Denison Family Vacation

We survived the first ever Denison Family vacation!!!! We took Saturday through Wednesday to go explore Branson, MO. We stayed at Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake. We left Saturday morning and hit the road, first stop being the "Biggest Bass Pro in the World!!" Savannah loved saying this as we were checking out the store. It was nice to get out of the car and stretch the ol legs. From there we got to our final destination, got our bearings and got a little dinner. It was an early night for us all as we were tired from driving most of the day. Sunday we woke up and Daddy did a little fishing. After breakfast the whole family did some fishing and Savannah caught her FIRST FISH!! I don't know who was more excited, Savannah or Daddy, but it was pretty cool nonetheless! After the big catch of the day, Savannah and I enjoyed watching Daddy catch a nice bass and catfish on the Barbie pole as we were heading back to the dock. Sunday afternoon we met up with Matt and Brooke. Matt and Cameron went to SIUE together and he and his wife Brooke have a place down here. They showed us a GREAT time on their boat for the afternoon. Savannah was a little hesitant at fist of being in the deep water, but she had a wonderful time and made a new friend with Brooke, who played tea party with her on the lake! She took a great nap on the boat on the way back to the resort. On Monday we woke up to rain and weren't sure how to spend the day. Savannah and Daddy went to get ice before we headed out in search of something to do and Savannah fell and started screaming. Turned out she fell right on a wasp and got stung. Her thumb immediately swelled, her arm was incredibly hot to the touch and she started to run a fever. So yes, we were THOSE parents and took her to urgent care to make sure it wasn't an allergic reaction. And you guessed it, it wasn't and she was fine. Better to be safe than sorry! From there we got some lunch and then all three of us took a nap. After that fun filled morning, we checked out the kiddie pool and Savannah had some fun playing there. After getting cleaned up, we headed out to downtown Branson in search of dinner. Well, Savannah had some other plans for us and got sick on the way. A short stop to a grocery store to get crackers and Pedialite we headed back to the room and Savannah chilled out and mom and dad ordered room service. Quite the date night!!! We woke up on Tuesday to more rain, but decided to try out Silver Dollar City regardless. Thankfully by the time we got there, the rain was gone and it was a GREAT day. Sadly, Savannah was too short for the rides, but had fun shooting the big water guns, seeing the sights, playing in the water and of course the train ride! We got robbed but thankfully didn't have to give up our money! We then had lunch, saw a few more sights and headed back to the resort. We decided to take the boat out and do a little swimming. Savannah has not been in deep water as of this week and by today she was so brave and was swimming in between mommy and daddy like she had been doing it for years! Then we fished a little more and Savannah a champ and caught TWO more!!! One of them came off the hook in the boat and before we knew it, Savannah had picked up the fish and held it a little while before throwing it back. She was such a champ all weekend long! I even caught a few of my own and I had to remind Cameron a few times that he did marry a Huster and I know a little about fishing! We then got cleaned up and headed to dinner and put a close to a great vacation! The ride home was little long since Savannah decided a nap was not in the cards. But all in all, we are happy to be home, Chip is happy to be back to his own couch (although he was greatly cared for while we were gone thanks to Jen) and I am so grateful to have such a great family to vacation with!!!! But I think I can wait a little while before the next trip is planned!!!!!!!

Moores and the River

We have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather and getting out on the river as much as possible. Saturday morning I went out with Uncle Steve and Matthew to do a little cat fishing. We did good and caught 7 cats. Then today we went out with the Moores and had a great time. Savannah is getting more use to the river and really starting to have some fun in the water. In fact she did not want to get out of the water today. We went up to the sandbar on Enterprise Island again. The popular sandbar is Iowa, but the people are either really young or Wallies. A Wallie is a boater that doesn’t really have a clue as to what they are doing. So we have been going to Enterprise. The people have been great and there are kids everywhere. Sorry, got sidetracked there, back to the day’s events. The Moores brought their oldest daughter and left the really little one with family. Erin and Linda sat on the sandbar like princesses while Jeff and I played with the girls in the water. Savannah and I were splashing around and jumping up and down almost getting her head in the water, but not quite. The Jeff’s daughter would run down the sandbar and splash the both of us causing Savannah to laugh like crazy. Then the little Moore got into the action and the three of us were jumping up as high as I could with one kid in each arm. They were both laughing harder and harder. It was a lot of fun. There were some other girls that walked by absolutely covered in mud. So Jeff had to take his daughter to find the “mud hole”, and the did. They were both covered. The little one head to toe and Jeff to his knees. But after a full day on the sandbar we headed for home. Of course, I needed a little help making sure we were going the right way so the oldest Moore daughter was more than happy to lend a hand. It was a great day on the river. We are hoping to do it again next weekend when we meet up with the Haislips.

More Fun on the River

The Denisons had another fun day on the river. This time we brought some friends with us. The Husters (the Melanie/Alan branch) joined us in our fun. Of course this was almost the trip that wasn’t. Unfortunately on Thursday night Grandma Denison was admitted into the hospital with severe anemia. The condition was found during a blood test for a routine checkup. The doctor called and told her to go to the emergency room. The following day they performed an esophagogastroduodenoscopy procedure and found that the loss of blood was from an ulcer. This was VERY good news (not that ulcers are good, but they are treatable with medication). Grandma was then released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon. She and Jan went to Tony’s for dinner Saturday night since that was where they were headed on Thursday when she ended up in the hospital. So, back to the river. We headed out a bit late, around 2:00 and stopped at the first spot we could find (Enterprise Island). The temperature was perfect, the sand was nice and the water was refreshing. Nikole and I played in the water, the Husters and Linda sat on the sandbar and watched Savannah and Josh completely cover themselves in sand. As you can see from the pictures, Savannah had sand from head to toe, but she was having a great time. She also had a lot of fun “jumping” up and down in the water. She was not happy about getting in the boat and riding out to the sandbar this time. She was clinging to Mom the entire time. A good time was had by all. What are Melanie and Linda doing in that picture? The ride home was quiet for Savannah, she was nearly asleep. Both Nikole and Josh took turns driving the boat as we left the sandbar. I don’t think Savannah moved after she was put into her bed last night. We think part of her problem with getting in the boat and the whole thing is that her life jacket doesn’t seem very comfortable. So Daddy went out today and got her a new one. This one is neoprene which fits her a little better, is a little more stream lined and gives her greater movement with her arms and neck. We tried it on tonight after we got home from being gone for the open house and she would not take it off. Each time we went to take it off she would say “No” and run away from us, so I guess she likes it. We were actually supposed to go out again today and meet up with the Haislips, but with the open house, going out yesterday, and just being worn down in general, we decided we would be better off to skip today and relax a bit. Hopefully we can meet up with the Haislips again another day.

Little River Rat

Finally… after a year and a half we got to introduce our little one to the river, and she LOVED it. Our original plan was to go out this morning, before it got hot, but with the clouds hanging out this morning and the time it took me to fix the horn and replace one of the batteries, we waited until after nap time. We made a small cooler, lathered her up with sun block and headed down to the river. At first, Savannah wasn’t sure what was going on. She was in that stuffy life jacket and sitting in the middle of the back seat of the boat with mom. But once we got moving, and hit a couple of waves, she was having a good time. Each wave we hit she would say WEEE. Then we got to the sandbar. Again, she wasn’t sure what was up with this place at first. Very stiff legged when we first put her on the sand. But it didn’t take long and she was up to her elbows in sand. Because of the high water, the sandbar was more like a small cliff, which didn’t leave Savannah much room to play in. But she made do. We were talking with the people from the boat next to us, standing in the water, and here comes Savannah, walking out into the river like she had been doing it for years. She really had a good time. Before we knew it, it was past her dinner time. Luckily Mommy thought ahead and brought food for this occurrence. Savannah got to eat dinner in the boat while Daddy picked everything up and got ready to head for home. Of course, no kid can go out on the river without driving the boat. So, in true Denison fashion, Savannah climbed up on Daddy’s lap and took control. She was very serious about her driving. It was a great family day on the river. The first of thousands of trips I’m sure. Now, if we can just get a really small wakeboard…

A Day with Daddy

Our sitter is off this week so Linda and I have had to find an alternative way to keep the little one busy during the day. Actually we were fortunate enough to have her old sitter offer to watch her for the majority of the week. However, since I had to work on Sunday, I took today off to spend some quality time with my daughter, who is right now tearing her room apart and bringing me each item from her room one piece at a time… So far we have had quite a nice day. Mommy let me sleep in just a little bit, since it is my day off. After Mommy went to work, Savannah, Chip and I took a ride down to see the Ray and Cathy at Riverside Harbor, where we keep our boat. I’ll tell you more about that later, but if you know of anyone with “heavy equipment” that could clean up a lot of piled up corn stalks, please let me know. So after visiting, we went and got Chip some new toys to play with in the yard and came home. After lunch and a nap, we got to go swimming. I took a lot of pictures, but thought these were kind of cool. Anyway, that’s where we are now. Hopefully the rest of the day goes a well as it has so far.