Our 1st Family Vacation.....

Well, as many of you know, we took our first "official" Family Vacation this year. In the years past, Stouty has tried to call camping, vacation. NOT THIS YEAR BUDDY! I decided, last year, that we were going to take a "hotel" vacation. We were going to spend too much money and we were going to have fun doing it. And MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Our original plans started like this:

June 3rd we would head out to Oklahoma to visit with my cousin and her family for the weekend. Then Monday, June 6th, we (Stouty, J.J. and I) would meet up with my parents in Branson.
For Oklahoma, we didn't really have any plans. Just to get there and hang with the family that I never see and catch up on good times. The last time we saw each other was when my grandma passed away and it has been a few years.

For Branson, the only plans that were set in stone was going to Silver Dollar City for 2 days. Other than that, we just went with the flow and did what we wanted once we got there. (which ended up costing us more money than we planned on spending lol)

We started actually counting down like 4 months ahead of time because J.J. just couldn't wait to go! Now we were down to 3 days. And then I got a message from my cousin. She had to cancel our plans because her husbands mother had fallen ill and they had to help take care of her.

I cried. And Stouty thought I was overreacting. Of course. But, I was upset. I've been looking forward to hanging out with my cousin for a long time. We always talk about how much we need to get together and that we'll get together and soon we'll do it and then it just never happens. Well, it was going to happen! I made sure that we scheduled them into our vacation because I miss them something terrible and I just got sick of always "talking" about getting together and never doing it.

I couldn't stay upset with them. Someone getting sick doesn't exactly happen when you "want" it to. I suppose I was just disappointed that it wasn't going to happen after actually PLANNING it.

So after I "got over it". (lol) I called my mom and we decided to go down to Branson with them a day earlier than we planned.

Sit back and enjoy some pictures that highlight our trip..........

June 5th:

Almost there!

We got to Branson 2 hours before we could check in so we went to lunch at the Big Chicken. (OK, not really what it was called but I can't remember and it wasn't THAT good.)

After lunch/dinner we were able to check into our room and this little furry creature and his mate hung out on the grounds.

And the rest of day one was spent in the pool......


June 6th:

Monday morning we jumped in the van to hit the strip.....

J.J. is always so serious! lol

After Ripley's, we took J.J. on some bumper boats (Papa got the wettest!) then on some go-carts!

Lunch time!! When you're on vacation, you get dessert after every meal!

After lunch we decided to hit the Wax Museum. BIG waste of money. Don't go. We did have fun inside but it really isn't worth the money. The outside of the building is worth seeing and you can do that for free. lol We wish we would have gone to the Butterfly Palace instead.

He posed in this one without anyone telling him to. LOL!

Dinner was at an All You Can Eat Seafood Buffet........AWFUL! Expensive dinner that we could have done without.

June 7th:

Tuesday.....SILVER DOLLAR CITY! Soooooo much fun! But I LOVE amusement parks!

J.J.'s face on this one was PRICELESS! He was scared and loving it at the same time! Too bad they charge so much for the "ride picture"...it really was awesome.

And we hit the arcade in the hotel after spending the day at Silver Dollar City.

Finished off a long hot day in the pool.....


June 8th:

Wednesday we took J.J.  to his first magic show.... He LOVED it!!! (I personally wanted to punch the guy in his face... =D)

I was asked to delete my pictures........oops. Guess I forgot!

A picture of a picture! We had dinner that night at Montana Mikes. By far the BEST food we had on our trip. I HIGHLY recommend it. And this was the cheapest picture that we took and the best so we bought it.


June 9th:

Thursday: Breakfast before heading out to Silver Dollar City.

Sitting in the lounge waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to Silver Dollar City for day 2 of fun!

Milked a cow!

J.J.'s banana that grandma won for him and dad holding his souvenir bat. Waiting for the shuttle to go back to the hotel.

Farewell Silver Dollar City, til we meet again.

Back to the pool for our final night. And there's Grandpa out on our porch area.

Mexican for our dinner on our last night.


June 10th:

Homeward bound.