Our Branson Adventure

Our First time at Silver Dollar City

Well, I survived driving about ten hours with my four kids to Branson Missouri alone. Not recommended but we did it so the kids can see their great grandparents, grandparents, aunt, and three cousins. Papa and Grandma drove all the way from California with Kim and her three children so what's ten hours compared to that? The nostalgia of this area just puts me right back into my childhood. Those long car rides through endless fields of crops and wondering where we were. I remember stopping once on the side of the road to check out the "BigFoot" monster truck and buying a smashed penny to commerate the occasion. But this trip I was the one driving and I needed to know exactly where I was. I had technology on my side but I admit that once I was in Missouri, the road signs got the best of me and I got lost....twice. We were driving in the middle of NOWHERE and all three of the kids and myself had to use the potty. So I finally stopped on a dirt road next to a field full of cows and all of us went potty behind the Durango. Donovan commented that going potty by the side of the road was a lot of fun! That's my boy!

 We finally made it to Branson with the help of my Dad and we spent the afternoon swimming at our hotel with the cousins, aunt Kimmy, Grandma, and Papa. Then we met GG Ma and GG Pa at Olive Garden for some dinner. Yum Yum Pasta!
The next three days were spent enjoying Silver Dollar City and Whitewater. The first day was at Silver Dollar City. We went on some new coasters that were not there when we were little. We checked out Fire in the Hole (which was my favorite ride when I was little) and it is actually a pretty creepy ride. Roxy, Dono, and Jojo loved the kiddie area where they rode the mini coaster about 14 times in a row before they moved on to another ride. It was fun to see the kids enjoying themselves with their cousins and grandparents.
Whitewater was a really fun water park that we checked out on the second day. It was a good alternative to the old water slide that we went on when we were young. That thing went about 3 miles an hour but it was about a mile long so we had fun doing a bunch of silly tricks before we reached the bottom. Roxy had fun going that the really tall slide with Papa. Donovan really enjoyed all the slides he was tall enough to go on. Jordyn spent her time in the kiddie area going down the mini slides over, and over, and over, and over! On day two (which was the Fourth of July) we split our day between whitewater and then went over to GGMa and Pa's house for dinner. Let me just say that Vera has the ULTIMATE crafting shed and it's something to strive for :)

Grandma had sparklers for
everyone! Unfortunately all of them
caught fire at once so only Grandma
got to play with a sparkler!

We went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede on day three and it was a great time. The kids really liked watching the horses and cheering for the South (who lost by the way). They really liked the opening act who was a juggler. Donovan was mesmerized by the guy balancing on the ladder and juggling fire at the same time.

Waiting for the Dixie Stampede

Gwennie hanging with Papa

Our trip home was pretty uneventful except for when Donovan screamed that he was going to throw up and he needed to get out of the car. So I quickly pulled over to the side of the road and he stared at the bushes. He ended up not pucking and he was fine for the rest of the time and about 9 hours later we were home in Tennessee and started packing up for our next adventure, Shaver! It was a lot of fun to stroll down memory lane and I'm glad my kids were able to see GGma and GGpa. I can tell that the kids will keep these memories with them forever. Thanks grandma and papa for the wonderful time! And thank you Aunt Kimmy and kids for coming and playing with us!