The Return of Charlotte

The morning we left for our trip I saw that Charlotte had returned...the day after she made her egg sack! I read online where they can build up to four egg sacks. Was news to me, as I thought they just did one...I knew she was exceptional! Ha!

The Possum Haw has it's pretty berries on it! so excited to have one of these!

Charlotte and her dinner

She caught a Painted Lady here....I was kind of bummed one day she had caught a Monarch

Emily playing when she was at the house yesterday..

She is something else....wore her hat and gloves to the ballpark. She also wore these into the store that morning...along with her pink fuzzy coat!  It was too funny!

Look what Charlotte did last night!  Amazing!  I took this picture this morning.....she spent ALL day securing it into place....She worked soo hard!  Late this afternoon she went around the corner into the sun and rested the rest of the evening...we'll see if she has #3 still to come!

Branson Ferris Wheel

We came back through Branson on our way home. Lots to do there. One of the things we did was to ride the huge Ferris Wheel there.

I am not a huge fan of heights. Richard took these pictures..you can sure see a long ways

I can barely look at this picture! Don't look down! Ha!

He was getting a picture of this to show Tyler.

It turned almost dark while we were on there!

The lights continually changed on it...

Buffalo River

We stopped by a small park on the Buffalo River....Such a pretty place! 

It looked like some sort of Spanish Moss in some of the trees on the bluff....didn't know it grew that far North

scenic bridge!

Such interesting driftwood!

Sock Monkey wanted to get on that rope swing! I actually started wading out there to put/tie him on it for a picture, but didn't want to get my shorts wet...would have been funny though!

Sure was a pretty place and the water was so nice. We are sure this is a very busy place during the Summer!

Fifth Principal Meridian

We stopped by this place on our trip...The Fifth Principal Meridian...

Sock Monkey said it was in a swamp!

Loved getting a picture of this owl!

This park was nicely done....lots of informative signs and a well-constructed walkway across to swamp to the monument.

Sock Monkey was impressed

Here  it is! I am married to a land surveyor and he thought this was pretty neat....

It was so quiet down in the swamp...we could hear the Water Tupelo berry things falling into the water...neat place

Monkey praising the monument

Frog we saw once we got back to the parking lot..

I think these were the Southern version of our Surprise Lillies

We saw a Cottonmouth on the road..he didn't move either...just laid there!

This was a neat place and I am glad we went. We are also planning on visiting the Sixth Principal Meridian! Which means we'll head on out farther West too and visit our Nebraska people!

Aquarium

This area also opened the day we were there...well, the actual opening was the day before, a private showing for dignitaries, etc  This place was sooo awesome.I am thinking kids might like this area better....and it was something else....as with the other area, no way I could even start to think about taking pictures of everything

a whole big room devoted to shells

several of the tanks had places where you could crawl into the area and stand up and be inside of the tank..pretty cool!

aren't the stairs neat?

Just one of the real life sized boats in there

A person could sit and watch this for a while!

I see Nemo!  

There were a couple areas where you could reach in and touch the fish...one full of sting-rays and the other had different kinds of marine life in it.  To me, both of those places are a must-see....so well done and amazing!