So you should listen......
Well, I don't think that needs any further explanation, do you?
7/7/11
Our Little Fur Family
When I was young, my grandmother had one of the original editions of the book, the Little Fur Family. It was a small book, covered in soft rabbit fur and was about a tiny little fur child. I absolutely adored it! One year, my aunt gave me my own copy of the book. How exciting! The big difference is that my edition is covered in faux fur. Even though that rabbit fur is lovely to pet, the faux thing is probably for the best since, according to wikipedia, an estimated 15,000 bunnies were killed and skinned to cover those books. Yikes!
In any case, my Little Fur Family book stays in it's box and is used as a decorative piece on the lawyers shelves I have in the sun room. It's now a special treat for Dylan to get to pull the box off the shelf and then pull the fur book out for reading time. He seems to adore it almost as much as I did as a child. It's fun to pass on those types of memories\loves to your child!
What does the Fur Family book have to do with this post? Other than what I just said, not a thing. I actually came up with the title to tell about a different fur family in our lives but just couldn't resist sharing that bit of family memorabilia.
Here's the story of our fur family.
Mike's been leaving food out for (what we think is) a stray neighborhood cat for several months. Sometimes we see the black kitty come up in the evening to nibble from the bowl. However, in the last several months, we've had another critter come to eat the free food - a raccoon! He visited frequently enough that we felt we should name him. As we sat watching him through the back door one night, Mike and I were throwing around some names - Bob, Bill, etc. when Dylan yelled out "Kafu!" I think that was his way of saying raccoon but the name seemed to fit the bill. Kafu it is.
A month or so ago, we realized Kafu is not a he. Kafu is a she and she was apparently nursing some babies somewhere. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we got a glimpse of the whole family - Kafu and 4 babies, crawling over our back fence. I grabbed the camera and Mike and I tried to watch them for a while but they quickly bustled over more fences and into other neighbor's yards out of sight. We decided to put out some food on the porch and wait.
Lo and behold, a little while later, Kafu came up for dinner. Soon, a baby followed her up the stairs!
And another and another and another until all 4 babies were there hoping to grab some morsels.
Kafu was not sharing her find so Mike kept opening the door and throwing out handfuls of cat food at the kiddos. Soon, we got very brave (or very stupid), and watched them chow with the door opened. As they were very quick to jump back at even the slightest movement from us and the door was in good slamming position, it wasn't all that dangerous of a situation.
After the food was gone, they left. We haven't seen them since. I know lots of folks don't think raccoons are great to have flitting about your property and they're probably right. But, these guys have yet to cause us any harm or headache and have provided us with some great entertainment. So, we're happy to have them to visit as long as this relationship continues in that fashion. They are our little fur family.
In any case, my Little Fur Family book stays in it's box and is used as a decorative piece on the lawyers shelves I have in the sun room. It's now a special treat for Dylan to get to pull the box off the shelf and then pull the fur book out for reading time. He seems to adore it almost as much as I did as a child. It's fun to pass on those types of memories\loves to your child!
What does the Fur Family book have to do with this post? Other than what I just said, not a thing. I actually came up with the title to tell about a different fur family in our lives but just couldn't resist sharing that bit of family memorabilia.
Here's the story of our fur family.
Mike's been leaving food out for (what we think is) a stray neighborhood cat for several months. Sometimes we see the black kitty come up in the evening to nibble from the bowl. However, in the last several months, we've had another critter come to eat the free food - a raccoon! He visited frequently enough that we felt we should name him. As we sat watching him through the back door one night, Mike and I were throwing around some names - Bob, Bill, etc. when Dylan yelled out "Kafu!" I think that was his way of saying raccoon but the name seemed to fit the bill. Kafu it is.
A month or so ago, we realized Kafu is not a he. Kafu is a she and she was apparently nursing some babies somewhere. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we got a glimpse of the whole family - Kafu and 4 babies, crawling over our back fence. I grabbed the camera and Mike and I tried to watch them for a while but they quickly bustled over more fences and into other neighbor's yards out of sight. We decided to put out some food on the porch and wait.
Lo and behold, a little while later, Kafu came up for dinner. Soon, a baby followed her up the stairs!
And another and another and another until all 4 babies were there hoping to grab some morsels.
 |
| Kafu in the back, babies in the front. |
After the food was gone, they left. We haven't seen them since. I know lots of folks don't think raccoons are great to have flitting about your property and they're probably right. But, these guys have yet to cause us any harm or headache and have provided us with some great entertainment. So, we're happy to have them to visit as long as this relationship continues in that fashion. They are our little fur family.
7/6/11
Happy 2nd Birthday, Dylan!
We have had a very busy last week hosting my parents (who just hopped on a plane home tonight), throwing Dylan a 2nd birthday party and, most importantly, celebrating his actual birthday today! He's officially hit the 2 year mark (as of 1 something this a.m.) and, so far, isn't really living up to that "terrible" title yet. Sure, he's testing he's boundaries and exerting his preferences but that's just part of becoming his own person. For the most part, he's still pretty good at listening and is fun to be around.
His vocabulary continues to grow leaps and bounds daily. In addition to picking up words for new objects, we've heard him use correct pronouns on occasion. For instance, I asked him if the drink was mine and he said "drink yours." He's also picked up some phrases from us that he likes to use. His current favorite (which has officially surpassed "uh-oh" and "oh-no") is "ah nuts!" Very cute to hear!
Not only does he parrot our words and words he hears in movies, but he's also starting to pick up the inflection on them and repeat that. One of his favorite dvds to watch is Mater's Tall Tales (a spin off from the Cars movie starting Tow Mater). By far his favorite of these tales is the one where Mater is a monster truck called "Tormentor." Dylan will say it like the announcer does - "TOR-MEN-TOR!"
In his play, we're also starting to see his imagination at work. He likes to recreate scenes from his favorite movies with his toys (like the tractor tipping scene from Cars). Another skill he's learned recently is jumping. He likes to use that new skill to pretend to be a frog and hop around while saying "ribbit." Pretend play is a pretty huge advance in his little brain waves I think.
An unfortunate event that happened while my parents were here was a somewhat major injury. Dylan did get his first black eye a while back but that didn't seem to bother him much after the initial incident (but bothered us a lot because it looked so sad). Friday morning, Dylan was counting the paint cans by the half bath that Mike's been finishing repainting, picked up one of the quart size cans that was still about half full and dropped it on his big toe. Ouch! The poor guy's big toenail filled up with blood and he was literally writhing in pain. It was just horrible. Thankfully, this has happened to his Dad many times with his years of soccer experience and he knew just what to do. While I just wanted to leave it alone and not touch it, Mike convinced me he needed to try and cut the toe nail to see if he could get to the blood and release the pressure. With tears in our eyes, I held Dylan while Mike bravely did this. He was able to get to it and Dylan started calming almost immediately as the pressure of the blood was relieved. Whew! However, the injury is still haunting him as he continues to limp on that foot from time to time. Poor guy!
On a much happier note, the toe did not bother him so much that he wasn't able to have tons of fun with his grandparents while they were here. An event I'll blog about more in depth, we went on a little hike in the glacial caves on top of Loon Mountain. There were a lot of stairs and some hiking path terrain that Dylan attacked full force. I think we may have a little hiker on our hands. Perhaps we won't be carrying him up mountains in a back pack for too much longer!
Other things we've noticed over the last month. I think he's becoming more shy with new people and in bigger crowds. It's always taken a few minutes for him to warm up but I think he's even a bit more shy now. It was especially apparent at his birthday party (which I'll blog more about) when he really did not want to be the center of attention. I'm not sure if this is a phase or his personality coming through. I suppose only time will tell. Also, the boy has started running on fumes. He really hasn't seemed to eat much at all lately. I don't know where he's getting his energy. The good thing is, the things he does prefer to eat are generally healthy choices. Like his Mom, he seems to prefer veggies over anything else. In fact, the only thing he ate on his birthday (other than some cake), was a whole cucumber. Tomatoes and cucumbers seem to be favorites to eat on most days. What a lucky gal I am!
While we had Dylan's big birthday bash on Sunday, we did want to do something very special for the day of. We drove back from NH this morning and had a while before needing to take Mimaw and Pipaw to the airport. As it was a pretty hot day, we decided a nice air conditioned theater would be nice. So, Dylan went to see his very first movie in the theater - Cars 2. He did great! The second we sat down, he seemed absolutely mesmerized by the large screen. And, for the first hour and a half, he sat very still in a lap or a chair, talked about what was going on with the screen (it was a pretty empty auditorium so I don't think the kid chatter bothered anyone) and was happy. After that, he needed to move around a bit and played with the toy cars he had brought in and walked them up and down the aisle. As he was happy and we didn't seem to be ruining anyone elses experience, I think his first movie viewing experience was a great success!
The last 2 years certainly have been a whirlwind. Having a kid has, obviously, been a life changing experience for Mike and I. A lot about it is tough, mentally and physically, but I never imagined that in spite of the challenge having Dylan has been the most joyful thing we've ever experienced. He makes us laugh so much and so often that I feel like our house is always a happy place. And the love....I suppose other parents are the only ones that can truly understand it (and I'm convinced that no one can love their kid as much as I love Dylan). As cheesy as it sounds, he just fills our hearts so full that they may just burst one day. He is an awesome kid and we are so happy, blessed, lucky....name any great word, to have him in our lives.
His vocabulary continues to grow leaps and bounds daily. In addition to picking up words for new objects, we've heard him use correct pronouns on occasion. For instance, I asked him if the drink was mine and he said "drink yours." He's also picked up some phrases from us that he likes to use. His current favorite (which has officially surpassed "uh-oh" and "oh-no") is "ah nuts!" Very cute to hear!
Not only does he parrot our words and words he hears in movies, but he's also starting to pick up the inflection on them and repeat that. One of his favorite dvds to watch is Mater's Tall Tales (a spin off from the Cars movie starting Tow Mater). By far his favorite of these tales is the one where Mater is a monster truck called "Tormentor." Dylan will say it like the announcer does - "TOR-MEN-TOR!"
In his play, we're also starting to see his imagination at work. He likes to recreate scenes from his favorite movies with his toys (like the tractor tipping scene from Cars). Another skill he's learned recently is jumping. He likes to use that new skill to pretend to be a frog and hop around while saying "ribbit." Pretend play is a pretty huge advance in his little brain waves I think.
An unfortunate event that happened while my parents were here was a somewhat major injury. Dylan did get his first black eye a while back but that didn't seem to bother him much after the initial incident (but bothered us a lot because it looked so sad). Friday morning, Dylan was counting the paint cans by the half bath that Mike's been finishing repainting, picked up one of the quart size cans that was still about half full and dropped it on his big toe. Ouch! The poor guy's big toenail filled up with blood and he was literally writhing in pain. It was just horrible. Thankfully, this has happened to his Dad many times with his years of soccer experience and he knew just what to do. While I just wanted to leave it alone and not touch it, Mike convinced me he needed to try and cut the toe nail to see if he could get to the blood and release the pressure. With tears in our eyes, I held Dylan while Mike bravely did this. He was able to get to it and Dylan started calming almost immediately as the pressure of the blood was relieved. Whew! However, the injury is still haunting him as he continues to limp on that foot from time to time. Poor guy!
On a much happier note, the toe did not bother him so much that he wasn't able to have tons of fun with his grandparents while they were here. An event I'll blog about more in depth, we went on a little hike in the glacial caves on top of Loon Mountain. There were a lot of stairs and some hiking path terrain that Dylan attacked full force. I think we may have a little hiker on our hands. Perhaps we won't be carrying him up mountains in a back pack for too much longer!
Other things we've noticed over the last month. I think he's becoming more shy with new people and in bigger crowds. It's always taken a few minutes for him to warm up but I think he's even a bit more shy now. It was especially apparent at his birthday party (which I'll blog more about) when he really did not want to be the center of attention. I'm not sure if this is a phase or his personality coming through. I suppose only time will tell. Also, the boy has started running on fumes. He really hasn't seemed to eat much at all lately. I don't know where he's getting his energy. The good thing is, the things he does prefer to eat are generally healthy choices. Like his Mom, he seems to prefer veggies over anything else. In fact, the only thing he ate on his birthday (other than some cake), was a whole cucumber. Tomatoes and cucumbers seem to be favorites to eat on most days. What a lucky gal I am!
While we had Dylan's big birthday bash on Sunday, we did want to do something very special for the day of. We drove back from NH this morning and had a while before needing to take Mimaw and Pipaw to the airport. As it was a pretty hot day, we decided a nice air conditioned theater would be nice. So, Dylan went to see his very first movie in the theater - Cars 2. He did great! The second we sat down, he seemed absolutely mesmerized by the large screen. And, for the first hour and a half, he sat very still in a lap or a chair, talked about what was going on with the screen (it was a pretty empty auditorium so I don't think the kid chatter bothered anyone) and was happy. After that, he needed to move around a bit and played with the toy cars he had brought in and walked them up and down the aisle. As he was happy and we didn't seem to be ruining anyone elses experience, I think his first movie viewing experience was a great success!
The last 2 years certainly have been a whirlwind. Having a kid has, obviously, been a life changing experience for Mike and I. A lot about it is tough, mentally and physically, but I never imagined that in spite of the challenge having Dylan has been the most joyful thing we've ever experienced. He makes us laugh so much and so often that I feel like our house is always a happy place. And the love....I suppose other parents are the only ones that can truly understand it (and I'm convinced that no one can love their kid as much as I love Dylan). As cheesy as it sounds, he just fills our hearts so full that they may just burst one day. He is an awesome kid and we are so happy, blessed, lucky....name any great word, to have him in our lives.
6/23/11
Old Vs New\Complete Burnout
67 As of Tuesday, that is the approximate number of houses that we have seen. Well, actually, that I have seen. While Dylan and Mike saw most of those with me, there were a few open house days where Dylan and I went to a few stops before Mike was able to meet up with us post soccer and last weekend we had a sitter over to play with Dylan while we went and looked at a few places. But, for the most part, all 3 of us have trekked through 67 houses in two months. We made one offer (that we knew wouldn't be accepted) and have one house still in our heads that we're contemplating making an offer on. But, other than that, it has been 67 of it's "not our house."
Oh, and that 67 is approximate, meaning there were probably more. We didn't actually try and start counting them up until last weekend. It was then that we counted 54 listing sheets we had collected. We didn't have any of the listing sheets from our first weekend out of open houses, where we went to an ambitious 10 open houses. Then, we went to 3 more houses on Tuesday. I know there are other houses that we don't remember and don't have the listing sheet for so the number we've seen is likely more upwards in the 70s.
The house hunt started at the end of April, which means we've been at it for two months. Two months of seeing houses during my lunch break, seeing houses after work, seeing houses with 3 different agents in multiple towns, going to open houses on Saturday's and Sunday's and countless hours of Mike and I hunting separately and together on line.
At first, we knew exactly what we wanted. An old home with great curb appeal, character, preferably a turret (what I can say, we both think turrets are super cool), within walking distance to some sort of town center and that has been renovated or is priced well enough that we could renovate before moving in. As you probably know, we have spent A LOT of time, money and effort over the last six and a half years completely renovating our house. It's updated, it's modernized and it's to our taste. While we love the end result, our lives are a little different now. With a kiddo in our house and our free time limited, renovations are just not something we want to live through right now. So, we've been looking for that and what we've realized is that they're just not redone to our tastes. It's hard to have to pay top dollar for something "done" that we don't really like all that much.
After searching for the perfectly renovated older home needle in a haystack, we decided to broaden our horizons a bit and look at newer homes or (gasp) new builds. This was a HUGE turn in events for me. My opinion on new builds has always been soulless, generic, boring, blah! No offense to those out there with lovely new homes, it was just never floated my boat. But here's the deal. It's almost impossible to find a floor plan that will work with our family with our older home criteria being met. We haven't given up on that old home just yet, but we're starting to explore the idea of a new home but only if we're involved in the process early enough to be able to choose all the finishings in the place. I still haven't walked into a new home and got a "yeah, this is our house" feeling but I haven't walked into any older houses in the last 65 plus that we've seen and said that either. So, we're just trying to weigh all the options and figure out what we want to do for our family.
However, there's one little problem. I don't care anymore! I am SO incredibly burnt out on this process that I walk into every house and say "enh!" No excitement, no strong feelings about any house one way or another. Either my emotional response is totally broken, I'm not going to have an emotional response at all since my logical side has completely taken over, or the complete burn out has taken over leaving me to not really give a crap either way. My theory is that it's the last option so I'm taking some time off. Mike's still happy to go out and house hunt and we both have to like the house anyway, so I'm letting him take a first pass at any options on our plate. Since we decided that on Tuesday, Mike has gone out to see 2 houses. And, you know what? I'm not jealous at all.....I'm SO glad that I didn't have to go as well!
Hopefully this break from it all will last and I'll have the mind set to go out again and enjoy the hunt. It's kind of sad because house hunting has always been a hobby of mine and this has just taken all the joy out of it. I mean, I used to go to open houses for fun and 90% of what I watch is HGTV - house hunting and home decor is something I used to like having on my mind. Now, though, I want to have nothing to do with it. Sigh. We'll see how many days I'll successfully be able to take off from the search. In the meantime, though, I need to find something else to watch on TV because the only thing left on my tivo queue is House Hunters!
Oh, and that 67 is approximate, meaning there were probably more. We didn't actually try and start counting them up until last weekend. It was then that we counted 54 listing sheets we had collected. We didn't have any of the listing sheets from our first weekend out of open houses, where we went to an ambitious 10 open houses. Then, we went to 3 more houses on Tuesday. I know there are other houses that we don't remember and don't have the listing sheet for so the number we've seen is likely more upwards in the 70s.
The house hunt started at the end of April, which means we've been at it for two months. Two months of seeing houses during my lunch break, seeing houses after work, seeing houses with 3 different agents in multiple towns, going to open houses on Saturday's and Sunday's and countless hours of Mike and I hunting separately and together on line.
At first, we knew exactly what we wanted. An old home with great curb appeal, character, preferably a turret (what I can say, we both think turrets are super cool), within walking distance to some sort of town center and that has been renovated or is priced well enough that we could renovate before moving in. As you probably know, we have spent A LOT of time, money and effort over the last six and a half years completely renovating our house. It's updated, it's modernized and it's to our taste. While we love the end result, our lives are a little different now. With a kiddo in our house and our free time limited, renovations are just not something we want to live through right now. So, we've been looking for that and what we've realized is that they're just not redone to our tastes. It's hard to have to pay top dollar for something "done" that we don't really like all that much.
After searching for the perfectly renovated older home needle in a haystack, we decided to broaden our horizons a bit and look at newer homes or (gasp) new builds. This was a HUGE turn in events for me. My opinion on new builds has always been soulless, generic, boring, blah! No offense to those out there with lovely new homes, it was just never floated my boat. But here's the deal. It's almost impossible to find a floor plan that will work with our family with our older home criteria being met. We haven't given up on that old home just yet, but we're starting to explore the idea of a new home but only if we're involved in the process early enough to be able to choose all the finishings in the place. I still haven't walked into a new home and got a "yeah, this is our house" feeling but I haven't walked into any older houses in the last 65 plus that we've seen and said that either. So, we're just trying to weigh all the options and figure out what we want to do for our family.
However, there's one little problem. I don't care anymore! I am SO incredibly burnt out on this process that I walk into every house and say "enh!" No excitement, no strong feelings about any house one way or another. Either my emotional response is totally broken, I'm not going to have an emotional response at all since my logical side has completely taken over, or the complete burn out has taken over leaving me to not really give a crap either way. My theory is that it's the last option so I'm taking some time off. Mike's still happy to go out and house hunt and we both have to like the house anyway, so I'm letting him take a first pass at any options on our plate. Since we decided that on Tuesday, Mike has gone out to see 2 houses. And, you know what? I'm not jealous at all.....I'm SO glad that I didn't have to go as well!
Hopefully this break from it all will last and I'll have the mind set to go out again and enjoy the hunt. It's kind of sad because house hunting has always been a hobby of mine and this has just taken all the joy out of it. I mean, I used to go to open houses for fun and 90% of what I watch is HGTV - house hunting and home decor is something I used to like having on my mind. Now, though, I want to have nothing to do with it. Sigh. We'll see how many days I'll successfully be able to take off from the search. In the meantime, though, I need to find something else to watch on TV because the only thing left on my tivo queue is House Hunters!
6/22/11
Branson Day 4 - Park Play and Goodbye
On Saturday, June 4th, we were spending the last of our time with Jody's family before we left to fly back to Boston. Our condo had a VERY strict policy of being checked out by 10 am (seriously, there was a $200 charge if you hadn't) so we got up, ready, packed and out of our hotel. We handed in our keys to the front desk at 9:55 and made the 1 mile drive to Jody's condo. For the next few hours, we took in the extreme heat and played outside.
Once we were all thoroughly burning up and starting to get hungry, we went inside for the traditional cousins on the couch picture. I had to include a series to show how tough it is to get 2 little ones to cooperate for long enough to get a decent shot.
With our bellies rumbling we headed to the restaurant down the street that was "home of the tossed rolls." True to their sign, they threw rolls across the restaurant to you. It was entertaining. Then it was time for us to start our trek home. Though sad to leave the gang, we were looking forward to getting home to cooler temps and more regular sleep schedules.
It was quite a long rest of the day home. First we returned our rental car, took the long shuttle ride back to the terminal (with Dylan catching some zzz's) only to realize our car seat hadn't made it onto the shuttle with the rest of our luggage, waited outside security until the next shuttle came with the seat (Dylan had woken up by now), and made it through security just in time to board our airplane (the airport suggests to arrive 30 minutes before departure...if only it was so easy at every departure). Branson's not the easiest of locales to fly to so, of course, our flight wasn't direct. We had a couple of hours to burn at the Baltimore airport so we had some dinner, Dylan entertained himself watching some of the fun things in Brookstone and then got changed into his jammies.
By the time we boarded our 2nd flight out at 9:30, Dylan pronounced "airplane all done." I felt that way too but alas we weren't done until we were home. The jammies didn't induce the sleep we thought they would on the hour flight but he did finally fall asleep during our final descent. When waiting to deboard (you know, with all the room you have to stand and move around in your plane seat), I somewhat ungracefully transferred the sleeping boy to the pack I where him in to easily transport him when we're traveling. This, of course, woke him up and started him crying. All the folks around us started at us like I was torturing the child. I mean, come on! He's 1 year old and it's 10:30 at night...what did these people expect him to do?!? Maybe it was the long day taking it's toll on me, but it really irritated me to be judged by all those stupid people and it took me some time to shake it off.
Anyway, after finally getting off the plane, collecting our belongings, catching the shuttle to our car and making the 30 minute drive, we FINALLY arrived home! Dylan transferred very easily (and happily) to bed as did we shortly thereafter. We really had a fun time playing with Jody's bunch but man our travel days were not the easiest or shortest. When are they going to invent teleportation already?
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| Swinging with Uncle Jody |
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| Cousins Swingin' |
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| Seriously Cute Reece and Presley |
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| Jody Testing Out the Durability of the Play Set |
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| Presley Taking a Turn on the Swing with Dylan (Dylan didn't share his swing with anyone that morning...he was staying put.) |
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| Ryker Pushing Dylan |
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| Marcy and Reece Playing Shuffleboard |
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| Dylan's Hiding |
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| The Winner! |
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| Wiggly Ryker |
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| Two Wiggly Little Boys |
It was quite a long rest of the day home. First we returned our rental car, took the long shuttle ride back to the terminal (with Dylan catching some zzz's) only to realize our car seat hadn't made it onto the shuttle with the rest of our luggage, waited outside security until the next shuttle came with the seat (Dylan had woken up by now), and made it through security just in time to board our airplane (the airport suggests to arrive 30 minutes before departure...if only it was so easy at every departure). Branson's not the easiest of locales to fly to so, of course, our flight wasn't direct. We had a couple of hours to burn at the Baltimore airport so we had some dinner, Dylan entertained himself watching some of the fun things in Brookstone and then got changed into his jammies.
By the time we boarded our 2nd flight out at 9:30, Dylan pronounced "airplane all done." I felt that way too but alas we weren't done until we were home. The jammies didn't induce the sleep we thought they would on the hour flight but he did finally fall asleep during our final descent. When waiting to deboard (you know, with all the room you have to stand and move around in your plane seat), I somewhat ungracefully transferred the sleeping boy to the pack I where him in to easily transport him when we're traveling. This, of course, woke him up and started him crying. All the folks around us started at us like I was torturing the child. I mean, come on! He's 1 year old and it's 10:30 at night...what did these people expect him to do?!? Maybe it was the long day taking it's toll on me, but it really irritated me to be judged by all those stupid people and it took me some time to shake it off.
Anyway, after finally getting off the plane, collecting our belongings, catching the shuttle to our car and making the 30 minute drive, we FINALLY arrived home! Dylan transferred very easily (and happily) to bed as did we shortly thereafter. We really had a fun time playing with Jody's bunch but man our travel days were not the easiest or shortest. When are they going to invent teleportation already?
6/21/11
Branson - Day 3 (Part II) - Marvel Cave\Little FIsh
I hope to wrap up our Branson trip posts this week. With the time suck of looking for a house, I've had none of that leisure time stuff to focus on my blog. I know, I know, I need to get my priorities straight, right? So, without further ado, here are our fun cave pictures from Branson.
After the fun of the morning playing in the ball pit, the group split ways. Presley, Ryker and Marcy went off to explore other areas of Silver Dollar City while Jody, Reece, Mike, Dylan and I headed to wait in line for Marvel Caves. Apparently, this would not be my first visit to the caves. However, since I was a wee little thing, just 1 and a half-ish years old, it would be the first time I'd remember my trip to the cave. As proof of my first visit there, my Mom sent me the group picture that they took for every tour back in the day:
Although we did line up on the same platform where that picture was taken, we just got our introduction to our tour guides there, some basic info on our trek and then continued on into the cave. Today, they take a picture of just your party inside the first big room in the cave:
When you first enter Marvel Caves, you are in a VERY large cave "room" that they call the cathedral room. It is quite impressive to come in from the top of that room, see the formations in the distance that millions of years of cave activity have formed, descend many many stairs to the base of that room and then see the light peeking in from the outside. Dylan was very excited to see the first formation from afar and deemed it to look like a dragon!
While we were waiting in line for our tour, Dylan had a bit of a melt down (thanks to not having good night sleep or naps for days at this point) and we almost abandoned the trip. However, once we were on the move (and stayed on the move), he was fine and actually really enjoyed the tour. We always ended up at the back of the group and only caught the tail end of what the tour guide stopped to tell folks, which worked out fine for wiggly Dylan since we were never forced to stand still for long. Plus, Jody and Reece had already had a tour earlier during their trip that week (with a more experienced tour guide) and filled us in on all the interesting stories.
There were more than a couple of times I got pretty nervous with a toddler (holding his lovey) being just on the other side of a railing to a very long drop off. I definitely kept a tight hold on him (when I wasn't actually holding him) and also grabbed onto his lovey ("yaya") several times as well. If that lovey had been thrown over into the deep abysses, we would have NEVER seen it again! That loss would have been even bigger than the loss of Mike's IPhone on the roller coaster earlier that day.
After our fun cave tour, we met back up with the rest of our gang and called it a day at Silver Dollar City. We went back to our respective hotels. Then Mike, Dylan and I headed over to Jody's hotel and headed to the pool to cool off. Dylan was more interested in showing off his guns and moving the patio furniture around.
All the other kids (and dads) had fun cooling off as well. I'm not much of a pool person so I mostly followed Dylan around while he played with the patio table. Then, it was burgers on the grill and watching Tangled at the condo.
This was our last full day with Jody's gang and we only had the next morning left to hang out and play with them.
After the fun of the morning playing in the ball pit, the group split ways. Presley, Ryker and Marcy went off to explore other areas of Silver Dollar City while Jody, Reece, Mike, Dylan and I headed to wait in line for Marvel Caves. Apparently, this would not be my first visit to the caves. However, since I was a wee little thing, just 1 and a half-ish years old, it would be the first time I'd remember my trip to the cave. As proof of my first visit there, my Mom sent me the group picture that they took for every tour back in the day:
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| Marvel Caves 1978 Burch Family Trip The red arrows indicate where our groups was standing...spread out all over the place. Top Row - My Pipaw Burch, my Mom holding brother Jamie, my Mimaw Burch, my Dad with me in a backpack. Bottom Row - Jody standing with the other kids. |
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| Me, Dylan, Mike, Reece and Jody |
When you first enter Marvel Caves, you are in a VERY large cave "room" that they call the cathedral room. It is quite impressive to come in from the top of that room, see the formations in the distance that millions of years of cave activity have formed, descend many many stairs to the base of that room and then see the light peeking in from the outside. Dylan was very excited to see the first formation from afar and deemed it to look like a dragon!
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| Light Peering Into the Cathedral Room |
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| Looking Down - That Line is the Covered Path WAY Down at the Bottom of the Cathedral Room |
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| The Dragon! |
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| Me, Dylan and Reece in Front of the (Not Seen) Dragon |
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| Looking Up to the Top of the Cathedral Room |
There were more than a couple of times I got pretty nervous with a toddler (holding his lovey) being just on the other side of a railing to a very long drop off. I definitely kept a tight hold on him (when I wasn't actually holding him) and also grabbed onto his lovey ("yaya") several times as well. If that lovey had been thrown over into the deep abysses, we would have NEVER seen it again! That loss would have been even bigger than the loss of Mike's IPhone on the roller coaster earlier that day.
After our fun cave tour, we met back up with the rest of our gang and called it a day at Silver Dollar City. We went back to our respective hotels. Then Mike, Dylan and I headed over to Jody's hotel and headed to the pool to cool off. Dylan was more interested in showing off his guns and moving the patio furniture around.
Mike was able to get him in the pool for just little bits here and there though.
All the other kids (and dads) had fun cooling off as well. I'm not much of a pool person so I mostly followed Dylan around while he played with the patio table. Then, it was burgers on the grill and watching Tangled at the condo.
This was our last full day with Jody's gang and we only had the next morning left to hang out and play with them.
6/17/11
Branson - Day 3 (Part 1)
On the 3rd day of our Branson vacation, we went back to Silver Dollar City. It had been the plan to spend most of our time together there as it was a great place for everyone to get to do something they enjoyed. So, we bought season passes as it was less expensive then buying two one day passes. Most of our time that second day was spend in Geyser Gulch. There were water pistols that the older kids liked playing with and the young boys, well, they were in ball heaven!
Last summer, we went to Storyland in NH where Dylan enjoyed playing the Loopy Lab. Geyser Gulch had the same concept of ball play and he and Ryker just had a blast. We had to have been in this area for over an hour! For a good part of it, Dylan was enthralled with the ball vacuum:
The woman that worked the area and kept it all functioning had a great plan to a) give the boys to get a fun surprise and b) get a great photo op for me. She filled her big net with foam balls and then positioned it right over Dylan's head and then......
The next part of the day was my favorite part of the park - Marvel Cave! Stayed tuned for tomorrow's post on that.
Last summer, we went to Storyland in NH where Dylan enjoyed playing the Loopy Lab. Geyser Gulch had the same concept of ball play and he and Ryker just had a blast. We had to have been in this area for over an hour! For a good part of it, Dylan was enthralled with the ball vacuum:
The woman that worked the area and kept it all functioning had a great plan to a) give the boys to get a fun surprise and b) get a great photo op for me. She filled her big net with foam balls and then positioned it right over Dylan's head and then......
He thought it was pretty funny! Then it was Ryker's turn for the surprise!
Also a big hit with him!
The next part of the day was my favorite part of the park - Marvel Cave! Stayed tuned for tomorrow's post on that.
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