Butterfly Palace and other vacation tales...

Alright, I'm finally gonna wrap up the recap on the ol' vacation. Just three short weeks after it happened. Anyway, our Friday activity was to go into Branson and see the Butterfly Palace. And while 'Palace' should have been a cost implication, I assumed this was gonna a cost friendly venture since we found $1.00 off coupons to use. As it turns out I was wrong. Really wrong. We paid a silly amount of money to see 2,000 butterflies flit around a tropical room with native plants and birds and waterfalls. The girls were interested for a few minutes, but then Liv was ready to go see the 3-D movie about butterflies and Josie really wanted to hold a butterfly. The 3-D movie sounded good until Grandma reported back that in the end the butterflies were eaten. You know, the circle of life and all. That didn't keep Liv down for too long though, because the Palace also housed a Mirror Maze. We did that about 72,000 times and it never got any easier--those mirrors were tricky. I ran face first into three of them.

After that we were in search of lunch. My only rule for vacation eating is we can't anywhere we could at home. So, we found a place named Charlie's. JACKPOT!! Inside was a huge bull statue thing that had scaffolding and stairs so one could climb and 'ride' the bull. This provided entertainment while lunch cooked. Just look at how much fun Grandma was having! We had to drag her out...but not before she befriended the Indian guarding the front door.

That's about it. Except for all the hours we logged at the pool on the property. I wish I had pictures but it wasn't convenient to have a camera. So, just pretend you've seen us at seven different pools (indoor and out), going down slides (some made of stone and going under waterfalls), and floating in a lazy river. There, now we're done! Josie and Liv still talk about the trip and Liv took her pictures to school for show and tell.

Which brings me to my next life event--Liv started 2nd grade! Stay tuned...

Dogwood Canyon

About thirty minutes away from the Big Cedar is Dogwood Canyon and we took a tram tour through it...we saw caves that contained 8,000 year old Indian remains, waterfalls, streams with huge rainbow trout, deer, elk, longhorn cattle, and buffalo...all with the help of our guide--Canyon Jim. He was the host with the most and some of his jokes (which are the same jokes he uses for every tour says my mom who has been on the tour three times) will live on forever. Anyway. I was worried that the girls would get really bored since this was a several hour long trip. But they didn't. We got to unload to see a wedding chapel, feed fish, and meet some huge animals. The girls were even impressed with the creeks and caves. They were also impressed with the bounty of snacks that we packed. After the tour, we stuck around for lunch and I got to have a buffalo burger--so good!

The Denlers Ride Horses

The lodge we were staying at would let six-year-olds go on full hour rides on their own horse. As soon as I read that statement out loud, Liv knew that was destiny calling. We did horseback riding while Josie napped, and after Dogwood Canyon. Liv opted for a helmet, unfortunately none of them were her size. Liv rode Snickers, I rode Stormy and Kevin rode Bandit. We went on a trail ride with Wrangler Roy. Kevin suspects that 'Roy' was a stage wrangler name..a la Roy Rogers. But, I think, surely not...is there a need for stage wrangler names really? Anyway. There were ten in our group all together and we headed up the rear. All went well until Snickers figured out that his rider weighed 50 lbs. and he could at anytime veer of course for a delicious grassy snack. This exact behavior had been discouraged by Wrangler Roy, but Liv wasn't strong enough to pull him up. Towards the end of the ride, Liv was about over it. Overall, she loved it and feels like a pro now....but my fave part of the ride by far was watching Liv waddle back to the stable after the ride. I wish I had a video...

Our new family picture pose

Josie isn't quite the show pony Liv was a toddler..I never had to ask if I could take a picture of Liv, she was always camera ready. If Josie hears the turn on chime of the camera, she is outta there. Great. So, this is our new family shot. The three of us politely posed and Josie making an escape. Artsy, right?

Big Cedar

So, my delay in posts is largely due to be on vacation...I'm gonna give you the full story, but in parts so I can include lots of pictures of the family in action...but here's a preview: We went to Big Cedar (a really cool resorty type place in the Ozarks, just outside of Branson) on Thursday and stayed through Sunday. During that time we logged thousands of swim hours at about seven different pools, went to the Butterfly Palace, toured Dogwood Canyon and went horseback riding. We stayed at the Roaring River lodge and had so much space. We had a two bedroom, two bath place with a full kitchen and living room connecting the two.

We got to go as guests of my mom, who went with us. So much fun for me hang with my mom and my kids and my husband for so much quality time. Saturday night my mom even stayed with the kids so I could have a date night....but I'm getting ahead of myself. More to come soon....

And Mom, thanks so much for taking us--we had a blast!!

Playdate

Last week we met up with one of Josie's Gymboree play friends--Landry. Landry's big sister is Lauren and she is about a year older than Olivia so everyone had a playmate. At this age, the girls spend more time playing near each other rather than with each other, but they do like to see familiar faces so every had a good time. Josie has never been to Chuck E. Cheese before--for many reasons. First, it's across the river and we Denlers hardly ever venture that direction and secondly I worked at this establishment for about two years in high school . Don't tell anyone, but I actually was Chuck E. Cheese. Which was the best gig there--no uniform required and you're only Chuck five minutes/hour. Down side is Chuck cleans the bathrooms at night, and that is no treat. Anyway, I figure I've done my time there so it never occurs to me as an entertainment option, not to mention the expense. But Gloria, the other mommy, is a Bossier girl and suggested it and had coupons so I was game. Josie didn't even realize the games were something she could play for a while. She just walked around observing, like she was in a museum. Her sister soon schooled her on the ways of the CEC world. We were there for about 2 hours and blew through 175 tokens, and a large pizza and left with an armful of junk from the ticket redemption counter. We had fun, and are going again next week.

I'm living with a giraffe

I know what you're thinking--are you crazy? And believe me, I had the same reservations....where would it hang out in our tiny house, what would i feed it, could i give it a bath, what about bedtime, will the Denler Estate start to smell like a zoo? See, I've considered everything. As it turns out, living with a giraffe has been no problem. He's been here about a month without incident. I wish I had pictures to show you all, but I've never even seen him myself. Josie actually "hears" him first. Then she tells me where he is, and we go look for him. This guy is a hide and seek champ, because every time we get to his hiding spot he's gone. We spend lots of time listening to him rumble around the house. But, thankfully, he never makes a mess and hasn't increased my grocery bill a bit and the Denler Estate doesn't smell like the zoo. When I get Josie out of bed in the morning she normally tells me she slept with the giraffe, but he always manages to slip out before I get there....if anyone catches a glimpse of him, let me know and please send him home to meet the rest of the family!

So, other kids make up imaginary friends to play with, and my kid makes up an imaginary animal who never sticks around long enough to play with us. I love my silly girl...

Stuck on the ground

Josie is a silly girl these days. Especially when she wants to be held. Instead of just asking me to pick her up (which is rarely since she thinks she grown already) she thinks she needs a clever reason to convince me that I should. When we're at the pool, she knows the ground is hot, so I carried her a lot to avoid "hot feet". Well, the hot feet syndrome can no crop up at anytime and surely that's a reason I should pick her up. So, she used that one a lot for a few weeks. Her new favorite reason that I should pick her up is because she is "stuck on the ground". I tried to reason with her once that I was also stuck on the ground, and she assured me that only she needed to be in the air.

Other new Josieisms of late are calling things "delicious"--not just food items. Telling me that's enough, putting her babies in timeout so timeout if full in case she needs to go there later, hopping and ribbiting around the house like a frog, and when our whole family is doing the same thing Josie exclaims, "same, same altogether--I like!". She is at a fun age...most of the time. I'm gonna do her a favor and leave out the story that ended up with nine back to back timeouts for Mommy to win the battle!