Missouri 2025

On Saturday, June 14th, the kids and I loaded the van and headed out to Missouri for the annual Benetti Family Vacation. Sam joined us this year, which was extra fun. Andy joined us midweek. 

And we're off!

It's just under 8 hours of drive time to reach our destination. I believe we arrived around 4 or 5pm. This was our home for the week.

We always like to take walks and explore the surrounding area - especially after being cooped up in vehicles all day. 

The views from our balcony were gorgeous!

Jen and Scott.

Jodi and Aaron.

Pat and Conrad.

Steph and Jeff.

The balcony was huge and we spent so much time out there. 

Day 2: Father's Day. We did take a morning walk, but otherwise spent the day at the house enjoying all the amenities and each other. 

I love my parents. It's their generosity that makes this trip happen every year. This family time together is so special and I'm so thankful that we get to have it.

The two Michael Benettis!

Michael is getting so big so fast!

In the weeks leading up to the trip, Bella, with the help of Chat GPT, created a presentation on what each of us would look like as a dog.

This is what we saw. . . 

This was my favorite. Jodi is holding her new pup. . . 

. . . so she was changed to a dog and her dog into a little boy! 

I prepared some games and we had some friendly family competition. It began with Father's Day trivia. Our next challenge was Blindfolded Drawing. They had to listen to me give directions (ex. "Draw a large square. Draw a triangle on top of the square. etc." The goal was to get them drawing something that resembled a house. It was definitely comical watching each of their attempts and I wish I would have taken pictures of the final results because some were hilarious. 

My parents were the judges. I gave them an example of what their artwork was supposed to look like and they ranked them in order of best to worst. 

Day 3: Monday. We had another day at the house. Instead of being in Branson, we were in Kimberling City, which is just outside of Branson. It wasn't quite as convenient to get to attractions, so we didn't venture out as much as we have previous years. But our beautiful views more than made up for it.

This was the trip when Curtis and Graydon met Michael, so I wanted to get pictures of them together. Neither of my boys are super comfortable with babies, fortunately Michael is such a chill, happy baby that they did just fine. 

The pool area/lazy river were really nice features we enjoyed this year. 

My mom turned 70 this summer but, since we are (mostly) all together this week, we decided to celebrate early with a family birthday party. 

We had a few more games for our competition. We probably took more video footage than photos of these events, but we had Cup Stacking (using only balloons), Goldfish Fishing, Benetti Boggle (seeing how many words each team could make using the letters in BENETTI), Paper Airplane flying, and Paper Bag Pick-up (using only your mouth). 

The team comprised of Jeff, Jodi, and Bella (aka "The Slack Attacks") came in first place.

Our main surprise for my mom was a video we all put together sharing what we love/appreciate about her. She really is such a blessing to all of us and I'm so thankful we could celebrate her together. HERE is a link to the video we made. 

Day 4: Tuesday. This was ziplining day!

Last time we did this, Curtis was too small to participate. Looking at him now, it's hard to believe that was only a few years ago! 

They told us to strike a pose, and we did. 

That was a lot of fun!

The teenagers got lots of use out of this hot tub. I think they were in it multiple times each day. There was also an indoor pool in the lowest level of the house, so they'd go back and forth between both. 

Somebody is super relaxed.

Jeff's always good at keeping the cocktails flowing and coming up with his own concoctions. I'm always a grateful recipient!

He's good at the mocktails too! 

Day 5: Wednesday. This was another pretty chill day. My mom and I made a Wal-Mart run. It was my night to make dinner, so we ventured out for some food. I'm not sure who took this photo of my parents, but I love it. 

My mom always likes to give out gifts as keepsakes from the week. The girls got jewelry and the boys got shirts.

These cropped sleeve shirts for the teen boys were definitely a hit and have already been worn on numerous occasions. 

The teens also played a fair amount of Jackbox TV several of the evenings. 

Day 6: Thursday. We ventured out again and explored a cave. This was a new cave we'd never been to before and the nice thing about this tour is that it was done on vehicles, so we could just sit back and take it all in. I find caves fascinating and this area of Missouri has a lot of them. 

Bella organized a ping pong tournament. This house had so many fun things to do. 

More pool time. 

Day 7: Friday. I find my sad feelings increase as I start sharing these pictures. Our time together was coming to an end and some family members already had to leave that morning. The end of family vacations are very emotionally hard for me.

Our resort had some steep hills that led down to Table Rock Lake. My dad, Sherri, and I took a walk one morning before the heat of the day got too strong. Getting down wasn't too bad, but going up was another story. The hills were steep! 

Bella and Sam in a game of Headbands! 

That day was a big pool day. We spent hours out there. 

Cuties!

Later that evening, the Kreusers and Kilpses decided to go mini golfing. We went to the course that was right across the street from the house we stayed at two years ago. It was fun to revisit that area. 

Me and Jodi

A reluctant selfie from Graydon, but he's a good sport so he let me take it. 

Our two families. Aaron was the big winner of our group. I think it was probably me who came in last. 

A little foosball competition later on that evening..

And they needed to wrap up the ping pong tournament. Andy won!

Some relaxation on our final night as we all geared up for another road trip the next day.

Day 8: Saturday. Time to pack up and head out. One last photo in front of our beautiful view. In hindsight, I wish I would have taken a family photo out here or one of just me and Andy. Bella even offered, but I was in task/packing mode. Oh well. We've got this cute one of her and Sam. 

And this one of Andy.

I was so sad to see this week come to an end. This is one of my favorite weeks of the whole year and one I look forward to so much. I just hate endings and saying goodbye to people that I love so much. But I am so thankful that we get this time together and for this big family that I get to be a part of.