outfit #2!

Unfortunately, even though Elise was very excited for the parade and interested in what was going on, she got very tired very fast. She lasted about an hour and a half (20 min of that on Daddy's shoulders) before she declared that she was ready to go home. With the heat and humidity, none of us minded!

We hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend and took some time to reflect with thankfulness on the reason that we celebrate the 4th of July: Independence courtesy of our servicemen and women. God Bless them all, and God Bless America!

Big Girl Bed

It's official. Elise is no longer in her toddler bed. Daddy was her hero tonight (with a little help from her: she likes to use the screwdriver!) when he put together her big girl bed. Sunday, MawMaw and I took her to Penney's to show her all the awesome bedding and let her pick something out for her new bed.

Elise, being a purple-lovin' fool, picked out this lovely ensemble. And being the daughter of a deal-seeking mother and some bargain-loving grandmas and aunts, she picked a set that was on clearance! For the first time in the history of taking baths, Elise was in a hurry to get out, because she was SOOO excited to get tucked in to her new bed. And in case your noticing a similarity, yes, her headboard looks curiously similar to her crib. That's because we invested in a convertible crib. It went from crib to toddler bed to double bed. Someone had suggested we go ahead and buy the rails and everything necessary to convert it to each phase when we originally bought it--which I thought was great advice since that was almost 3 years ago! And for any expectant friends: we HIGHLY recommend the convertible crib. It was awesome, and she still has her matching dresser!Sweet dreams, Princess Pea!