Denise's Summer Break Blast!

The fun never stops around here!! Denise drove back with us from Utah and stayed 9 days! We did our best to fill them with unforgettable fun.

Here's the breakdown that is sure to make all the rest of you wish you were here! (Please come! You are always welcome! We love excuses to do fun things!)

We arrived late on July 8th so we just went to bed. On the 9th we mostly hung around and slept a bit but that night we went to our favorite movie theater (with recliner chairs) to watch Despicable Me 2. It was so cute!

On July 10th I spent most of the day studying. Denise was a lifesaver as she helped me cram formulas for triangles and how to find the area of rectangles. Come to find out, it was a major blessing as there were at least four questions on the GMAT that referred to that Trig.

On July 11th, I woke up early and left at 7:30am to take the GMAT. I was sooo nervous. They have more security there than a prison, I'm sure. Each time we entered or left the room they did a palm scan and checked our IDs. It was a four hour exam with a 30 min analytic writing section, 30 minute integrated reasoning, 75 min quantitative, 75 min verbal section and two optional breaks (which I didn't take). When it was finally over, I was sure I had failed. However, I didn't fail. I didn't do well enough to get into Harvard, but UMKC will take me. :)

When I got home we decided to go out to lunch to celebrate. We went to BRGR for some gourmet burgers and fries. We then visited the Nelson-Atkins for some cultural enrichment. We tried to explain to Denise why Picasso, Monet and Van Gough were famous, but she just liked taking funny pictures. ;)

Alexander with his Assyrian Genie friend.

Denise also made a new friend...

We tried to imitate the expression on her, uh, face. 

I think Picasso was a little confused about where the mouth should go...

July 12th was spent getting ready for my party on the 13th. Sunday, the 14th, we went to church and had a roast beef dinner. It was kinda nice to just be a bit lazy.

July 15th we drove down to Branson. We ate lunch at Lambert's Cafe (famous for their "throwed rolls"). The food was delicious and the helpings were huge! We had to roll ourselves out of the restaurant!

They served the water in big gas station jugs, which was a good idea as we were extra thirsty!

We then drove down Branson's strip and went to the Branson Belle Showboat. We boarded at 4pm and they took our picture as we entered. They had some pretty darn good pink lemonade and I think the three of us drank at least a gallon, if not more. They fed us roast beef, chicken, mashed potatoes and snow peas. It was really good (though we weren't really hungry due to our large lunches). The show was pretty entertaining. The Showmen were a group of 5 young men with great voices and Janice Martin, violinist, pianist, vocalist, and acrobatic performed as well. She was incredible! I was blown away by all the talent!

The entrance to the landing. 

The Branson Belle Showboat

Table Rock Lake

Denise is ready to sail!

Playing in the gift shop.

Denise is lookin' good!

They took this picture for us :)

Pretty sweet organ.

Overlooking the dining hall.

I am so short!

While we ate dinner and watched the show, the boat cruised around Table Rock Lake. We had an intermission that allowed us to take pictures on the deck. We had so much fun! When the show ended we walked out into pouring rain, which was a bit of a surprise!

Caught in the Rain!

On July 16th, I turned 30 years old. I woke up to find that Denise had blown up balloons and written sweet things on them such as, beautiful, fantastic smile, good example, etc. Denise and Alexander were very sweet to humor me and go with me to the zoo even though it was quite hot. We decided that if we left early enough we would miss most of the heat. It was good that we had done that as the afternoon was super hot and we would have melted!

We are hardcore jungle explorers!

Fun on the Sky Tram

See Alexander photo bombing in the back?

And the giraffe is photo bombing off to the right in this picture.

Denise with lions in the background.

Denise thought she would go to Australia.

This giraffe is pretty.

We are such a heavenly couple!

The lion wasn't too pleased about the heat.

Meerkat!

Rhino!

For dinner we made my traditional birthday dinner of bacon and tomato sandwiches with Eton Mess for dessert. Delicious!!

On the 17th, we went down to Union Station to see if we could sneak in their featured exhibit before Denise flew home. We were lucky and got in just in time. The exhibit was called Real Pirates and was put on by National Geographic (so you know it's gonna be good!). It featured the artifacts recovered from a wrecked pirate ship, the Whydah. The ship started out as a slave transport ship but was captured by famous pirate Sam Bellamy who claimed her as his flagship. He only had the ship a short time before it wrecked in 1717 in a huge Nor'easter off of Cape Cod. The artifacts were incredible. It was amazing what the divers had been able to recover!

Blurry, but it proved we were all there together. :)

It was fun because Union Station is all decked out with pirates and ship decor. We had fun with some of the statues.

I think Denise has found herself a new man!

Jealous, Alexander?

After the pirate adventure, we took Denise to the airport to fly home. It was so much fun having her here and we really missed her when she left. Godiva was sad the whole rest of the day and wouldn't leave the guest bedroom in the hopes that Denise would be back.