Adventures in Branson

We went on vacation from June 7th through the 14th. Sunday on the way down to our resort we stopped by Springfield, MO to eat at Lambert's (home of the throwed rolls). We arrived at our cottage at around 5ish. We were settled into our cottage and then we headed up to the pool for a swim.







On Monday it almost felt like we were at home because we went to Wal-Mart, the Grocery store and the Emergency Care Center. The last we went to because Garrett had a bad looking infection on his arm. Of course it didn't look that bad until we were on vacation. We don't know what it was but the antibiotics have gotten rid of the infection. The one fun thing that the boys did this day was to go on the go carts. I stayed home with Keira while she took a nap.







Here is what I did a lot of on vacation: feed Keira. At least it was in a very pretty and different setting each time.






On Tuesday we went for a walk by Table Rock lake. It was pretty hot that day so the walk was kind of tiresome. It was definitely not cool like our Colorado trip. We already miss our Fall vacations. In the afternoon we went to the show "Noah the Musical". We thought that it was very good.






Wednesday and Friday were the days that we set aside for Silver Dollar City. Those were the days that the boys had the most fun and Mommy and Daddy were the most worn out. Actually Mike and I were exhausted in the evenings most nights. A vacation with three little ones is definitely not as relaxing as a vacation with just Mike and I. Cameron and Garrett were able to go on a lot of the rides at SDC. I usually like to look at the vendors but there wasn't much time for that when I had to feed Keira all the time (at least that is what it seemed like anyway). Wednesday was another hot day and Friday was nice in the morning and then a thunderstorm moved in miday. We stood inside a gift shop for an hour and a half for the rain to subside so we could walk to the car. We went home to catch the weather forcast and found out that the storm was all gone and there would be no more the rest of the day so we headed back to the park for a beautiful afternoon. On the way in we talked to some other folks who were doing the same thing. It was very fortunate that our resort was very close to SDC. While at SDC we had our pictures taken at the Old Time Photo place and here is the result. Keira had fallen asleep because she was so tired.






Thursday we didn't do much. We drove to this nice nature preserve where there was a tram or you could walk a nicely paved trail but they charged $8.00 a person to walk on it. We decided that $25.00 to walk a little ways on the trail was a little steep so we left and went to another small park with a playground. It was okay. I guess that you don't go to Branson to see nature. Then we went down to Branson landing and walked on the River walk, at least the boys did, I was, you guessed it, feeding Keira. They have a nice fountain where we took some pictures.




The last day of our vacation was on Saturday and we usually reserve that day for shopping day. We went to some of the outlet malls in the area. I was really looking forward to going to the Pfaltzgraff store but it closed down in December. Bummer! Mike found all of his Father's Day gifts at Old Navy and the bookstore. This is the one time of year that he will go shopping for clothes. We were worn out from shopping by the end of the day. It was time to go to the resort and go for our last swim. The boys looked forward to their daily water play. We went every day except for the days we went to SDC. Even Keira loved the water.

On Sunday we left for the trip home. We left the resort at 9:30 and then went for breakfast at Cracker Barrel where I found a cute metal bunny for my garden. We then went to the only quilt fabric store Branson on our way out. I found a couple of yards of fabric. It was 1:00 when we finally left Branson. Then I had this brilliant (ha, ha) idea that we would go by where my Grandpa and Grandma Bushouse lived in Theodosia. It didn't look very far on the map but it took us about 45 minutes or more to get there because of all the hills. We visited my Grandparents grave and the church were they attended. Then we had to take the back roads home. On the way from my Grandparents town we came upon a women who had run out of gas. We took her to the nearest gas station which was about 10 miles away in the direction we were going. Then we took her back to her car. By the time we got back to the gas station we were all hungry so we ate at the Subway which was the only resteraunt around. It was now 4:00pm. We had barely left Branson so we had a long way to go on back roads. Needless to say we got home late and the kids did not fall asleep until we were in St. Louis even though it was an hour and a half past their bedtimes. Even Keira did not want to sleep in the car. She just took a couple of catnaps.

Whew, another vacation was over. We used Monday of this past week to recover.