Pour mon ami...

A journal I altered yesterday and some goodies headed to an old, shabby chic friend up north...

B-town getaway

We took a small family vacation to nearby Branson last week, staying three nights in the Hilton at the Landing and visiting most of the traditional spots. Our first stop on Wednesday was Silver Dollar City, which despite adding a new ride or two (and tearing down the Waterboggan!), has the same feel and the same features as it did when I visited as a kid.

We got there early and stayed most of the day. The lines for several of the rides were too long for us to endure, but we met up with our friends the Rhoads and did the kids' area and the Plunge, an old favorite for sure.

We also went to the Stunt Dog Exhibition show and watched adorable and happy rescue dogs do high-flying frisbee catches, a high jump competition that topped out at over 5 feet and a grand finale handstand while their trainers held their front paws. The kids loved it. After a full day at SDC, we headed to our suite at the Hilton, had dinner at our favorite Mexican place, Cantina Laredo, and called it a night. The next day we had a late breakfast, did a little shopping, then spent the rest of the day at White Water. Aside from being in a swimsuit in front of everyone all day, I think I prefer the waterpark over SDC. Macauley is in his element around water, and there's so much he can do on his own while his mother lazily watches from a chair in the sun. We stayed there until close then had dinner at Texas Land & Cattle on the Landing with the Rhoads.

The next morning we took Catherine to Build-a-Bear as a belated birthday treat, and the kids made some very interesting Ice Cream Bears...They each accesorized with a cell phone and the bears kept calling each other that afternoon, having some adorable conversations. I love that Macauley is still young enough to "pretend."

On Friday, the dads took the kids to the hotel pool so the moms could shop a little. Then we had dinner at Bleu Olive with Lindsay and Tyson that night. It's a Meditteranean place near the Landing with a delicious pita/dip starter and creamy risotto. We were there forever, waiting at least an hour for our food, but it was yummy. Ryan and I took Macauley to mini-golf afterwards and I got to stop by an old college haunt, Maggie Moo's, for ice cream. We shopped at the very busy and crowded Tanger Outlet Mall on Saturday (I got a fabulous yellow Coach purse at a great deal) then went to White Water again on our 3-day pass. We came home waterlogged and missing Booker but happy after our little getaway. Ryan's back at work today...Boo.

Scrap happy

After too much deliberation and too little doing, I actually did some scrapbooking yesterday. I'd been perusing all sorts of magazines looking for new ideas and techniques to get inspired, to the point that I was debilitated. Sometimes it's just better to jump in and do what you know rather than doing nothing at all. So I did. I found my box of rub-on letters and remembered why I liked them so much, and I broke in a great new tool I bought on ebay a while back. I've been saving any interesting tags from new clothes and recycling them into titles or embellishments for pages.

I kept most of the pages pretty simple; some are better than others. I'm loving my new Dymo Caption Maker, which has three interchangeable wheels with uppercase, lowecase and script fonts. It's a more sophisticated version of my Dymo Label Buddy (which is very like the label maker my Nanny had that all of us grandkids loved to use). I don't journal on my pages, but these little strips are great for dates or locations or a little caption you might want here or there. Hence the name...Caption Maker. These pages are for Macauley's 6-year-old scrapbook. I've still got a big pile of pictures for that one to scrap, but you do what you can do...He's at the pool so the house is quiet this afternoon. Maybe I'll do some more. Or I might be lazy and get in my bed and read/nap. All appealing choices.

Lazy summer daisies