The long road home

It took us 11 hours to get home. The kids traveled great. We got home at 10 tonight.

Interesting things we learned/saw while gone...

Matt & Lisa can drive past 41 (literally) signs for the Meramac Caverns and not notice one of them.

We saw buffalo, emu, long-horned cattle, a fox and coyote (ok, these last two were road kill) along the way...well, some of us saw them... one van did not.

Madison can some how find the accidental way to get her long hair caught in the cooler's running fan. We thought about leaving her little head plastered to the lid of the cooler for awhile... but Mom gave in and climbed into the back with her to cut her hair out.

We saw a crazy person riding their bike along the interstate (well, some of us saw it).

Madison and Dylan counted 31 Mustang cars while on the trip.

We already knew that Matt & Lisa were super great friends and so easy to get along with. We had a GREAT time traveling with you guys!

Cocoa had a successful week as well. She had her "fixed" surgery on Friday. Karla picked her up yesterday morning and had her waiting for us at home when we arrived. (Thanks Karla!). We were all happy to see her (OK, and Tigger too).

Our last day in Branson

We spent our morning playing ping-pong at the Activity Center


and pool too...

In the afternoon, the guys and kids threw in some more laser tag and went to see the movie, "Nim's Island" while Lisa and I did a little more shopping at the Tanger Outlets. We made a taco meal for supper and then it was back to the Activity Center for swimming and Euchre...



and then back to the condo for Jocker, cookies and icecream.



The week went really fast. We are getting ready to take home lots of good memories of Spring Break 2008.

Silver Dollar City

Today we went to Silver Dollar City. We've been watching the weather all week, trying to decide what day would be the best weather-day to go. It turned out to be beautiful, in the 70's and sunny so we were thankful for the right choice. We spent almost 7 hours here. The park usually has 20-30,000 per day. Today their count was 1,020. We basically had the park to ourselves. There was never a line and on most of the roller coasters, they let us stay on and keep riding and riding. At one time Tony and Brock were in the front car and Quinn and I were in the last car... with no one in between. Eventually 3 of us got tired out and Quinn was the only one on the whole ride! We definitely got our money's worth. We went to the Chinese Acrobat Show as well was the Irish Dancers. The kids weren't into the shows as much but tolerated them for the 30 minutes each. We went to Mazzio's Pizza for supper, then it was back to the condos for ice cream and warm cookies, swimming and euchre, melting into bed about 11:30. Tony hasn't worn his watch all week on purpose... not wanting to live by the time like we usually do. Hope your weeks are going well too.

Dixie Stampede

The Dixie Stampede has definitely been one of the biggest highlights of the trip. The kids loved it and is was especially fun because Matt and Lisa were chosen out of the audience to do some "barrel-racing." They told the guys to run to the horse that they wanted to ride. As soon as they got to the real horses, they had them stop and said "not those horses... THESE horses" and showed them the stick horses. They won the race! It was hilarious and fun! Brock was yelling at the top of his lungs... "That's my mom and dad and they are going to win!" It was so cute. They got medals to keep. We didn't know that we would be hanging out with such famous and talented people! : )

More of Dixie

Just a few more pictures of Dixie for you. We came back to the condos and some of the kids went swimming, some played video games and Lisa and I got smoked in Euchre by the guys. We are staying up late and sleeping in. Our sleep is going to be all off schedule but we sure are having a fun time!

Ripley's Believe it or Not

Lots of unusual things... they had hundreds and hundreds of these nail aprons with the company's name on it. We looked for Kalona Lumber but didn't find one. The kids enjoyed looking at all the unusual things. The picture in the top right hand corner is the vacuum cleaner designed for the Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang movie... a favorite in our house.

Catch Phrase

This morning Matt & Lisa went and sat through the Fairfield/Wyndam time share talk. We played Catch Phrase with the kids for an hour and then watched a movie. It's rainy and over cast today.

Highlights from Tuesday

Happy Birthday Karla! Hope you had a wonderful birthday in DC! I've never been on vacation on my birthday... I'm sure that puts a different spin on things.

Today Lisa and I went shopping to some of the outlet stores here. We found Crocs for the kids for $20 a pair. That was our biggest bargain. Guess what? I ran into Myrna who used to work at the CCC at GGH in the Croc Store. It really is a small world isn't it? It's so weird to run into people... 10 hours from home! I wonder who else is wandering around here from our area.

The guys took the kids to play laser tag while we shopped. They had fun and were all a buzz about their scores etc... That was the first time for our kids so they really enjoyed it. Lisa made us a sloppy joe dinner for supper and then we went to the Hamner-Barber magician/ventriloquist show. It was very funny. I don't know that it was the MUST SEE as was advertised to us but we all enjoyed it. Quinn was chosen out of the audience to receive one of two DVD's that they gave out. I think it was the 3rd-grade-arm-waving-with-the-correct-answer type of thing that sold him. He was quite delighted about that and stood in line after the show so that they could autograph it for him. We stopped at Sonic on the way home. It was a day with very few pictures taken. Cameras weren't allowed at the Hamner show and of course laser tag is in the dark so you'll just have to use your imagination today.

The weather was rainy and cool today...and looks like more of the same is predicted for the rest of the week. The kids have spent quite a bit of time at the activity center... swimming, playing basketball, ping-pong etc... They certainly haven't been bored.

Today (Wed) we are planning on going to Ripley's Believe it or Not and then our family of 4 is going to the Dixie Stampede tonight. Yahoo! More adventures to come...

Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf

(As usual, double click on pictures for a close-up look).

The afternoon was perfect for 18 rounds of putt-putt. This pirate's cove place was super neat. The flowers were gorgeous as were the water falls. I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep and I realized that I never even heard what my score was. Quinn was quite concerned for me... I'm sure he didn't want me to lose. Ha! There were several holes in one (not by me). You'll never believe this... we actually ran into one of the Ox Bow teachers and her family here at this Putt-Putt place. See... may be Branson really is a hot-spot for Spring Breakers. : )

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out at the condos... going on a walk, reading, watching the NCAA Championship game. We ate such a big late lunch that we really didn't need much more the rest of the whole day. The adults had dessert for supper (icecream and brownies)... hey, we can do that, we break rules for vacation! : )

Lambert's

We made it to Lambert's! We went at 2pm on a Monday and got right in! Are we clever or what? The food was delicious as advertised and the rolls melted in your mouth. The kids loved the rolls flying through the air. Most of the kids bought the big drink coolers as a souvenir. Madison chose the hat instead.

Wish you were here....

Fish Hatchery

We even managed to fit something educational into our trip. We went to the Fish Hatchery which is less than a mile from our resort. Highlights from this stop was seeing a 4 foot black snake when we went on a walk in the woods... enough to make Quinn declare that "I'm never coming to Missouri again!" (Cheryl, thought of you down here in the holler). Of course we saw lots of fish and the kids fed handful after handful of fish food. We stood and watched some fishermen fly fishing for awhile. The weather cannot be any more perfect.

Snap Shots

The flowers are gorgeous! This is a picture of our condo and of the kids eating supper tonight. I made a spaghetti dinner. Check out that blue sky behind Quinn. Awesome!

Wyndam Classic

Tonight was a 2 on 2 basketball tournament at the resort. Our group had 3 teams and there was 1 other group of two guys that showed up. It was great fun to watch. Quinn took it so seriously. He ran all the way back to our condo (a jaunt for little legs) to report that Madison had dropped off of their team and that it would now just be Dad and Quinn together...no subs. Madison and Lisa formed their own team. He wanted Tony to put on his shoes and come practice with him...and "are you going to be able to keep up with me Dad, because I'm going to run back too." (We take sports very seriously, can you tell?)

This is how the tournament came out.... (thanks for reading!)

Madison/Lisa vs. Tony/Quinn

Matt/Brock vs. Josh/Dylan

Young guys vs. Tony/Quinn

Young guys vs. Matt/Brock

Young guys were the champions

The Track

Today was a beautiful day in Branson. The sky matched this pool water color...not a cloud to be seen. As you can see we went and drove some go-carts this afternoon at The Track. The kids loved it! Quinn and Brock especially loved the bumper boats and were soaked afterwards. Quinn would not back off from squirting this poor girl out there. I was yelling at him, trying to get his attention but of course he couldn't hear me. He was relentless and laughing the whole time. He made us laugh! In Madison's competitive style, she made it a point to win as many races as she could. She was quite delighted when she finally over took Dylan in one close race, shortly after the middle picture was taken.

Our Condo

We finally checked into our condos last night at 8:30pm. They are right next door to each other. Tony called the front desk and reported something was wrong with Matt & Lisa's door bell. When you push the door bell button it buzzes so loud it sets off a bright flashing light on the fire alarm... alas, that's what it was supposed to do! Other than Matt & Lisa's being equipped for the hearing impaired... they are great! Ha! We quickly made the ruled of NO ringing their doorbell! for the kids! The guys took the kids swimming and Lisa and I went to "Jubilee" to get groceries. It felt good to melt into bed tonight. It feels wonderful to get off of our usual spinning world into a different one for a week!

Lambert's Cafe... almost!

We attempted to go to Lambert's Cafe when we got close to Branson. SOooo many people have told me about it. The "home of the throwed roll." There was an hour and 20 min. wait and we were tired and hungry so we opted to find something else. We borrowed a GPS for the trip and she was supposed to take us to Mazzio's Pizza (we didn't know that was a chain!) but took us in circles. We never did find it. We finally chose what was sitting in front of us... a Shoney's. The food was bad, the kids were complaining... something smelled really "fishy" about the whole thing when we walked in (literally). Some how we lucked upon the all you can eat seafood. Now for those of you that know us well... Tony and I do shrimp and that's it. Long story short, this was the sign that we should have seen annoucing this buffet but it was facing the opposite direction. We all decided that this was the last bad choice we were making for the week! How we got from Lambert's to an all you can eat seafood buffet, we aren't exactly sure. Nasty.

Baseball Game

Today we went to the St. Louis Cardinals vs Washington Nationals game in St. Louis (obviously). The Cards won 5-4. It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day. It actually felt hot sitting in the sun but when we moved to the shade, it was too cool. Weird. We got to the brand new stadium (it's really nice) early. We bought tickets off the street from a guy who lied to us about every single thing he said but we ended up getting the tickets for $12 off the ticket price... Let's just say that the tickets weren't behind home plate and there were no free drinks through the first inning! Ha! I've learned at work that if people say "I'm not lying to you"... they usually are! We wanted cheap tickets and that's what they were... even if they were in the outfield, the highest level. The kids all brought their gloves to catch a foul ball. Check out Quinn's "ready position" to catch a ball up in the nose bleed section. Ha! We had a great time though. The kids got free t-shirts at the entrance. They got to do some batting in a cage and threw balls to measure their speed. The field is right downtown within walking distance of the arch. The flowers are starting to bloom here and the trees are budding already. There is Spring around the corner! (sorry about the center spacing... it has a mind of it's own today)

Spring Break 2008

I've been scurrying around this week, trying to get ready to leave for a week of vacation. We are all so ready for a break from the real world! This year we are headed to Branson, MO and are staying at the Mountain Vista Resort. Matt, Lisa, Josh, Dylan and Brock are going with us so that will help add to our fun. We've never been to Branson and have heard good things about it. It's not your usual spring break "destination hot spot" but we made our plans only a month ago so we'll take what we can get! ha! The weather is supposed to be in the 60's so that's a 20 degree improvement from Indiana. We are leaving tonight and planning on staying overnight east of St. Louis and may be going to a Cardinals game tomorrow. Cocoa is going to "doggy camp" as we've been calling it. She is going to be kenneled at our vet's office. Madison was already in tears last night at bedtime because "I miss Cokey" already...even though she was right downstairs. : ) Quinn asked me this morning if I thought they had "highly trained workers" at the vet's office, to you know, take good care of her. I told him that they don't come anymore highly trained than your own dog's doctor. He suggested that we "stop by Minnesota on our way and drop Cocoa off at Uncle AJ's and Aunt Bonnie's house" since Bonnie is a vet. A little out of the way so we'll just use our vet that's 1/2 mile away.

I'll be taking my laptop and will try to blog faithfully. Stay tuned... more adventures soon to come... and you know there certainly will be ADVENTURES!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggidy-Jig

I'll try to catch you all up without being boring. Niagara Falls was great last Thursday. We went out on the Maid of the Mist and saw the Falls up close. It was all kind of a dejavu' from last summer. However... we enjoyed a beautiful rainbow while out on the boat. I have some awesome pictures. That was so special! We stayed overnight in Erie, PA and drove the rest of the way on Friday. We got home at 3:30... in time for the bus to come 20-30 minutes later. The kids were so happy to see me, they nearly knocked me down one at a time as they ran full speed from the bus into my arms. So cute.

Madison had a CYS tournament game on Friday night. They lost to a team that they've beaten twice this year already. Figures that they would loose in the tourney doesn't it? Her CYS season ended with a 5-4-1 record.

Saturday involved 3 soccer games, one right after the other. Madison had a Flames game at 10:30, Quinn had a CYS tournament game at 12noon and he had a Flames game in Chesterton at 2:30. It pretty much took the whole day. They won all 3 games so that was a bonus. Quinn scored 2 goals in the Chesterton game. He played goalie for the whole CYS game. His coach called and left us a message... she was sorry that he had to play goalie the whole game but "we wouldn't have won without him back there." That was really nice wasn't it? His CYS team will play in the championship game next Saturday. During regular season play his team's record was 4-5-1. They won their first tournament game last week and now they just beat the #1 team in order to make it to the finals. Wow!

Today was church and Quinn had a Flames game at 1:30 against FC Indiana (yes, that was 5 games this weekend). They won 3-1 and Quinn scored a goal. It was blazing hot... I'm telling you! We are having abnormally HOT Fall days... high 80's. YUCK!

Mom and Aunt Fern left this morning after we left for church. They had gotten their full share of soccer games for sure but I think they enjoyed them.

I haven't even down loaded my pictures yet from our trip. I'll let you know when I've had a chance to update my blog with my vacation pictures.

Red Lion Inn

Today we went to Stockbridge, MA which is only about 45 minutes away. Several local people had told us we must get to the Red Lion Inn while we were here. It is a hotel that was started in the 1700's and has been fully restored and is an inn with 100 rooms and has a large dining area. We went for lunch. It is a gorgeous place to be sure!! They have a huge collection of tea pots. Full of history and of stories of famous people that have stayed there in this quaint little town.

We also stopped at a Country Curtains shop. My mom has gotten this magazine for years and it's located in the back of the Red Lion Inn. It was really neat, of course. I didn't buy anything though.

Tomorrow morning we are going to leave early and head back, stopping at Niagara Falls along the way. I was just there last summer but my aunt has never been there. She lives in CO and who knows when she would be this close again! It's worth it to take her there! My mom hasn't been there since her honeymoon. : ) We'll stay overnight somewhere in that area and then come back home on Friday night. I'm not sure if I'll find Internet access tomorrow night or not.

Well, we're going to do some relaxing at the resort for the rest of this day. We haven't done too much relaxing believe it or not. We've been on the go!

Love ya, Leah