Vacation 2012

This year, I spent almost 3 weeks away from home! My new home no less!  I went down to Missouri with my mom and grandmother, to be joined a week later by my husband and the rest of my family (dad, aunt, cousins).  Then, Mike and I stuck around and spent our net week in Eureka Springs before heading back home.   Some noteworthy adventures included:

• Silver Dollar City: 2 days of watching craftspeople and my cousins making themselves sick on the roller coasters! 

• Dogwood Canyon: one of our favorite places to see waterfalls and wildlife

• The Butterfly Palace : we like the fluttery wings

• Cosmic Caverns

• Sherwood Court: Our cottage residence for the week, we ended up going back after our night away at the refuge! 

• Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge: (amazing!!!) where we stayed in a treehouse and watched big cats romp and frolic

• Quigley's Castle: quirky home of a quirky lady, obsessed with rocks

• Onyx cave : so very, very retro.  Big headphone audio tour and all 

• Beaver Lake: swimming hole! A little rocky but very fun! 

• The world's largest wind chime: because 

• Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis:  It was 110 and oh so hot, but a beautiful stop on the way home! 

And many, many yummy restaurants! On top of the regulars like the farmhouse in downtown Branson (best chicken fried steak!), Billy Bob's (50's cafe with burgers), and the dining room at Hard Work U, we had some fantastic food in Eureka Springs! We ate at the Local Flavor three days for lunch, and the Rockin' Pig three times for dinner, oh so fantastic! We also found great pizza at Chelsea's cafe.  Some great food all localized in a very small radius, though two of our finds were a little off the main radar! (Thank you, Biker's guide and the off the beaten trail guidebook!) 

Moving!

This spring much of our free time was spent packing and moving! We said goodbye to Dekalb and moved all the way to... Sycamore! The town next door!  We're renting a lovely condo in an area that's a little less college-y and has a rockin' front porch!

Phoebe's First Christmas

Our winter was somewhat uneventful, but my parents adopted an adorable new dog. Phoebe was rescued from a "home" where she had been tied up outside for the entire first year of her life, and was shot with paintballs by her so called owners.  How terrible! She was still adjusting to living in a house, being with people, and even walking normally at Christmas, but obviously is enjoying her new home!