Branson

Back from Branson! 
It was a great, great trip that was given to us by my mom and dad for Christmas!  My kiddos and I (because Jeremiah didn't have enough vacation time) drove down with my brother Richie & his girlfriend Melissa.  We met my parents there, along with my sister Gina & her boyfriend Chase. 
Some highlights from the trip were:
* Go-karting on a super fun track (that had a 4 level twirly ramp)
* Swimming in the pool everyday!
* Going to Build-a-Bear and the kids getting their own animals
* Eating out at a couple great places with great food
* Spending good time with family (especially Gina & Chase)
* Walking on a beautiful day at Table Rock Lake
* Cake and Cream 50's ice cream shoppe!! 
* Driving up and down the main strip which looks kind of like a family-friendly Vegas strip.  Saw things like "Ripley's Believe it or Not" building that looks like it's cracked in half, the Hollywood Wax museum that has a fake Empire State Building with King Kong on it, The Titanic Museum that looks like the front of the Titanic, driving by "our little country church" which always make the kids giggle because it's really actually huge, driving by The Track go-karting places which has multiple locations and they'd get so excited to see the one we went to. 
* The church we went to on Sunday was a great experience and I'm so proud of my kiddos who sat through the 2 1/2 hour service and did really great. 
* Having cable and getting to introduce my kids to "Full House," my absolute favorite show as a kid and seeing that they equally loved it and wanted to know why it wasn't still on!  :)  Great family values show. 
* The weather was sunny the whole time and really warm and great on Thursday and Friday.
* My kids do really great with road trips and I'm so happy about that.  I keep it fun and fresh.  We had a little "How Close Are We?" indicator: I made a little picture of MN and put it on one side of the van, then tied a string over to the other side where there was a picture of Missouri.  I printed off a picture of a van like ours, put it on the string, and moved it so the kids could see how far we'd traveled and how close we were.  We got lots of library books, a couple library movies, had Roadtrip Bingo, bought a handful of Dollarstore gifts and wrapped them up for the kids to open when they were being really good.  I had "Branson Binders" for them with paper and markers in them to color on and a whiteboard with Scrabble tiles that had magnets for Jonah and Phia to "play" scrabble with. 
I also let them pack a little backpack of stuff they wanted to play with.  They each had their own snack bin with snacks in it.  Whenever they'd ask for a snack, I let them have one from their bin.  I didn't have to go digging for one for them and they were able to have as they pleased :)
* My absolute FAVORITE was going to see "Joseph" (not the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat version).  It was SUCH an amazing musical, beautifully written and performed.  Part of the cool part of this is that I'm reading the book "How to Raise a Modern-Day Joseph" and to see this show that depicts Joseph, his story and his relationship with God put everything into a very cool perspective.

It was a wonderful, wonderful trip and none of us wanted to come home!  That's the sign of a great time!