Julia made her first trip to Dollywood and Emily made her first trip that can make a lasting impression. We took it as a learning experience to see how much we could do, where things were, what rides could the girls ride, and what would hold their interest. Given that I have been to Dollywood a lot over my life, I loved being able to see it new through their eyes. The girls were a little overwhelmed, but loved it.

We rode the carousel, a pig ride, a duck ride, a bee ride, and a simple roller coaster. Julia wasn’t big enough to ride the roller coaster, but was able to ride all the others. All of them were huge hits. The girls loved being together on the rides. Emily rode the roller coaster by herself and just seemed lost in the car. She described her ride by saying that she was scared. I think she should try it again with a person with her and then judge the ride.

The girls tried their first funnel cake. I was secretly hoping they wouldn’t like it and then I would never have to share, but who doesn’t like funnel cake. Emily kept calling it ‘Fun’ cake. With a name like that we will have to have it often.

Julia was playing with a toy filled with jelly beans, but didn’t know how to open it. Well, at least I thought she didn’t know how to open it. I was wrong. She didn’t quite know how to finish each jelly bean and was putting them back in the container and getting a new one to taste. What a sticky mess! She was sure happy with herself.

The girls and I had fun playing one morning with curlers. We didn’t have to be anywhere, and Emily asked to have her hair curled, so we curled hair. There was no way that Julia was going to be left out of the fun. She was willing to sit still and let me put in a few rollers. It was good that her hair was long enough to hold them. She couldn’t leave them alone and pulled them all out on her own. Emily thought she was big stuff and didn’t complain when I put them in or took them out. Usually, she complains anytime I run a brush through her hair.

Who doesn’t love the zoo? We were kindly invited by our good friends to play at the zoo and we took them up on the invite. The girls just enjoy each other so much and the mama’s enjoy each other company too. It is a win-win.

We converted our double stroller to a sit-and-stand stroller and this was our first outing with it. Emily loved the new sitting arrangement. She could get out easily and she loved being able to face me. We had a lot more conversations because of the sitting arrangement.

We wandered the zoo checking out a bear, feeding camels, watching zebras eat, trying to climb a fence to see the elephant better, watching the chimps get their room cleaned, eating lunch, playing in the sand, riding a carousel, and generally having a lot of fun. Emily tripped and got her first bloody nose which was a non-event. It stopped quickly and she was distracted from it after a short crying spell. Both of my girls were unimpressed with dip-n-dots which I thought odd, but happily ate theirs. The only girl who was interested in looking at the camera to have her photo taken was Maeve, so I don’t have any great posed shots. That is just going to be the case for a while longer I guess.

We discuss monkeys a lot at our house. There is a book the girls like with monkeys and Emily picks out which is Mommy, Daddy, Emily and Julia. The girls like to immitate monkeys with sound and motions. And Emily has dubbed our family as a “monkey family” with a “monkey mommy”, “monkey daddy”, “monkey girl”, and “monkey baby”. So when we got to the monkey area at the zoo, I was excited for the girls to see some monkeys. To my disappointment, while we were able to see them, we did so only through a gated wall where they were waiting for the monkey house to be cleaned. Then I noticed the special sign the zoo keeper had put out and Julia’s interest in hanging out by the sign. If you take the word “in” out of the statement you can truly appreciate the “monkey baby” outside the exhibit.

With summer come the end of all our normal weekly activities. Last week was the end of three of these activities. Our swim class, Thursday school, and Bible Study Fellowship. We have a few more weeks of Little Gym before the spring classes end.

The swim class was only eight weeks long, but it was a fun eight weeks. We splashed, swam, and bobbed our way through them. I was so proud of Emily and her interest in swimming. She enjoyed her teacher, liked to preform for her, and was getting a sense of being in the water under her own steam. Julia still wasn’t “fearful” of the water so it was fun to do things without her clinging to me. She didn’t like to float on her back, but enjoyed most of the other activities. She would “swim” between the teacher and her Mama, practice her crab walk along the pool edge, swim to a ball she would throw out in the water, and sing motion songs with the class. We are planning on both girls to take the fall version of the class again.

Thursday School was both for Emily and Julia. The class gave Emily the opportunity to learn to play with others along with learning life lessons. It also gave Julia some special Mama time. We would go to Mother Goose together, shop, eat breakfast, play, and see our friend Maeve.

Bible Study Fellowship was an opportunity for all of us to have some constructive time of learning. Mama enjoyed her study of scripture, Emily loved spending the morning with her class and striving to be the class leader, and Julia played her morning away with other toddlers and snacks. Out of all our activities this one was the most regimented. I could see such growth in Emily with her group participation and living up to high expectations. What a joy! After class we would walk a special sidewalk out to our car. Emily kept wanting to walk further on the sidewalk, so I started parking at the end of the sidewalk so that she could enjoy walking the whole way.

There are so many fun activities to fill our summer with, but this week will feel a little empty without the activities that have come to define our week. Emily typically asks each day where we are going or what we are doing. We will just have to enjoy each day and what fun activity comes with each one.

We had a lovely afternoon Saturday and went out to play in the backyard pool. Julia was a little unsure of sitting in the water, which was cool. Emily was all business in playing in the water. She hadn’t seen these toys in a while and they had a lot of play in them. My favorite thing they did was to pour water into a toy basket that had more holes than not. They also enjoyed ‘drinking’ the water out of a bucket. Both girls loved their playtime and were sad to get out, but the rumbles of a coming storm ended our playtime for us.