We had our annual trip with Lucie and Taylor. It's always a fun time!
The first day we canoed for about four hours on the Niangua River near Lebanon, MO. Sam said we couldn't all go in one canoe and that I could steer one and he would steer the other. Since I had never done that, I didn't want to. As we were deciding whether to get one jumbo canoe, trying to talk me into trying it, blah blah blah, Lucie said, 'I have never steered but I've canoed a lot with my dad and I'll steer." We let her and the girls were thrilled to be together and on their own. They were the youngest people we saw in control of their own canoe.
The river was very crowded, which made steering harder and it was like bumper cars at a carnival, someone always bumping their canoe into someone or getting caught on the side of the river. Lucie and Taylor were a little offended when one boy called them "The Sideways Crew."
Our next night was in Branson. We rode almost all the rides at Silver Dollar City, some of them multiple times. I rode a couple of water rides and rode a roller coaster for the first time in my life. Thankfully, I don't have a photo of that. Here's a photo of me with the girls on a water ride. Click on the photo to get an idea of how much I enjoyed it...
We bought tickets for The Presley family show and were afraid the girls would turn up their noses and be bored. They weren't. They loved it, laughed a lot, and thought it was "awesome." Whew.
Before the show, we had dinner in a Cantina Loredo overlooking the river.
When we arrived back at Taylor's house, the girls obviously had a plan. They ran in and came back out where I was unloading the car. Taylor was shooting me with this huge air gun and Lucie was wearing the afro--I laughed almost as loud as I had screamed on the roller coaster.
We had a great time and hope to make many more of these granddaughter trips. Taylor and Lucie both promised they would not outgrow wanting to go with us, so we are going to hold them to that as long as we can.
We still have five hours of drive time to get Lucie back home. We stopped in Rocheport at Les Bourgeois for lunch.
James, Paul, and Dee
Judy and I took James and Ty for a "hike." We stopped and rested a couple of times, since it was hot outside and the neighborhood is hilly.
