Night at the Roxbury

Our dancing fool...

Branson Vacation

In mid June, we went on a short vacation to Branson, Missouri. I have two friends that were in the "Clue" Musical with me that work during the summer in Branson as Duck Boat Captains. They were instrumental in allowing us to go up there and visit more of the sites with complimentary tickets!

We were able to get free tickets to ride the Ducks, which is an aquatic vehicle used in WWII, now being used as a tourist attraction, and free tickets to Silverdollar City, the local theme park. THANK YOU TO GARRY AND MICHELE!! We saved a lot of money because of them! It was great. We also were able to get a discount on a hotel thanks to another friend and co-worker of Josh's. We got a hotel room with a full kitchen and separate sleeping areas for $55 a night!!


We figured out that it would be easier for us to drive to Tulsa and stay at Josh's dad's house for the night, then drive to Branson (a mere 3 1/2 hr drive from Tulsa) in the morning. Josh also wanted to eat at one or more of the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives restaurants that were on our way. We found a couple in Oklahoma City, but they were too far out of the way.



As we started out, Lincoln showed he was going to be a trooper in the car. He was great, as long as we has lots of books, food, and a few movies. We stopped in Cleburne on our way up to eat and let Linc run around a bit. Then we headed off to OKC and planned to stop there for dinner but ended up stopping in Norman and ate at the best pizza place, called Hide-away pizza!! I would recommend the "Paradise Pie" pizza. VERY good.

We walked around the Oklahoma University campus for a little while and then headed off to Tulsa. Dave (Josh's dad) was on his own vacation in Spain and graciously allowed us to stay at his house anyway. We packed enough non perishable food to last for days but still were able to get a small pint of milk for breakfast cereal.

The next day, we left for Branson. We decided to take our time getting there and stopped outside of town to eat and stretch. After finally getting to Branson and checking in to the hotel, we booked tickets to go see the Chinese Acrobats and met up with Garry to get the free tickets and figure out our schedule for the next few days.


Branson is much more family friendly than I anticipated. They have a lot of family museums and attractions, as well as shopping nooks and niches. Driving down the main road is like driving down the Vegas strip, except instead of show girls, it's covered with Country Singers, magic acts and the Osmonds! Yes, they are STILL there!! One museum looked like the Titanic rushing through the water with a huge iceberg hitting the side; another was a replica of the Hollywood sign with a giant King Kong atop swatting away airplanes. They definitely get your attention.



The first night we saw the Chinese Acrobat show (sorry no pictures allowed), thinking that Lincoln would enjoy it and hopefully sit still. Everyone LOVED it! Lincoln was mesmorized by everything EXCEPT the paper dragons. We told him they were "puppies" to make him feel a little better. It didn't work. Luckily, the dragons opened the show and then disappeared. I was amazed at how strong and coordinated those performers were. It was just amazing. And beautiful!


("Captain Foghorn" aka Garry and the Smith Family)

The next day we rode the Ducks with my friend "Captain Foghorn". We drove around town, listening to his town tour and jokes, and then plunged into the lake for a nice float. Lincoln became an honorary Captain by taking the wheel on the lake. He was really upset about being on the water, but driving on land was fun. After the ride, we ate at the hotel and took a quick nap, then headed out to a dinosaur museum to see some dino replicas. It was really cool and Linc liked it, mostly. He got a little bored, since they didn't move.



Josh and I took turns running around with him so the other could read about the dinos. While I was watching Linc, I stopped to take a picture of a dino and by the time I turned around, Lincoln crossed under the barrier and was riding a little dinosaur like a horse!! It was so funny, I couldn't make him move without taking a picture first.


The food we ate during the whole trip was great! Great BBQ, pizza, salads, even bread tasted great!! So another night at the hotel and we were set to leave the next afternoon. First we planned on visiting Silverdollar City to weat Lincoln out.

I wasn't sure how Lincoln would react to the rides and crowds, and he initially did really well. But then we tried the kiddo rollercoaster. Josh tried to go on the ride with him and he waited in line like an angel until it was time to get on the ride. He freaked out and refused to sit down, so Josh picked him up and left. I wasn't going to give in that easily. I took him on the teacups and the same thing happened. He was fine in line, but then screamed as if I was beating him when we sat down. But I made him sit with me and once the ride started, he was fine. It was only once the ride STOPPED that he started screaming again...but this time because he didn't want to get off!!

BEFORE THE RIDE.... You can hear my tell someone that Lincoln will probably cry getting off the ride, which is exactly what happened. After the ride was over, a lady came up to me laughing because she heard me predict what would happen. She thought it was hilarious.



Josh decided to try again with the Flying Elephant ride and again the same thing happened. Josh felt bad making him stay there, but I reassured him that he would be fine and probably cry on the way out too. Lo and behold, that is exactly what happened. The rest of the day was great. We got Lincoln a baseball bat with his name, saw a few musical acts, rode some water rides and ate some good (not good-for-you) food.



Time to head home... We stopped off at the greasiest restaurant with the greasiest food, but it was SOOOOO good. They threw rolls at you and dumped lots of fried food on your plate every 5 minutes. So if you are in Ozark, MO, check out Lambert's. But try to go on a weekend day outside of peak lunch or dinner time. Our first attempt to eat there landed us with a 1 1/2 hr wait. No thanks...

We followed the same route back and ended up stopping in Norman again to eat at "The Diner" a Triple D joint with great food, including an omlette the size of my head. We probably could have used one more day to break up all the driving, but we had a great time!

Now we are looking forward to our next trip to the beach for 2010!

Assessments and Gluten-Free Menus

The last several weeks have been very stressful around our house. Starting after Easter weekend, we discussed the need for some speech and developmental therapy for Lincoln due to his developmental delays. As his parents, it was difficult to see outside of our little "bubble" and admit that he needed some guidance and needed to be assessed for any developmental delays.
My family was instrumental in getting us in touch with the right people and to our advantage, we just happen to have a great set of Early Childhood Intervention services in our county.

So, Lincoln has had an initial and a more thorough Autism assessment and qualifies for the ECI Speech Therapy and Developmental Therapy. They said that he is very intelligent and active, but they saw a few red flags in his communication skills and social interaction. We have scheduled his therapy sessions and are looking forward to getting started. He has not been diagnosed with anything, but still shows enough signs to be admitted to the program. They will be holding the sessions in our home one to two times a week (roughly). If he still needs help after his third birthday, he will be referred to the local school ISD, which has a great program too.

Next on our agenda was to continue to investigate his frequent vommiting problem. So, we changed his diet to an all Gluten-Free one, and it has made a HUGE difference. He has only vommited once since making the change (outside of a 24 hr stomach bug). However, he was also on an antibiotic to clear up a sinus infection. He is now off of the meds and we need to wait and see how he does on just the GF diet.

Hopefully we'll get it all figured out and help Lincoln live the best life possible!! We've also started with swim lessons this week. It's going to be a busy summer!!

April Bluebonnets

A friend of mine offered to take some family photos of us. I asked her to come to the house, since our entire yard was covered with bluebonnets. They are just beautiful. These are the first family photos we've done. I love them! Here are some of our favorites.

Can you see the bluebonnets lining the street!?!

Beautiful!!

Camping at Inks State Park

We decided about a month ago to go camping with our friends, the Bonds and the other Smiths (Dan and Tannie). The Bonds live about 2 1/2 hours away and the Smiths live in Cedar Park, about an hour away. Since we all wanted to go camping together, we decided to camp at Inks State Park, which is about 30 minutes from us.

Adam and Rachael love to camp and usually stay for at least a couple days. On the other hand, Josh thinks that camping is "pretending to be homeless." So the Bonds got there Friday and stayed at the camp site both Friday and Saturday nights, while Josh, Linc and I got there on Saturday. Dan and his two boys stayed both nights, but Tannie joined us Saturday afternoon after finishing her half marathon.

We had such a great time with everyone. Even though we haven't all been together as a group in awhile, we just fell right back into that "old friend" feeling; joking with each other, keeping each other's kids from falling in the fire, and eating each other's food.

The weather was absolutely beautiful during the day, but it got REALLY cold at night. We went hking during the day and had fun just catching up, while the kids jumped in the tiny little stream that ran through the two camp sites. They all were soaking wet and were grateful for the dry clean clothes we all brought.

Tin foil dinners were great and smores and popcorn finished us off. Bedtime was a different story. Now, Lincoln is not the type of kid that will play his way to bed. He won't play, play, play, then get sleepy and lay down. He will play, play, play, and then have a melt down because he is so tired! So, my solution was to take him for a drive around the park at the point of his melt down. It worked! He fell asleep in the car then I transfered him to the sleeping bag in our tent.

That gave Josh and I lots of time to just sit and talk with everyone. Finally we decided to go to bed (who knows what time we went to bed) and Josh cozied into his sleeping bag and I tried to snuggle in next to Lincoln. He and I were sharing a sleeping bag, which was a bad idea. I never realized how squirmy Lincoln is when he sleeps. Right as I found a comfortable, warm spot, Lincoln woke up.

At first he just wanted to sit up, then hug, then talk, and finally he started singing. Then he tried to crawl over me to get to Daddy snoring away next to us. So I let him. Lincoln started patting Daddy on the shoulder and Josh woke up thinking it was me. He turned over saying "WHAT?" then realized it was Lincoln. "Hi buddy" was his very sleepy response. I figured one of us needed to sleep so I brought Lincoln back to my side of the tent and Josh rolled back over to sleep some more.

After singing one of Linc's favorite Sesame Street songs to him about a million times, we both fell asleep. But it wasn't very good sleep because it was so cold and I gave Linc most of the sleeping bag. When we woke up, Lincoln came over and gave me a big hug and said, "HI!" It was all worth it.

The next morning, we ate breakfast tacos, cleaned up, and packed everything away. The park has a big playground, so we stopped to let the kids run around before heading out. We were at the park longer then we thought, so we just pulled out all the left over food and had a big picnic before heading home. We really had a great time with everyone!!! We will definitely go camping again with Lincoln...but he gets his own sleeping bag next time.

Elvis is IN the building!!

Our church congregation held a Sock Hop and invited an Elvis impersonator. I was in charge of decorations. I had an idea to put the gates of "Graceland" on the wall behind Elvis as he was performing. I was going to use a computer to project the image on the wall, then use electrical tape to make the gates.

Well, the projector that we thought would work wasn't meant to be used for something as big as the wall. So, after painting the grassy background for the lawn, I had to FREE-HAND both the gates with the tape, which includes two Elvis figures, and Graceland Mansion..all within about an hour!! I think it turned out pretty good. We were all working up until the last minute to get it all finished, but it all looked great! Here are some pictures.

I also made a Record Cake for the party. It turned out pretty good too.

Blowing kisses...

Elvis was GREAT!!! He sang directly to several of the older ladies, who just loved it. Look at the kids...they are mesmorized.

No one wanted to tear down the Graceland Gates, so I had to do it. Two days of work crumpled up in 5 seconds. Oh well.