This was our fourth summer in a row vacationing in Branson. Here was our home for the week. This house had such a great location. We were so close to everything and were even able to walk to some things.
We also had access to a few pools, both indoor and outdoor.
Branko has a pretty special relationship with Nora. He loves her so much and was glued to her side as often as he could be.
We pretty much relaxed that first full day there. It was kind of rainy, so that worked out. Scott's girlfriend, Jen, brought lots of fun board games for all of us to play.
We also had access to a workout facility, but it wasn't the greatest, so we only went once. Several of the components to this machine were broken and the rest of the items were mostly cardio.
That evening, Scott, Jen, and I attempted to go to this tiki bar, but it was closed. So we ended up at an Irish pub instead and still had a wonderful evening.
On Monday, our big adventure was Wild World. It was part aquarium, part zoo, and part mini golf! It was also within walking distance of our house, so some of us walked over.
Conrad got this new sea turtle hat and it is the cutest.
Later on, a few of us went to Table Rock State Park and walked several miles along the lake.
Curtis is racking up a collection of Uranus t-shirts. As sort of a gag birthday gift, he is given a new t-shirt each year.
Here is the new t-shirt from this year!
Tuesday was pontoon boat day! There is so much to do in Branson that it feels like a different vacation every year. But this is one constant that we do every year. Next to me on the raft is our cousin, Sherri, who joined us this year!
There's a funny story about Pat jumping in without a life jacket and then the boat quickly drifting away from him and then Lori throwing him a life jacket. It's the kind of story where I think you had to be there to find it funny, but we were all laughing pretty hard. And then several of us got in the water and joined him.
I don't know if Curtis put the bottle of water on his head or if someone else did it, but he sat this way for quite a while.
Pat found this Mom Water with my name and got them for me!
Time to relax after five hours on the boat.
We all took turns making dinner each night. Scott and Jen had the meal that night and we ate our tacos right off the table.
On Wednesday morning, a few of us went back to Table Rock State Park for some more walking on the trails. Or that might have been Thursday. The days kind of blur a little when I don't have photos to refer to. After lunch, some of us went to a winery for some wine tasting.
When we got back, we picked up the kids and went to the Show Boat.
The evening consisted of dinner, a comedian, and stage singers.
After dinner, we were free to explore the ship until the show officially started.
I didn't get any photos of the show because they asked us not to take any photos or videos. The performances were really good. The singers sang songs from the 80's, Elton John hits, and Movie tunes. Some found it a little cheesy, but I really enjoyed it.
My parents along with Pat, Lori, Branko, and Conrad skipped the Show Boat. It wouldn't have been the best experience with a toddler and baby. They got dinner together and went to a car show.
On Thursday, we spent the earlier part of the day swimming. Or that was Wednesday. Again, those two mornings are hard for me to remember now. A basketball court was available to use and it got a lot of use -- especially by Curtis. His basketball ended up popping after landing on a pointy part of the fence. Good thing we have a few to spare.
Later on, the kids did a soda tasting.
They voted on their favorites and it was a tie between two flavors. To break the tie, we had a physical competition: Curtis vs. Graydon. Whoever won this race, their team's favorite soda would be the winner. All was going well until they started rolling down the hill. Graydon's feet ended up on Curtis's face and Graydon ended up kicking Curtis hard right in the nose. I haven't seen Curtis in that kind of pain in a long time. We had them race individually after that and then eliminated the hill roll from the race.
Later that evening, we walked to the golf course across the street. I golfed with Lori, Pat, Sydney, and Nora, aka "Spicy Texas Chicas Chiles". The name kind of evolved throughout the game. Whenever one of us made a hold in one or two, we raised our golf clubs in their air, waved them around, and proudly proclaimed our team name. This mini golf course had a volcano that erupted sporadically. Throughout our time playing, we raced to get a team photo before the fire went away. We didn't have much time to work with and it took many attempts to finally get all of our faces in the frame.
Finally did it!
On Friday, we revisited Talking Rock Caverns. We went there last year and sliced and sluiced geodes. This year, we went into the cave. Bella and Sydney placed a game of checkers while waiting for our cave tour.
The cave went down 100 feet below the ground and we went all the way down. This experience was really cool and a definite highlight for my dad.
At the bottom of the cave, looking up, there was the letter "K" above us.
That evening, the kids had a cooking competition. One teammate was blindfolded, one had headphones playing music so they couldn't hear, and the other could not speak. Watching them try to make their cakes was definitely entertaining.
We only had eight kids, so the boys were down a teammate. Graydon couldn't see and Curtis couldn't speak, so that made it pretty interesting.
Cake decorations were taken from the cabinets. It was the end of our trip and any food was fair game.
Here is Bella, Sydney, and Rose's cake. They added cream cheese to their frosting since their cake was Red Velvet. They decorated with raspberries.
Graydon and Curtis chose cereal and fruit to decorate their cake. I believe the cereal was Captain Crunch and Cocoa Pebbles and the fruit was strawberries and mango. Someone said it looked like a taco salad and now I can't unsee it.
Madi, Ava, and Nora created this pretty strawberry and lemon cake.
Judging time. Each team chose a representative to explain their process and end result.
They were judged in three categories: creativity, teamwork, and taste. (I think those were the categories). Each team took first in one category, but I can't remember who won what now. I came down with a cold and this portion of the trip I was wiped out and laying on the couch. The kids did another soda tasting after this, but I didn't get any pictures of it.
During intermission of the soda tasting, we took photos of the kids outside under the premise of wanting to get photos of their teams.
Little did they know, we've been planning an ambush for months.
Lori was on the ground level with a squirt gun while the rest of the adults were shooting squirt guns and throwing water balloons from the balcony. Here is the progression. Notice how the kids with their eyes closed are completely unaware of what's going on for the first few moments!
Sydney and Rose's faces are priceless!
I massive water fight between the kids and adults broke out after that!
I want to share one more thing I didn't get any photos of but was pretty memorable. . . One morning, my sister was making bacon and she set the smoke alarm off. The smoke alarm in this house was not like a typical smoke alarm that just sets off the alarm in closest proximity to the smoke. These were all connected throughout the house and they all went off. They were even going off outside, so all the neighbors could hear. We were waving blankets and pillows to try to get the alarm to stop, but nothing was working. Turns out, these alarms need to be shut off by the fire department, so a whole fire truck and firefighters had to show up, inspect the house, and manually turn off the alarm. We joked about this happening throughout the week only to have the very same thing occur again at the end of the week when my brother was cooking sausage!
