Day 1,322 - Looking Fly and Flying High

Uhhhh...

What to write? What to write?

This is one of those good writer's block blogs. Every so often, one of those pops up. Generally, it's due to me viewing the minutia of everyday life as being somewhat unexciting. However, there are definitely those memories that are worthwhile to consider. Case in point: Ethan's pure love for dressing up.

Now, I'm fully aware that dressing up can refer to one of two things. The first being to look good/classy/studly/fly/insert other words here as necessary. The second means to maybe put on a costume and play pretend. For the record, I'm actually referring to both of those things in this instance!

I'm going to tackle the idea of dressing up first. Wow, I should probably further clarify. I'm going to tackle the idea of looking good first. In our household, we really only dress up to head to church on Sunday. As a stay-at-home dad, my everyday attire largely consists of a pair of gym shorts and a red t-shirt (I have an inexplicable number of red t-shirts). However, on Sundays, I do my best to look presentable, so I bust out jeans and a shirt with buttons. Sometimes I even sport a pair of dress shoes!

For Ethan, Sundays is normally a time in which he does his best to match me. It's actually easier than you might think as we have several dress shirts that are remarkably similar. However, he doesn't stop there. Lately, Ethan has been in a mood to accessorize. What's his favorite accessory? Easy, his black bow-tie.

Now, the bow-tie is not new to our household. In fact, I'm pretty sure we've had it since Ethan was one year old. He's worn it intermittingly over the years but lately, he has come to believe that it goes with anything. Despite our best pleadings and reasoning, it's becoming a rarity for Ethan to go to church without his bow-tie on. It's not all bad though. He does look pretty cute in it even if it clashes horrendously with his brown cowboy boots.

Now, for the other kind of dressing up. The one that involves putting on a costume and playing pretend. This has long been one of Ethan's favorite things to do. In fact, as people might remember, it's not farfetched to see the little man practically living in his Chiefs helmet, jersey, and pants during football season. However, Pat Mahomes isn't the only superhero in Ethan's world. He also spends time each day doing his best Buzz Lightyear impersonation.

Ethan's Buzz costume actually was his Halloween costume this past year despite him not knowing who Buzz Lightyear was. This summer though, Ethan has become very acquainted with Buzz through watching the Toy Story tetralogy.  It's actually really fun to watch him "fly" around the house yelling "To Infinity and Beyond!" while attempting to protect the galaxy from the Evil Emperor Zurg. Buzz isn't the only fictional character Ethan embodies though. He also will throw on Bethany's blue rain coat and my old red bucket hat from time-to-time and pretend to be Paddington Bear. While his adventures don't seem quite as epic when he's dressed as Paddington, they're still pretty cute in their own way.

The photos may be a little old but they still get the point across.

Ethan's most recent costume of choice comes from his time at Vacation Bible School. When he puts on his brown vest (made out of an old shopping bag), his binoculars (made out of an old toliet paper tube), and his adventurer's hat, you know that he is ready to explore nature or hunt for treasures. Either can and has happened. Sadly, I haven't taught him to talk like the Crocodile Hunter during those times yet but there's still plenty of opportunities ahead.

I got in the spirit of dressing up as well. Who wears it better?

For me not really knowing what to write about, I'm happy to see that I somehow managed to successfully put words on a page. It's nice to know that me deciding to dress up like a writer does have its benefits.

#DaddyWrite

Day 1,311 - A Belated Post About Ellie's Sixth Birthday A.K.A. Tanganyika Tourism

I'm still rather shocked by this fact but my little girl is six years old! In fact, she turned six almost two weeks ago! Why do I know that she turned six almost two weeks ago? Well, number one, I have a rudimentary understanding of when her birthday falls. Number two and more importantly, we went away on a short, little family vacation to celebrate the momentous occasion! Where did we go, you may ask? One word, Wichita.

Now, I know on the surface, Wichita, KS hardly seems like a tourist destination for families. That's what I believed until I heard about Tanganyika Wildlife Park. Now, Tanganyika isn't like any other ordinary zoo. It features a multitude of different animals; many of which can actually be touched and/or fed. I'm not just talking about things like rabbits or guinea pigs though. We also got to touch kangaroos, lemurs, birds, goats in addition to getting to feed giraffes, hippos, and rhinos! I'm getting a little ahead of myself though.

We left after lunch on Sunday the 26th to start our journey to Wichita so that Ethan could have his traditional afternoon nap in the car. Once we finished our three-hour journey, we checked into the Drury Hotel in downtown Wichita where we would be spending the night. Spoiler alert: we were upgraded by the hotel staff which was a nice little surprise. We wasted little time in throwing on our swimsuits and heading down to the hotel pool to enjoy some swimming. After we'd all had our fill of time in the water, we changed back into our clothes and headed to the Drury Kickback for our dinner consisting of hot dogs, chicken, pasta, baked potatoes, vegetables, and salad. Before leaving the Kickback area, I made sure to sneak a couple of bags of freshly popped popcorn back upstairs for later.

Once we finished bathing the kids, we allowed them to curl up in their bed and watch TV for a while before it was time for actual sleep. We were lucky enough to stumble upon the movie, Night at the Museum for our viewing pleasure. Ellie and Ethan were especially stoked to be allowed to eat popcorn in their bed while watching the movie. Finally, Bethany and I decided it was time to bring an end to the night and we turned off the TV and put the kids to bed.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early and surprised Ellie with a "big bag of candy" per her birthday list before heading to breakfast. Following a nice breakfast, Bethany proceeded to lovingly pack a lunch bag full of sandwiches for Tanganyika. Finally, the time came for us to check out of the hotel and head to Tanganyika for the start of our fun day. 

The first thing that we did upon arriving at Tanganyika was to make our way to the giraffe feeding pavilion. Now, we knew that we each had five animal feedings to use at our discretion. Therefore, we definitely needed to be particular with how we used them. That being said, the opportunity to feed a giraffe was too much to resist. We each took turns standing on a platform as directed by the zookeeper where we held out our big leaf of lettuce for the giraffe to take. None of us had ever fed a giraffe before so it was obviously a super cool experience!

After the giraffes, we wandered around the park for a little bit taking in a bunch of different animals. Most notable would probably be the kangaroos. We actually got the opportunity to pet kangaroos as they were laying on the ground, chill as they could be. There was even one mama kangaroo with a joey partially sticking out of her pouch! Once we finished up with the kangaroos, we made our way to our next feeding encounter at Lemur Island.

At Lemur Island, we were ushered across a small bridge and directed to sit on a rock in the middle of the island. From there, a keeper offered all four of us a cranberry to hold in our hands. Then, the zookeeper convinced a lemur to hop up on my lap and encouraged it to walk across each of our laps until it got to Bethany on the other end. Then, she told us to open up our hands and feed the lemur the cranberry as it walked back across. It was amazing to see the kids' reactions to seeing the lemur so up close. My favorite reaction had to be Ethan's as he slightly closed his hand which led to the lemur using his paws to force Ethan's hands open in his quest to eat the cranberry.

We honestly saw so many animals during our time at Tanganyika that I probably can't do it all justice. For example, between the four of us, in addition to the aforementioned giraffe and lemur, we also fed a guinea pig, a tortoise, a pygmy hippo and a rhino. Don't talk to Ellie about the hippo though. That's a sore subject as she was unable to successfully throw a carrot into the hippo's mouth, but Ethan was. There were tears and everything! However, you don't really want to be shown up by your younger brother in anything, let alone feeding a hippo.

There is one additional animal encounter that I do need to share though and that is our experience feeding lorikeets. It really seems like a pretty lowkey experience. You walk through an aviary and offer a small cup of nectar (maybe?) to lorikeets. Unfortunately for Bethany, the birds weren't just interested in the nectar contained in her cup. They were also interested in her hair. By the time we were done, Bethany had one bird on her shoulder and another on top of her head. To top it all off, both birds were picking at her hair with their beaks trying to find anything they could. As Bethany is someone who really doesn't like her head touched, you can only imagine how not fun of an experience that was for her. In the end, one of the workers had to come into the aviary and push the birds off of poor Bethany with her walkie-talkie antenna.

After we finished up our time with the animals, the kids spent some time playing at the Tanganyika splash park before it was time to head home. All things told, we were in Wichita for less than 24 hours. That being said, it was a great 24 hours full of things I'll personally remember for a long time to come. The fact that the kids are still talking about their experiences there gives me hope that they feel the same way. 

#DaddyWrite

Day 1,310 - "It's a Small World After All"

Does anyone else remember the classic Disney ride/song, "It's a Small World"? I know that anyone reading this is currently shaking their fist at me in anger. For the two people who aren't, I proudly present the lyrics to "It's a Small World".

It's a world of laughter
A world of tears
It's a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There's so much that we share
That it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small, small world

I'm going to assume that's probably enough of "It's a Small World" for most people BUT if it's not, I'll include a hyperlink for the entire song/ride!

I realize that me going on a semi-rant about "It's a Small World" seems fairly random. However, I trust that it will all make at least a modicum of sense at the end of this blog post.

This may not come as a big surprise, but my kids are definitely suffering from occasional boredom this summer. Despite plenty of time playing outside and exploring the neighborhood, they definitely find themselves asking the age-old question of "What do we do now?" . Therefore, today on a whim, we decided it was time to head downtown and take a ride on the streetcar.

I realize that riding on the streetcar may not sound like anything special. However, Ellie and Ethan absolutely love. They think it's awesome to see all of the new areas of the city that they don't normal frequent. They also love seeing new people and there's few places better to do so than on the streetcar.

Ride that streetcar!

On this day, I decided that we would park at the City Market and ride to Union Station. I also went ahead and informed the kids that as long as they were good and well-behaved, we would stop off for ice cream at Betty Rae's before heading for home. While the kids were informed about those parts of our journey, I (purposely) neglected to inform them that we would be stopping by the Kansas City Public Library just to explore something new along our route.

When the time came to hop off of the streetcar, we wandered a block west and made our way into the library where we were directed to the children's section by a very helpful security guard. As we hopped off the elevator and wandered into the children's area, the three of us were legitimately shocked to see my sister-in-law, Nicole, and her three boys there in the library. It was especially shocking when one takes into account that neither of us frequent the Kansas City Public Library! Ellie and Ethan were especially excited to get an unexpected hangout with their cousins.

Ethan and Edmund are hard at work...doing something.

After an hour or so at the library, it was time for us to hop back on the streetcar and continue on our way. Lucky for Ellie and Ethan, Aunt Nicole and their cousins had nothing else going on that morning so they joined us for the rest of our ride on the streetcar. It was especially fun getting to see the five kids all standing side-by-side and looking out the window at all of their surroundings.

L to R: Ellie, Edmund, Elias, Ethan, and Elbert

Finally, the time came for our friends to disembark the streetcar as we continued on back to the River Market. When we finally exited the streetcar, it was time for ice cream just as I had promised. For Ellie, the greatest reward in the world is getting to have a scoop of ice cream all to herself. Therefore, I was more than happy to oblige since it makes her feel so special. Ethan, for his part, desired to share a sundae with me. Therefore, he and I happily split a S'mores sundae while Ellie enjoyed her cup of Cookies and Cream.

Finally, we finished our ice cream and since our meter was running out of time, it was time to make our way home. A good time had been had by all and as you can see/read, we certainly did confirm that it really is a Small World after all. #DaddyWrite

Day 1,304 - Mail Call!

The thing about being a kid is that sometimes you can build up something in your head to the point of monumental proportions. You just keep on assuming that whatever that item is will be the greatest thing ever. For quite a bit of the last year, my kids have been utterly enamored with the post office. It's not because it's really the greatest place on earth or anything. In fact, they didn't really know anything at all about it. That's probably the reason for their extreme curiosity.

Bethany and I both serve in the HOA for our neighborhood. As part of my duties, I basically volunteered to check the HOA mailbox at our local post office once or twice a week. When I stop to check it, I generally just leave the kids in the car, locking the doors behind me, and turning on remote start so that it stays warm or cold depending upon the season. Then, approximately 20 seconds later I'm back in the car and we're on our way. Friday was a different experience though as I actually had some business to take care of meaning that the kids got to actually come in the post office with me.

The business of the day was to mail 57 bills for HOA dues to residents of our neighborhood. Our hope had been that I might be able to buy postage at the front desk of the post office and they would apply it for me. Instead, when I asked for postage for 57 items, I was basically handed 57 stamps and told to get to work. Therefore, my stamps and I (with the kids in tow) headed to a table to start placing stamps on envelopes.

After the first couple of stamps, Ellie became curious about what I was doing. From her viewpoint, it seemed like I was just arbitrarily applying stickers to each envelope. After I explained to her that it requires money to mail anything and that the stamp represented money, she asked if she could help apply the stamps. Since I had 57 to do and I didn't want to be at the post office all day, I decided to take her up on her offer. After I explained that the stamp needs to go in the corner of the envelope facing a certain direction, I handed her a book of stamps and a pile of envelopes and let her get to it.

Finally, the two of us finished applying stamps to all 57 envelopes and it was time to deposit them in the mailbox. Ethan, for his part, was not really happy about missing out on the stamping. However, he was more than able to place envelopes in the mail slot. Ethan and Ellie took turns dumping piles of envelopes into the mail slot until finally all 57 were mailed and our job was done. After that, there was nothing left to do for the day besides go to the trampoline park in the morning and the swimming pool in the afternoon. However, those stories aren't nearly as exciting as the one where we applied stamps and mailed letters.

#DaddyWrite

Day 1,300 - I'm (Temporarily) Back Down to One

 

Summer is a pretty fun time for a kid. I'm pretty sure there isn't an adult out there that doesn't remember the excitement they felt for summer vacation to start. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. As a stay-at-home dad, I was probably just as (or more) excited for summer break as Ellie was this year. You see, over the past five years, I had gotten used to having her around all of the time. Therefore, it was definitely a big change to only get Ellie time in the mornings and for a couple of hours in the evenings. As a result, I was bound and determined to make summer break count.

Thus far, I'd like to think that's exactly what I've done. For one thing, I'm trying to find some kind of new adventure for us to pursue each and every day. We've already been to Crown Center to take in the new Curious George exhibit. We've hit up a multitude of Kansas City parks on the 2022 edition of the tour of parks. There's been a zoo visit (Oooh, that reminds me; it's about time to go to the zoo again). We went to Dollar Tree and bought water guns for water gun fights. We've even road-tripped to Gallatin to go swimming in my aunt's pool. Despite all of these fun activities, Ellie has still found herself missing the structure of school on a few occasions. As a result, we decided the thing to do was to send her to Vacation Bible School this week.

Now, I won't lie and say that Ellie heading to VBS isn't a nice little break for me as well. Despite my love for my daughter, there are those occasional times when she gets on my nerves. An example being this morning when she wouldn't stop talking about bottoms and underwear while giggling profusely. Now, I know that's probably true to form for someone who's just graduated from Kindergarten but that doesn't make it any less obnoxious. Therefore, I was more than happy to bid her adieu for three hours this morning as we dropped her off at Fellowship KC for VBS.

While Ellie enjoyed making some new friends, Ethan and I decided to engage in some much needed bro-down time. Since Ellie would only be at VBS for three hours, we decided not to head home. Instead, I thought it prudent to remain in the Parkville area near where Fellowship KC is located. We started off our morning by heading to the library. There, Ethan took enjoyment in using the kid computers and playing with some toys before it was time to leave. Funny story, while he was playing with the kid computers, he happened to have on a pair of headphones. For some reason, he didn't realize that although outside sound was muffled for him, it wasn't for everyone else. Therefore, he decided to overcompensate by yelling when he had something to tell me. You may not know this but yelling in a library goes against the number one rule of a library. At least I'm 99% certain that's the case. We didn't get kicked out or anything so I cannot confirm.

After we finished up at the library, we took a short sojourn to a bike shop to see what it would cost to repair the handbrakes on Ellie's (new-to-us) bike. Spoiler alert, it was definitely more than the cost of the bike so we will be going back to the drawing board on that. After the bike shop, Ethan and I meandered down the road to English Landing Park and downtown Parkville where we spent the next hour exploring all that we could find to explore. 

Finally, the time came for us to head back to Fellowship KC to pick up Ellie who was more than excited to share everything she could from her morning of VBS with us. Even though Ellie is fairly sociable, I was slightly curious how she would feel about going to VBS at a church she's never been to. Never fear as she was stoked from her morning and can't wait to go back tomorrow. I love it!

#DaddyWrite

P.S. If you're interested in video footage of Ellie dancing while having her mouth stuffed full of pretzel and chocolate, click here!

Day 1,292 - The One Where We Went to Silver Dollar City

It feels like things with lots of hype rarely live up to those very high expectations. Case in point: "The Rise of Skywalker". That film had a ton of anticipation but ultimately resulted in nothing but disappointment for most viewers. Now, I know there are those out there that really like the movie (like my friend, Teddy) but for me, one viewing was enough. Even though I really like the Star Wars franchise, years later, I still haven't gone back for another viewing. Lucky for Ellie and Ethan, their trip to Silver Dollar City did not turn into their own personal "Rise of Skywalker". In fact, that was far from the case.

On Tuesday morning on our vacation, we found ourselves in the car at approximately 9:10 in the morning ready to head to a Silver Dollar City that didn't actually open until 9:30. No problem though as we just wanted to make sure we were there on time. Once we arrived at the park and made our way inside, it didn't take Ellie long to start letting us know exactly what she wanted to do. You see, a little over a week earlier, Ellie had sat down with Bethany and watched a video detailing many of the attractions at SDC. From there, she had made quite the comprehensive list of things to do and see. So, taking that into account, we started our morning out with a quick trip to the American Plunge.

The American Plunge, as you can probably guess, is a water-themed ride. It's specifically a "log flume" ride somewhat akin to the Viking Voyager. Leaving Ethan with my parents, Bethany, Ellie, and I hopped into the queue for the ride and were on a raft seconds later. We headed down the track through various tunnels before climbing up a hill and then cascading down it. Ellie absolutely loved it and couldn't wait for round two. The lone difference between round one and round two is that we decided to invite Ethan along for the fun. With Ellie in the front, Bethany behind her, and Ethan directly in front of me, we gleefully took another trip down the American Plunge. Ellie, true to form, loved it again. Surprisingly enough, so did Ethan. I was afraid the massive drop might frighten him but that could not have been farther from the truth.

From there, we wandered over to one of the kids' areas entitled The Great Exposition and spent some time riding the various rides there within. My personal favorite experience had to have been riding the spinning tea cups with Ethan. Ellie absolutely hates spinning rides so the last thing in the world she wanted to do was ride those cups. However, Ethan was all about it. In fact, he just kept yelling "Faster, faster Daddy!" over and over until he was falling over in his seat.

This is a stick-up!

After one more quick ride (the Flooded Mine), we stopped at one of the many restaurants in the park for lunch and a nice break before getting back to it. Bethany and I knew that at this point of the day, it was a near certainty the kids would be tired. Therefore, we had already made the strategic decision to ride the Silver Dollar City railroad after lunch. With any luck, we thought Ethan might even be able to take a short nap. About two minutes after the train left the station, Ethan was fast asleep in Bethany's arms. 20 minutes later, the train pulled back into the station and Ethan was still asleep. Therefore, we decided it was an appropriate time to call an audible and head to get some ice cream before heading for some more rides.

All told, Ethan slept for over an hour. I will say that I felt bad for poor Bethany having to carry him through the park during his nap since we didn't want him to wake up. However, that didn't stop Ellie and me from riding some rides close to where Bethany was sitting on a bench with Ethan. Finally, Ethan awoke and the time Ellie had been waiting for had come. It was time to ride Mystic River Falls! From the first time she heard of the ride, it was number one on her list of things to do at Silver Dollar City. We left Ethan with my parents and headed to the ride queue for Mystic River Falls. Somewhat unfortunately for us, the wait for pretty length. Over the next 45 minutes, we slowly inched our way through the line until finally the time had come for us to board our 8 person raft with another family of five.

As we set out along our wild river adventure, Ellie's smile could not have been any bigger. The first part of the ride is fairly standard fare for a river-raft ride. I will say that I was feeling a little jealous of everyone else in the raft though as somewhat inexplicably, I didn't get a drop of water above my ankles for the entire first half of our ride. Finally, we reached the second half of the ride that makes Mystic River Falls so special. Our raft was loaded onto an automatic elevator and lifted to an elevated water slide high above the rest of the ride. With a gentle push from a pneumatic arm, our raft started flying down a fast track before finally coming to a splashing stop far below where we had started.

With that, we departed our raft and met my parents and Ethan for some more SDC fun. While we had been away, my dad had taken the opportunity to get Ethan some ice cream of his own and he took him on the RiverBlast ride to boot. In case you're wondering, the RiverBlast ride consists of a gentle ride down a flat track. That may sound boring until you remember that you have a crank-powered water gun in front of you with people on the side of the track spraying at you with one of their own. I have to say that it made me smile to see Ethan and his Papa completely soaked from their ride.

From there, we decided it was time to begin winding down our trip to SDC and began slowly making our way through the park for the final time. If I had any regrets from our trip, it would have to be that we didn't take enough time to enjoy some of the craftsmen working on various things. Although, I'm not entirely certain that all of the craftsmen were there. That being said, we did enjoy walking through the glass store and seeing the products made by the SDC glass blowers. Ellie, for her part, was super inquisitive and wanted to learn everything she could about glass blowing. Finally, we exited the park around 5:30 and headed back to our condo. 

#Jailbird

 In case you're wondering if we have any plans of going to SDC again, I'd say that's a near certainty. In fact, before we even got back to the condo, Ellie was already asking when we could go again. She even asked if we could go back the next day. Unfortunately, we would be heading back home the next day as our trip was over. However, I'd say that's a pretty strong affirmation that she had a great time, wouldn't you?

#DaddyWrite

Day 1,292 - Branson, A Park, Some Ponies, and Lightning McQueen

 Happy Summer!

Life has actually felt somewhat like a whirlwind since May 27th when Ellie happily trotted out of school with her teachers spraying water guns and chucking water balloons in excitement. And yes, that did really happen. That Saturday was fairly normal but practically as soon as we were done with church on Sunday, our family was loaded up in the car to head to Branson for a short vacation with my parents. Even though we were only there from Sunday until Wednesday, it felt like we jam-packed a lot into that short period of time.

On the part of Ellie and Ethan, they were incredibly enthused for this vacation. The major reason for their excitement was that we would be taking them to Silver Dollar City for the very first time! Of course, that wouldn't happen until Tuesday. In the meantime, there were plenty of other fun things to do with the kids.

On Monday morning, the thing that the kids were most excited to do was go swimming. However, we really couldn't do that until the temperatures warmed up a little for the day. In the meantime, we decided to head to a local park so that the kids could get out some energy by playing for a while. That wasn't our only plan for the morning though as there were two points of interest near said park. One was the Dolly Parton's Stampede horse stables with the other being the Branson Celebrity Car Museum.

We made our first stop at the Dixie Stampede so that the kids could walk through the stables and enjoy seeing the horses before we made our way back for the actual show later that evening. For the kids, the highlight was most definitely getting to see a horse named Jesse who inexplicably kept his rear end to us at all times. You can probably guess the jokes that came out of that experience. After that, we got back in the car and headed across the street to the Branson Celebrity Car Museum.

Me and "Jesse"

At this point, I feel like it's pertinent to share that we had no intentions of actually paying to go through the museum. For one thing, the price was $18 a person. More importantly than that was the fact that the thing we actually wanted to see resided outside the museum. It's no secret that Ethan is a huge fan of Lightning McQueen from Cars. He even has pictures of Lightning on the side of his bike! Therefore, when Bethany was researching things to do in Branson and learned that there were life-sized versions of Lightning and Mater parked outside the Branson Celebrity Car Museum, it was an absolute certainty that we would be stopping by.

The second we turned into the parking lot, Ethan's delighted screams of "McQueen!" echoed through our Traverse. He then excitedly began to ask over and over if we were going to go see "McQueen". Finally, the time came to park the car and we wandered over to the entrance of the museum so that Ethan could meet his hero. Unfortunately for Ethan, he underestimated the talkative nature of Mater and found himself slightly intimidated. It just so happened that Mater was hooked up to a sensor and would begin speaking anytime someone walked by. While this didn't phase Ellie at all, Ethan was understandably frightened for a bit at this unexpected turn of events. Soon enough he overcame his fear and was willing to get some photos taken with Lightning and Mater.

After finishing up our morning activities, we headed back to our condo and changed into our swimsuits for a trip to the pool. While the kids were understandably excited to get in the water, Bethany and I were much more apprehensive. That's probably a direct result of the water temperature being somewhere in the high 70's or low 80's. After an hour of splashing around in the pool, all of us except for Ellie were done swimming. While she wasn't stoked to be leaving the pool, she was excited to have lunch. Therefore, we headed back to the condo for a quick lunch of pasta before naps and quiet times.

Our afternoon was wide open so I took the opportunity to go shopping for a new pair of sneakers (unsuccessfully I might add) before heading to the Stampede for that evening's show. Once we arrived, we were ushered inside to a waiting area where Ellie and Ethan took the opportunity to play with some Lincoln Logs before finally heading into the "arena" to find our seats. Upon taking our seats, I made sure to take in the inquisitive looks on my kids' faces as they waiting for the show to begin. Finally, the lights dimmed and riders began to make their way out into the arena on horseback. At this point, I could see just how excited Ellie and Ethan were at everything that was unfolding in front of them.

As the show went on, our dinner for the evening consisting of a rotisserie chicken, a pork cutlet, potato, corn on the cob, potato soup, and a huge apple turnover were deposited in front of us for our dining pleasure. While I proudly ate every bite, Ellie was certainly flabbergasted at the amount of food she was receiving. In fact, at one point she asked Bethany if they would ever stop bringing her food. Eventually, the food did cease and the kids really settled in for the show. Both Ellie and Ethan even took turns sitting on my dad's lap while talking about everything they were seeing. 

 

Finally, the show ended and it was time to bid adieu to the Stampede and bring an end to our first full day in Branson. Lucky for us, there was plenty more fun to be had the next day at Silver Dollar City. That being said, this blog post is plenty long as it is so you'll have to read about that next time.

#DaddyWrite