Family Reunion/Trip to Branson

The last weekend in June we had plans to head to Branson for a little mini vacation and to go to a family reunion for Bryson's mom's side of the family. We took Brody to Branson before Meg was born and he loved it so I was looking forward to taking Meg. My parents were so nice to offer to keep the kids Wednesday so I could run errands, clean house, and get all packed so we could leave on Thursday afternoon. The kids had a blast at the lake and came Thursday exhausted, which I thought would be great since we were going to be in the car for at least 5 hours. Boy was I wrong. The car ride was torture and just one of many times during our trip that we felt like we might be in our own (slightly less funny) version of Christmas Vacation. The happy stuff first though!!!

We arrived around 7:00ish Thursday evening and got checked into our hotel. The kids were excited to finally be there and hotels are always thrilling to them. We enjoyed meeting a lot of the family that evening (I had never met any of the family members before and Bryson only remembered a few from his younger years). The kids enjoyed throwing rocks into beautiful Table Rock Lake and running around with some of the other little kids!

Friday we woke up pretty early and got ready to head to Silver Dollar City. I love this place because it is great for kids and I have never been when it is busy. I love this picture of them before we headed out. Doesn't Meg look SO big???

We let daddy ride a few roller coasters when we arrived since the lines were so short. The kids loved watching him do those crazy rides!

Then we headed to some family rides. It was awesome to just walk up and walk right on!

They loved trying to shoot people with water on a boat ride!

And with Meg you always have to ride the carousel.

The gun shooting ride was a big hit.

Bryson shot the most targets, go figure!

Then we headed to a dog stunt show. It was very cool. Both kids loved it and loved getting to pet the dogs afterwards.

We bought Brody a frisbee and he got to throw it for one of the stunt dogs. He did and the dog caught it. He thought this was such a big deal!

The teacups. The line sure beat the one at Disney World last year!

This ride went fast so Meg and I sat out

But the ladybugs were just her speed

Loving it

After lunch Gran B joined us and got to enjoy a few rides with them

While Bryson and Gran B rode some of the roller coasters I took the kids to the play area.

I am sure this is very sanitary

And then we told Brody he could get his face painted. He had been wanting to all day and he was so excited to be transformed into a tiger!

And of course Meg couldn't be left out. She loved being a butterfly and they loved the nice man who did the painting. Both of them seriously almost fell asleep while he was painting their faces!

That night we went to the Dixie Stampeded which was so fun. I have no pictures but trust me the kids loved it. The next day we went a a cousins house for the family reunion. They had a beautiful home in a woodsy area by Table Rock Lake. We spent the day hanging out getting to know family! I was so busy keeping up with the kids and chatting that I took no pictures again.

Sunday morning we woke up fairly early again and Bryson and Gran B took the kids swimming while I got packed up and loaded the car. I joined them for a little bit at the pool and then headed to Branson Landing for a little surprise for Brody!

We took him to Ride Makers. It is essentially like Build A Bear but instead of a stuffed animal you build a remote control car! Meg insisted on having one too. We didn't exactly know what we were getting ourselves into. It ended up being much more expensive than Build A Bear. It was still a lot of fun!

Getting the car ready for tires

The people working there were so nice and very helpful!

Making sure it works

The finished products!

After a fun little train ride through Branson Landing thanks to Gran B we loaded up and headed home. It was a great trip and the ride home went so much better than the ride there! The kids were so good we even stopped to see our friends Mike and Libby in Tulsa and their sweet little baby Claire!

So these are just a few of the things that made us feel like we were on Christmas Vacation.......

*Getting all loaded up, kids buckled in and realizing I couldn't find my keys anywhere. I had been so prepared and then that happened. Brody finally found them for me. I love that kid!

*Meg crying a majority of the way there and finally throwing up about 30 minutes from our destination.

*Unpacking our bags to realize that one of the rice milks I had packed had a hole in it and had leaked all in our bags....nice!

*Spending at least 1 1/2 hours at the hotel restaurant trying to eat breakfast. The kids were going crazy waiting for a waitress to serve us and to finally get our food. It was ridiculous!

*We found a tick on Brody's testicles (yes TMI) on Saturday and pulled it off. Gross. A few days later the spot where the tick had been was swollen and he had red bumps all over. I had to closely monitor it for a few days to make sure it wasn't lyme disease.

*And to top it all off on the way home I started feeling very itchy. I noticed a number of red bumps all over my stomach. The bumps got itchier and multiplied in the next few hours. I ended up with twenty or more all over and I swore I had been bit by bed bugs (one of my worst nightmares). I later came to the conclusion that it was chiggers but they itched for a good five days.

This will definitely be one of those trips that we will look back on and say, "Remember when we want to Branson".