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.

Despite the hat being for a smaller person, Emily decided that she loved this Moose hat. She had to wear it to bed the other night. She was quite proud as seen in the sparkle of her eye.

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.