Silver Dollar City

My mother and daughter riding a roller coaster (third car back)

The girls and I (along with my parents) headed up to Branson for a real pioneer take on the amusement park. To add to the experience, we stayed in a log cabin - but we cheated with one with AC, cable and indoor plumbing.

Log Cabin madness

Science City

Nelson-Atkins Museum

The Day We Lost One to the Dark Side

Sporting vs. Galaxy Game

Happy Groundhog Day

OK, fine. These are prairie dogs.

Does anyone else' daughters love dinosaurs as much as mine do?

"Walking with Dinosaurs" show

Medieval Times

Amia caught a carnation thrown by a knight on horseback. This is just setting her up for disappointment.

 

Farm daycation

One of my favorite things to do in the fall is schedule a trip to the farm or orchard. We used to go to Alstede Farms in New Jersey every season.

Corn field maze

NYC hurrah

One year to the day since we moved. A day to look back...

It looks as though we traveled to the midwest via boat.

 

Keely tracing our ancestry at Ellis Island. Sorry dear, the French came down from Canada.

Amia also looking up...Lady Liberty's skirts.

Aww. Clearly not from the above day trip, but Keely's first Broadway show. Look at how little she was!

Take a hike!

Renaissance Fair

Ye Olde Bungee and Trampoline

Granted, when you go to these things, you expect to see some visitors in...umm...character. This seemed a little extreme though.

Connecticut moments

Mandi's lodge wedding

Cooling off at the end of the night. Few things beat jumping in a pool with all of your clothes on.

Happy anniversary sis!

My favorite summer vacation - the Aquarium. By Keely

I remember the first time I went to the aquarium. I loved it! Where else can you get up close to dangerous sea animals? And then go out on the boardwalk and play carnival games?

Hello Mr. Shark.

Bumpy, not so slimy.

I'm glad I'm on the outside!

My little sis. I don't think she got how cool it was.

Missing the beach

Baby Amia at the Jersey shore

Nothing without Providence: Colorado vacation

So a couple of weeks ago, my sister, brother-in-law and I drove up to Colorado to meet up with the girls (already on vacation at their dad's house there). We spent a long weekend jam-packed with Colorado-y activities. First we went to the Flying W ranch where we explored Old West and Native American villages, hiked up a big hill, rode in a mini mining cart and then sat down to a cowboy dinner, complete with tin cups. The next day we hit up some mild white water rafting, went panning for gold and did some cave exploring. And because Keely is fascinated by all things prehistoric, Sunday we went to a dino museum that we kept passing (apparently Colorado is a hotbed for dinosaur excavation). And not without note, after dropping the girls off, the three of us adults hit up a dive-y Mexican restaurant on the way home that was some of the best I've ever had.

I couldn't resist the cowgirl gear for the ranch. I mean, come on.

Thrown into cowboy jail at Flying W Ranch

Face-painting at a Native American cultural education demonstration

Amia was falling asleep in the chair while getting her face painted. Thankfully she caught her second wind.

Rafting was the winning activity of the trip. Both girls said next time they want to take on some rougher waters.

Panning for gold with Aunt Mandi

In the caves. It was so dark, the girls couldn't keep their eyes open for any of the flashes. This was our third try.

At the dino museum. Amia's still in mining mode.

The mascot of our trip was this mule deer who probably would have let us pet it if we had tried to.