Branson Missouri

We decided to take our vacation a little early this year, and the first week of May we drove up to Branson Missouri. It was a good 8 hour drive, but the kids did great. We had the DVD player set up in the car as well as the wii so the kids were content with plenty to do. The drive was really very pretty, once we got into Arkansas it was beautiful with rolling hills and lots of trees. We exchanged our timeshare and stayed at the Lawerence Welk resort in Branson, it was a pretty resort with a nice indoor pool and water slide. We spent a lot of time there! Of course I forgot the camera every time we went to the pool. By the end of the week Ben and Aliza had both greatly improved on their swimming skills. Aliza was even swimming without her floaties, we really could hardly get her out of the pool. Ben had mastered diving to the bottom of the pool to pick things up, as well as swimming with his face in the water. Lilly was content to sit in the hot tub most of the time, she really liked the warmer water. Unfortunately Lilly got really sick while we were gone so she wasn't enjoying all the activities as much as she normally would have :(

On Monday, Don took the kids to the butterfly palace while I stayed home with Lilly. They had over 1000 different types of butterflies flying around in the atrium. Aliza was apparently freaked out about the butterflies and did not want them anywhere near her. In the picture where she is smiling and pointing at a butterfly, Don said she was panicked and could barely get her to stand there for the picture! On Tuesday we went to the Talking Rocks Caves. This was pretty interesting as well. Where we entered the cave you were already 70 feet underground and the temperature always stays at 65 degrees. There were lots of neat things to see and it is amazing to thing that all of the formations were caused from water eating away at the limestone. One interesting thing the guide told us was that cave formations only grow about one inch every 100 years! That is amazing looking at how large some of the formations were. Once again Aliza was freaked out with the cave, she was afraid there would be bears in there! At one point they turned out all the lights in the cave so we could see what it was like when the first explorer went into the cave, it was extremely dark and I thought Aliza and Lilly were going to lose it.

This is called brain coral

This is known as the bacon

One funny thing here was inside the gift shop they had a fake cave that you could crawl around thru, it was mainly for kids but adults could do it as well. So of course Lilly wanted to go in with Ben and Aliza so Don decided he would take her thru. After about 5 min you can hear him starting to struggle. Ben and Aliza had gone off ahead but could not seem to find the end so they started to come back to the beginning. When they reach their dad they tell him there is no way out and they have to go back. Don start so panic telling them that there has to be a way out. His voice is getting louder and strained, of course I am cracking up on the outside of the cave as he tells Ben to take Lilly and find a way out. It was like he was telling them to go on with out him and have a good life - it was soooo funny. Of course they found the way out, including Don!

Wednesday I drove an hour to find an urgent care for Lilly, I could not believe there was not an urgent care in Branson! Poor baby had bronchitis and an ear infection. Later that night we went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. That was so much fun, It was a dinner show that pitted the North against the South in a night of fun and games. We sat on the side for the rebel south! We were behind in points most of the night, but our team rallied and won the final competition to win the whole thing. The kids loved every minute of this show, there were pig races, wagon races, and even barrel racing, lots of fun for everyone! You were not allowed to take pictures during the show so no pictures of that day.

On Thursday we went down to a place called Branson Landing which was a courtyard with a bunch of shops and some water fountains that were synchronized to music. It was a great night to watch the fountains the weather was perfect and the kids enjoyed it as well they even had some that blew out fire as well. Friday morning we woke up to storm sirens going off and a phone call from the front desk telling us a tornado was in the area and we needed to take shelter in the bathroom! So there we sat with the kids for 45 min. waiting for the all clear. Now we get tornado warnings in Texas as well, but they still always make me so nervous! Later that day we went to oldtown Branson for a ice cream cone at what turned out to be a very expensive ice cream parlor - $2.50 for 1 scoop!! Overall we had a great time, it was lots of fun and helped to renergize us!