| Monday, September 05, 2005 |
| room with a view |
12 hours I've been working on getting Blogger to post this. Hopefully this one will finally take...
Hello, and welcome back to the Baby Lauren blog! Betcha thought we'd left forever, huh? No, we just decided to take a very well deserved vacation to the land of outlet malls and wacky entertainment. No, not Neverland Ranch. I'm talking Yakov Smirnov and Dolly Parton. That's her in the shirt. And since Mrtl Monday's theme is travel, I think this fits in just nicely.
But before I begin, because I know you're just DYING to hear about our Branson adventures, I'd like to give you another example of why I'm such a terrible mother. Here goes:
I let my daughter walk on our grass for the first time tonight. Barefoot.
It was great. Now before you light your torches and grab your pitchforks, I'd like to defend myself. When Rancito brought Lauren home from Grandma and Grandpa Spoils a Lot on Friday, she never sat down once, or crawled, because she was walking EVERYWHERE. I had no bags packed, yet I stood there, jaw dropped to the floor, watching. My little girl is a walker. Evil grandparents.
So tonight, we adventured outside. The lawn was mowed (and actually green), the weather was nice, and Lauren didn't have to crawl around and eat grass clippings. It was so fun that I was giddy. I've been wanting to do that all summer.
So, back to Branson. Joolee invited us to go along with her family to the "Show Me State" a couple of weeks ago...before hurricane Katrina douched New Orleans and before our gasoline retailers demanded our first born at the pump. Sorry fellas, she's all mine. I had second thoughts about going. It seemed so excessive since so many people were suffering and had nothing. But you know what? The world still turns. The economy still needs to see people consuming goods and services. And doggone it, we haven't taken a vacation in two years. Oh, and Joolee would have killed me because she already booked the cabin and bought Dixie Stampede tickets. I figured that wouldn't have been a very friendly move on my part. Oh, and the fact that two very sweet blog sisters and Doodlebug were driving across the state to meet us.
So we went.
When I called kgrams' cell phone, her sister, easily amused, answered. After I spoke, I heard her yell, "Hey, she's not a 300-lb man! She's real!" From now on, whenever life gets me down, I think that shall become my mantra. I'm not a 300-lb man! I'm real!
We met at the outlet mall (after we went to the wrong one first) and shopped and dropped. I found the ladies in Old Navy, and we talked and talked like old friends, annoying the other 7,000 customers with our loud chatter and baby strollers sticking out in the aisle. We had plans that evening to catch the early Dixie Stampede show, but my blog sisters weren't able to get tickets to the sold out show earlier in the week. So, what does my industrious friend, joolee, do? She calls, hoping somebody cancelled, and gets them in AND sitting with us. Girl, you're amazing. Big hug to you!
me n joolee
I had no idea what to expect during the Dixie Stampede show. I held Lauren standing up in my lap as it started. When the first horse entered the ring, galloping down the barrier, her mouth opened wide, and she smiled. She laughed and she pointed. Her mouth was open so long that long streams of drool poured out. She drooled until the last horse left the ring.
It was an amazing thing to witness. When I first felt the excitement of her tiny body in my arms, I leaned over to Rancito and said, "You've got to try this" as if I were his heroin dealer. We performed the hand-off, and Rancito's calm demeanor soon turned into laughing and smiling along with Lauren. She wasn't sick, but she was still contagious. I leaned over and whispered in his ear, "It was worth every penny."
I wanna touch! I wanna touch!
Lemme touch the horsey, daddy!
Afterwards, we blinded the horses by taking pictures of each and every one, many more than once. Then we moved on to the children. Lauren had enough by that time of night, so she was a pain. Doodlebug still hammed it up for the camera.
I was able to get a couple of the little stinkers before they completely broke down.
 
And finally, the bad thing about our trip to Branson was our cabin. It was so beautiful and comfortable that I didn't want to leave. It was like a two bedroom house, complete with kichen, dining, and screened porch. Joolee was kind enough to give us the upstairs bedroom. I don't think she realized it had a TWO PERSON SHOWER, or she may have snagged it for herself. Rancito, please install a TWO PERSON SHOWER in every home we live in from now on. I cannot live without a TWO PERSON SHOWER ever again.
The view from the upstairs bedroom with TWO PERSON SHOWER. |
| posted by ieatcrayonz @ 9/05/2005 |
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