Summer Days: 1-5

Summer, Day 1:
8:00am We met my parents about 20 miles away & embarked on a trip to Branson, Missouri. I've been a couple times as a kid & my parents have been a ton of times, but the rest of my family (and my niece, who joined us) had never been. We drove 470-ish miles that day & arrived in Branson about suppertime. After a nice meal at Bob Evans, we checked into the hotel & took the kids for their first swim of the summer in the hotel's indoor pool. It was a great way to end a long day of driving. (That's my mom in the pic with all the kids.)

Summer, Day 2:
8:00am We left the hotel to head to Silver Dollar City. It's a really fun amusement park. This is our whole crew when we first got there.


We had fun riding the Flooded Mine, Thunderation (Larry & the kids only), Fire in the Hole (everyone but my mom & dad), and the Powder Keg (Larry, Samuel & Savannah only...click the name of the ride to watch a quick video of it). I think there were other rides as well, but I can't remember all the names. Everyone but by dad went to the entrance of Marvel Cave with great anticipation of going into it, but a couple of the kids chickened out after we'd gone down a few levels of stairs. I went back to the top with them (man oh man those stairs were STEEP going back up!) and waited with my dad while the others trekked into the center of the earth or something close. We left the park about 4:30pm and headed back to the hotel to clean up before going to see the Shoji Tabuchi show.

Shoji is from Japan (I think?) and has been in Branson for about 20 years doing this show. While he is the owner of the theater & main attraction of the show, the million dancers & huge band certainly make the show what it is. They are a very talented group of people & we had a fun evening watching all the singing, dancing & music.

Summer, Day 3:
8:00am We left the hotel for Springfield, Missouri's Bass Pro Shop. Apparently it is the largest of all the Bass Pro Shops. And large it is! This picture does nothing to show the enormity of this building! I don't have a wide enough lens to get it all!


Even if you're not interested in sporting goods, you'd find something cool to see in this store!! There were live animals everywhere as well as a ton of 'stuffed' animals. I can tell you that I'm not a huge fan of admiring dead stuffed animals, but the way they worked them into the 'landscape' of this store was really cool. In the middle of the toy department, there was a (stuffed) opossum hanging from a tree. In the shoe department, there were (stuffed) skunks 'chasing' each other on the top of shoe displays. It's hard to describe, but it was really neat to see. The kids had a blast climbing in/on all the boats (well, pontoon boats...ya know, party barges!) & ATVs.

Unfortunately about the time we left, Savannah was struck with a migraine that made the next several hours of her day pretty miserable. After we pulled over (due to her nausea) on the side of the highway several times, we finally made it back to the hotel where she & I layed down to rest while the others went to a go-cart track to play for a while. Thankfully after a couple hours' of sleep, she was able to get rid of the migraine & woke up feeling like doing something!

My mom & I took all four kids to some shops to look around at the souvenirs & stuff. We went to eat dinner afterward at a restaurant we hit a couple of times during the trip: McFarlain's. After supper, Larry & my dad wanted to hit a local show called Pierce Arrow. The kids & I were anxious to get in one more swim before we had to leave for home, so we stayed at the hotel for 1 more trip to the pool.

Summer, Day 4:
8:00am We left the hotel bright & early to get on the road home. We drove through a little bit of rain early in the morning, but that passed and we had a pretty clear day all the way home. It 6-something before we got home. After a very long day of driving, we were all ready to be home!

We could've have made this trip without my parents, who not only acted as tour guides, but also payed our way! I'm thankful for sweet family!

Summer, Day 5:
Back to work! Today was the first day of summer school at my school. All three kids went with me. Savannah was a helper for the teacher next door. Samuel was my helper & Sarah went to the school-aged kids' class. I kind of suspect that Samuel will end up going to the school-aged kids' class before the summer is over because he was kind of bored today. He's determined to do it, though, so he may stick it out just to prove me wrong. (Hmm....stubbornness....I can't imagine where he'd get that trait!)

I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we can get started on our summer reading program and summer chores, and even better.....sleeping late! {Please don't call my house before 9:00am unless it's an emergency or you KNOW I'm up.} I've got a few books awaiting me and the time to spare to read them! I can't wait!