A few weeks ago we took a little vacation to Big Cedar Lodge right outside Branson, MO. We actually went there when Felicity was just two
months old, so this was a much different trip with a two
year old. She had a great time and was actually able to enjoy and experience everything. Justin and I agreed her favorite parts of the trip were ordering off the kids menu at the restaurants and watching Lady and the Tramp or "Yady and da Tamp", as she calls it, 14 million times on the 7 hour drive there and back. Technically, I guess we could have done both those things without leaving our hometown, but hey, what are vacations for?
Justin, I'm learning gets extremely giddy to go on road trips. I think its the maps, navigating, planning out the pit stops, etc., but he is quickly becoming king of the road trips. And I have to say, I'm on board. We were well prepared for the drive and hardly had any problems carting the toddler that long. We left Saturday morning at 4:30 a.m. I had a feeling Felicity wouldn't go back to sleep in the car and I was right. She was very quiet for a long time though, until...we had been driving about an hour and it was still pitch dark outside. All of the sudden the smell of skunk filled the car. She's never smelled a skunk before and from the back seat comes her little voice, "Ugh!! What's that smell?!" I agreed with her that it stunk and asked her - "Do you know what that smell is, Felicity?" She said, "Yea! Poop!" It may have just been the early hours or how she said, but Justin and I got the biggest kick out of it.
Once we arrived they had our room ready early which was a nice treat. Felicity actually took a little nap and then we headed out to explore the resort.
Having spent at least 8 summer vacations here growing up, I thought I was really familiar with everything; however, I didn't ever really notice how much there was for little kids. Felicity spotted a park I had never even noticed before and had a great time checking it out.
Love this pic of her crazy-static-slide hair...
Then we enjoyed ice cream treats overlooking the lake...and then off to dinner. Nothing like spoiling your dinner with a little pre-dinner dessert on vacation!
Sunday was Mother's Day and we got an early start hiking through Dogwood Canyon. Two years ago we hiked all six miles pushing Felicity in the stroller, stopping to nurse, etc. This year we knew we would be lucky to get one mile in, since Miss Felicity has deemed herself too big to ride in the stroller. It is a battle to get her to sit in it at all...one that I'm not usually up for, so she generally walks everywhere. This can be very frustrating, as she gets into everything in the stores. We were checking out at Target the other day and I kid you not, she had snuck at least 10 things of cookies, toys, etc. under the buggy. I was like - where did this come from?! But I digress....
We ended up hiking 3 1/2 miles and Felicity hiked for at least 2 miles! We were impressed...and her hiking by the way, is really running. She would not stop running and kept saying, "follow me, guys!!"
Here I am chasing after her...
It was beautiful....stopped here for a little snack.
Getting lots of hugs and kisses from my little lady on Mother's Day! Nothing better!
On Monday Felicity experienced her first theme park!! We went to Silver Dollar City - so much fun! It is set in the 1880's, which I realize might not sound too exciting, but it is super family-friendly, clean and has so much to do. Again, I have so many fond memories here. It was a little difficult to explain to her what a theme park was, so Felicity wasn't sure what was going on right when we got there --
After a few minutes inside though, watching a saloon shoot out, a train go by and eyeing the food, she started to sense this might be something fun. The excitement is building on her face...
Starting off on the carousel --
She wasn't too sure about this boat ride...
But oh how she loved these frogs and caterpillar/butterfly things. We rode these lots! We had to ride the butterflies again and again until she finally got to sit in a pink one. I love seeing daddies crammed into these tiny kid-sized rides. :-)
It was a little annoying because she was 1/4 inch too short to ride a lot of things!!! 35 3/4" just doesn't equal 36"!!! :-( But there was still plenty for her to do and of course, she didn't even realize it. She loved the petting zoo --
One more attempt at a family photo...Fe was not having it.
Such a fun day we had. Our little hooligan is definitely a theme-park lover!
Tuesday was dedicated a little more towards Mom and Dad fun. We hit up the outlets in Branson and scored some good finds for all three of us.
As I mentioned earlier, she loved going to the restaurants every night and getting to pick what she wanted off the kids menu. We would let her have a few choices and then she got to tell the waitress what she wanted to eat. One night the waitress asked her what she wanted and she said, "I NEED pizza and macaroni (pronounced: mac-eeee-roni)." FYI - there are no "I wants" in Fe's vocabulary. She "needs" just about everything. Must work on that. Justin said, "Felicity, why don't you just pick one? Which one do you want?" She replied, "No, I need both, Daddy. Pizza and mac-eeee-roni and I will share." Oh my, trying to work the system already!
We enjoyed every morning relaxing on our balcony with coffee and juice cups.
It really is such a beautiful part of the country I feel often gets overlooked. The Ozarks and Table Rock Lake are hard to beat in my book.
We ended our time at Big Cedar down at the Marina collecting and throwing rocks in the lake. Such sweet memories...
