Branson

It's fun to vacation with your siblings. Branson, Missouri was half-way between us and my brother Philip. They invited us to meet them there. We went at the beginning of September and had a great time. We left on a Saturday, and it took us about nine hours. As far as car trips go, it was quite pleasant. I had forgotten that parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas are so pretty.

We went the week after Labor Day which, if you were wondering, is the perfect time to go on vacation. Everybody else just did their Labor Day thing. And people who are typically willing to skip school don't want to skip school in the first couple of weeks. So we were the only people in Branson under 65 years old. And it was awesome! We had the place to ourselves, and all the attractions were still open. On Saturday night, of course the kids wanted to swim. I've never seen a kid who isn't ready at any moment to change their clothes and hop into a pool. So Aaron and Phil went to Walmart to get food for the week, and I took the kids swimming. Phil's wife Kelsey started nursing school this fall and had tests to take, so she couldn't make it. I missed her a lot. 

On Sunday, we went to church. It was a very friendly ward with LOTS of participation in classes. We were a little worried about plopping six kids into their primary, but they said that some Sundays they have forty kids visiting. Whew! It was a small primary room. Annie's teachers were Brother and Sister Dutton who have a show in Branson. And Daphne thought the primary chorister looked familiar. She came home and watched the credits for a Living Scriptures movie and sure enough! The primary chorister was a Living Scriptures movie star! The rest of the day was a bit dull as we tried to keep the Sabbath. We hung out, played games, chatted, and the kids put together their own version of Show-Offs...BYU-TV's improv show.

We also took a little walk and saw the outside of the Titanic museum and the Branson strip.

On Monday we went to a huge indoor play land called Fritz's Adventure. We were one of probably six families there. We could see that the place could (and usually did) handle a lot more people. But for us there was no waiting in lines or sitting around or squishing past strollers. We just waltzed around from one fun thing to the next. We spent the whole day there.

That night we went to the Acrobats of Shanghai. It was cool to see their tumbling and body-contorting and juggling and chair-climbing, etc. And we got a good laugh when the narrator talked about how these acts were millions of years old and came from millions of miles away. In spite of some exaggeration, it was a really fun show. But do to our Fritz Adventuring, three of the six kids fell asleep.

On Tuesday we went for a little hike around the lake. There was a cool boat there that Annie wanted to take pictures of. We swam and had a picnic. Annie learned that it's okay to go pee-pee in a lake. This was shocking to her. 

We went to another show altogether that was free for kids. It was Hamner's Variety Show. It was very good-hearted, and the kids loved it. But it wasn't the most professional production. And Phil, Daphne, Annie, and I went to see the Duttons. That was my favorite. They are a Latter-day Saint family performing together. I think four of their six kids and those kids' kids perform in the show. It was cool. They were very talented and entertaining and also just really happy, good people.

We also did go-carts and watched the new Aladdin and played games. And the cousins had good times together. Scotty came home wanting to get a six-pack (Jack's current life goal) and wanting me to comb his hair every day, like Jack. Annie says the five-minute go-cart ride was her favorite thing.

 Phil and Kelsey paid for the lodging while we were there which was really generous of them. We wanted to take them out for our favorite frozen custard, Andy's. So we were trying to do that. But Aaron had been chatting with a retired lady in front of us in line, and she secretly paid for all of our ice cream. What a nice thing to do! There are perks to having a bunch of cute kids around.

It was an excellent trip. We made lots of good memories.