Saturday we headed out for Branson, MO. We have always wanted to go there and we finally did it! Our 16 year old is about out of the house and our 2 year old is finally old enough to do some things with, so we are striking while the iron is hot:) We have another trip planned for this year, and 1 or 2 for next year. We are excited about these trips and the family time we will have:) Losing Rose really solidified for us that we don't know how long we have our children, so we need to quit putting the money away "for a rainy day" and choose to spend this time together uniting as one now.
The trip started out relatively smooth. We only missed our target departure time by 1 hour;) After a few hours JJ vomited all over himself and his car seat:( He seems to have the same problem that Buddy had when he was younger...easily getting car sick when traveling too early in the day. Pretty much the trip went as well as it could with 8 of us in a van together for 9 hours:) Missouri is such a pretty state. It was so green and hilly with so many trees, although I will admit that I prefer my state's relatively flatness and 1 mile square roads:) The 1 bedroom condo where we stayed was a pleasant surprise. We were pleased with its size, the nice full kitchen, and the very necessary washer and dryer!
Sunday was Mother's Day. My husband rented a boat for 12 hours and took the boys fishing. Superman was thrilled with the entire day of fishing with his dad. He has a good temperment for being still. Buddy slept in late, then my husband came back to pick him up on the dock:) The rest of us hiked around, sat on the docks, and played on the playground equipment. Beautiful got in the boat in the afternoon and I took the rest of the kids back to the condo to...take a nap. Happy Mother's Day to me! It was so QUIET and peaceful:) It was absolutely hilarious to watching JJ try to walk up and down the hills and non-flat roads. He kept saying "whoa whoa whoa!" while he arms flung out to help him keep balance lol! Faith clung to me in the middle of the road saying that she thought she would fall off of the road (into the grass). Silly kids!
Monday we went to the Titanic Museum. We were impressed with the layout and education. It has a self-guide function where an electronic device you wear around your neck tells you more specifics about the topic at hand. Grace LOVED that feature and it kept her interested and focused. YAY! The staff were dressed up in period costume and spoke in accents making the Middles not understand what they were saying. One older teenage male worker followed our family through several rooms. While Beautiful and I were reading some literature on the wall, including a poem, the man looked right at Beautiful and recited the poem to her...awkward...but unfortunately not an atypical response of males to her. It is a good thing that my husband is a hunter! But...I digress...
Monday evening we went to the Dixie Stampede. It was wonderful! We enjoyed a very extensive meal and were in the front row to see the ostriches, horses, buffalo, as well as the rest of the show. It was very, very impressive. I did not know what to expect, thinking maybe it was more like a rodeo when it ended up being a story/comedy/history lesson with fun animal involvement/horse riding. My only regret was that I had to keep trying to keep kids eating when they just wanted to watch the show...thus I felt that I missed getting to be focused on the show. I finally gave up and just put the food in the to go containers:) We left and did some hiking by the lake. There was a very nice hiking trail there and we all enjoy this activity:)
Tuesday we drove up to Springfield to go to Bass Pro Shop and Fantastic Caverns. I was not looking forward to the first stop, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see it. The fish, crocodiles, and turtles made the live animals fun to watch. But the taxidermy displays were fantastic!!! Yes, I am married to a taxidermist...but it really was something to see and all of the kids really enjoyed it. After that we went on the driving through tour of a cave. It was good for the kids to see a cave without feeling like they were in a small place. My husband and I loved going through Mammoth Cave with Beautiful when she was 17 months old so wanted our kids to see a cave too...without it being too hard on us to usher them all through:)
Wednesday my husband went fishing again for the morning, then he stayed back with JJ while the rest of us went to the Sight and Sound Theater production of Joseph. Wow! Wow! Wow! We will definitely be purchasing their plays on DVD to watch over and over. We had to do quite a bit of talking to get our antisocial 13 year old to be willing to go to the majority of the events this week. He is very much a homebody. However, after he was forced to attend this play...he admitted that it was the highlight of the trip (AND he actually enjoyed all of the other activities we did...after the fact) lol! All of us agreed. I was so sad that my husband didn't get to go, but thankfully we can buy the DVD's:)
Thursday we went to Silver Dollar City. It was not too crowded and we only had to wait 1 round to get on rides. It started to rain in the afternoon so we hung out in the huge kid fort/air compressor nerf ball gun shooting covered area for a couple of hours. That was by far the highlight of SDC for the kids lol! Again, our 13 year old was NOT impressed with the rides but he absolutely loved this area. He and Superman teamed at the guns while the girls and JJ sat below and used the vacuum hoses to suck up the nerf balls to go back to the top for the boys. Whoever created this place was very creative! We left a little early due to the rain. Beautiful watched the kids while my husband took me out to Red Lobster for supper:)
Friday we spent the whole day at SDC again. It was hot in the afternoon so we went on some water rides. The Middles thought it was great. Beautiful finally convinced Buddy to go on one ride lol! My husband is usually the active parent who engages the kids in activities while I deal with logistics. However, amusement park rides are my domain:) When I was a young child my mother and her husband took us to Valleyfair in Shakopee, MN every summer. We were strongly encouraged to work through any fear and try all of the rides. I loved it! However, I went as an adult when newly pregnant with Buddy and since then I tend to get a bit nauseated after while on rides. So, by the end of the 2nd day of spinning rides on this trip I finally had to stop:( Beautiful watched the kids in the kid fort area while my husband and I took our only child who was brave enough, Superman, on the 1 hour walking cave tour. We really enjoyed the tour and getting to spend that time one on one with Superman. It was not as difficult as the Mammoth Cave tour and was pretty good. We were happy to get back to the condo that night, pack, and prepare to go home. It was definitely a vacation that we were ready to come home from lol!
As for family time, we certainly got our fill of each other! It was funny that when we take JJ to Sunday School he usually is very clingy and cries. However, they day after we got back he went right in and sat down and didn't say a peep. Even he had enough of me lol! 8 people in a 1 bedroom condo, as nice as it was, was character building. We got to spend some good time with each of the kids having deep conversations. We were able to see more into our children's hearts.
Sleep was a challenge. Grace is so restless even when she sleeps. She is so hyper when she is awake. The loss of structure and a place to have her be able to calm alone was difficult. I was so thankful that we went on an off week where there was no one above or below us in the condo, and only a few nights we had people to the sides of us. The noise level of having this child around, especially when she is insisting that her siblings give into her or is angry with being told "no" can be heard for blocks! Just in case you are wondering, taking a child with ADHD to an amusement park, even when medicated, is not a calm experience;) I had foolishly thought that the spinning and motion would be soothing...nope.
Grace turned 7 while we were there. She woke up extra early that morning, sat up and looked at us from her bed, and insisted that we start to sing her Happy Birthday immediately. It was a special time to celebrate all 4 our our kids' birthday's down there who have birthday's in May and June.
I will admit that not having internet access for fb or email while we were there was about enough to drive me to distraction. We could have paid to have access, but the amount of money we spent on activities was outrageous. I rebelled against paying for internet:) I did manage to read several books on the trip. That is an area that Superman definitely takes after me. He read an autobiography of Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Boone while we were there. That's my boy!!
I am so excited about the things that we did in Branson that I am giddy with summer unit study ideas. We are going to watch documentaries on the Titanic and caves, and read historical fiction books from the Civil War time period. Hopefully the kids will be as excited as I am about this;) But first...I need to recuperate from the vacation and get some sleep lol!
No comments:
Post a Comment