vaca....i guess.

DISCLAIMER: Sorry if some of the pics don't show up- i can't figure out why some of the copied and pasted pics are working and some aren't...so...sorry.

So, we loaded up the kiddos and headed to Branson...our first "family vacation."  Um...I don't know whether I'd advise taking a trip with a three year old.  Ridge, the baby, was excellent the entire trip- of course he does sleep pretty much all night long, and the rest of the time he is usually held, so he doesn't really have any room to gripe.  We mainly took the trip for Sawyer, but "off-routine" events did not serve him well...and we had a lot of fits...which resulted in even more spankin's (sorry if you are anti- spanking...we, obviously, are not).  but we had a pretty good time overall i guess.  

Here are some highlights of our trip....

we set off around 8:20 on a Tues. morning....forgot the pike pass and had to come home so we didn't really leave till about 8:45...Ridge was lookin' like this:

His daddy gave him that mohawk the night before....but it was still there in full force that morning.  We did nothing to get him to smile- he did that on his own.

Sawyer was lookin' like this:

The car ride was actually pretty good-- we stopped a couple times, but didn't really have any issues; Sawyer watched his DVDs the whole car trip, and Ridge mostly just slept.  It took us about an hour or two longer than if we'd had no kids with us, but not too bad, all in all.

Here's where we stayed:

brandon enjoying the water park
some guy i don't know but this slide was in the park
sawyer liked the splash park
this is the clubhouse of the waterpark...i didn't take a picture of the hotel.

 this is the hotel, but i can't get the pic larger

So, the first day we just hung out at the hotel b/c it was late when we got there...well too late to do much with 2 kiddos.  The second day, we got up early and went here:

That night we went to the Noah musical.  You weren't supposed to have any cameras inside, so I didn't break the rules, but it was AMAZING!  the entire theater is eventually made to be like the inside of the ark, and it is FULL of animals- some real, some animatronic- but they all look real!  If you ever get the chance to see it, go. I've copied two photos from online, and then there's 2 photos of the theater front.

Oh, I forgot that earlier that day we went to Silver Dollar City....I didn't take pictures b/c we didn't stay long.  Sawyer didn't like the rides, and I refused to stay in the heat for nothing....they wouldn't let us take the stroller into the shows, and I wasn't leaving it outside b/c it was too expensive to get stolen.  

The next day Sawyer and Brandon rode go-karts....Sawyer did not really like this unless Brandon went super slow.  

This is the track they went to-- see why sawyer was scared?

After that, we went here:

This is the Titanic Museum-- also a great stop.  Sawyer liked parts of it, and was bored in part of it, but was pretty good that visit.  Good thing he was free to most of the things we did.  The museum is so interesting- upon entrance you are given a card with a story of a person who really was on the Titanic.  You are told where you can find out more about them w/in the museum, and at the end of the exhibit, you find out if they were a survivor or not.  There was a lot of fascinating information in that museum, and I'm sure we saw it for a much shorter than normal time period since we had a 3 year old with us.  It was incredible.  Here is another pic (these are all online, copied and pasted, b/c no cameras were allowed)

The following and final day, we shopped @ outlet malls all day.  It was super fun and we got some good deals and some cute stuff.  Sawyer was super well-behaved this day which was a complete shock since, in my mind, shopping would be the most boring of the three days, especially to a 3 year old.  

The icing on the cake of the trip was supper on the way home.  Here is where we ate:

and it was WONDERFULLY DELICIOUS.  Definitely worth the hour and five minute wait....next time we will stop there on the way to Branson and the way back, for sure.  Food was great, prices weren't high, and you got all these free pass arounds (okra, rolls, sorghum, macaroni, black eyed peas, fried potatos-- free-- all you could eat!)

The rolls...they throw them at you.

The sweet tea...it's great...and served like this:

mmm...it was our favorite stop of the entire trip.  

So...there was our branson experience in a nutshell.  Here's some funny stuff Sawyer did...I can only think of two things so far, but I'm sure there were lots more.

1. at the outlet mall, just as we were about to leave, I turned to find sawyer pulling his pants down about to pee on the sidewalk.  and he couldn't figure out why this bothered me.

2.  at the hotel, sawyer found out where some guy was from, and the guy said, "where are you from?" sawyer replied, "Well...Jesus gave me to my mommy and daddy, but I don't really know where i'm from."

Upon arriving home, here are some things Sawyer did...

1. Today, sawyer announced, "everyone stinks in this house."

2. (this might not be for those uncomfortable when it comes to feeding a baby)-- I was feeding ridge.  he wasn't eating well.  brandon jokingly said he could feed him if he wasn't really going to eat...and proceeded to raise his shirt.  Sawyer said, "put your boobies away daddy, nobody wants to see that."

Yeah, so there it is. sorry for the long post!