Fall Break and a trip to Branson, Mo.

Our family has been looking forward to Fall Break 2010 for a few months now. We were blessed to be invited to Colorado to stay with our dear friends the Smith family at their cabin. Unfortunately, as life often does, last minute things changed. Their extended family had a death and funeral in California that they needed to attend during Fall Break. We missed their fellowship greatly. We've been good friends with them for years and just enjoy our time to be together.

On the flip side, this gave us time to think what else could we do with the children and still enjoy our 'vacation'?? We decided a trip to Branson, Mo sounded great! It's been years since we've been there. Our last Silver dollar city trip saw Kim at 9, Josh about 6, and Joe at 3...Now we have Josh at 16, Joe at 14, Miss K 7, Miss M 5, and Miss A 3.

We were blessed to have my mother, T as a guest. This was the first vacation she'd been on in years and the first we'd gotten to take together since I was a little girl. She and the girls played games in the van on the way up. She taught them each to count the mile markers all the way to the state line. It became more challenging once we got to Missouri. Their mile markers come every tenth of a mile(!!) meaning they have five times the amount of signs we have. Imagine trying to explain to a three year old we're now at 1.4 miles, 1.6 m, 1.8 m, 2 m. (whew!)

We spent 3 nights in Branson. The first day we went to Silver Dollar City and rode lots of 'family rides'. The giant swings were a family hit...especially with the little girls!! They were each SO BRAVE, wanting to ride everything they were tall enough to get on. Miss A would cry when she was too short, but this momma was secretly relieved that my baby couldn't ride the really big stuff...no matter how brave she acted!

That night we got to see the incredible 'Dixie Stampede', Dolly Parton's dinner show. We were served a wonderful dinner (but they don't let you use silverware) and a fabulous dinner show. Horses, magic tricks, trick riders, dancing, singing, and stunts...this was the place to be!

On Friday we headed once again to SDC. We started the day off with a trip down into Marvel Cave. Learned two or three neat new facts that we don't remember from the last trip down. All in all it was close to 700 steps down and back out...it's such a neat cave to travel through. The beginning room is big enough to fly multiple hot air balloons in or have a 20 story building in or hold the Statue of Liberty if her torch stuck out the opening! That's one HUGE mouth to this cave...

Next we saw the award winning show 'Heading West'. Our whole family enjoyed that!! SDC does hire some very talented performers. Finally back to the rides we went. On Tom and Huck's river raft we shot water guns, got soaked, and had a great time playing around. After a few more rides the kids were exhausted! We took them back to the room with Grandma, while Josh, My beloved, and I returned to the park for a night concert. It was great, but after just a little while it got rained out.

A new tradition for us is to take a picture in the GIANT rocking chair at the Lumberjack Camp. I hope they still have it when we go back in ten more years!

Here's an old photo of me and the three older children the last time we visited SDC...how things change over the years!!

The rain caused us to be back in our rooms in time to let the girls go 'swimming' in the HUGE jacuzzi tubs. They thought that was great to have their own pool right in the bath room. After a good nights sleep we headed for home on a nice leisurely back highway thanks to our TOM-TOM...a few times we wondered where it was taking us. Once it even left the main road, went through a neighborhood then circled right back to the main road...guess we were on the scenic route!!

We stopped in Tulsa to see my Kim and pick Leelee up. She'll be going to stay with my mom for a while. I know she was blessed to see all of us as we were to see her. We ate a quick lunch and then back on the road with all 9 of us.

I'm thankful that we were given this opportunity to make memories with the kids. Even though car rides with children can be stressful, I wouldn't change any of it! I had been hoping to get some fall pictures with our family and SDC provided the perfect background props.

Finally, here's a old fall favorite of mine...Kim age 8 at the Pumpkin Patch.

Have a Happy Fall Ya'll!!

Grandma and the kids...

My dear mother has been blessing our family by helping out with school time. The girls are getting 'Home Ec' class by Grandma. They are getting to experience many things that I just haven't found the time to do with them.
Week 1: Food Safety and preparing apple & carrot salad for dinner.
Week 2: Proper place settings, table manners, AND pie baking (yummy!)

Miss Musical baked an apple pie and Miss Creativity baked a cherry. We ate a slice of each after dinner that evening(!!) Great job...Thanks Grandma for investing your time in these precious children. Their Mommy appreciates it!







Grandma then grabbed this opportunity to get the boys in a quick photo. These handsome guys are now bigger than grandma and here's the pictures to prove it!!

October Fun Has Begun!! Blessings abound...

On Monday the 4th, we attended a home school field trip to the new "OK History Museum" in Oklahoma City. It was a really neat museum geared to older children and adults. Joe and I played the scavenger hunt, but had little time to read all the interesting displays. The girls were on a mission to see how fast we could go through each exhibit. Someday I may have to go back without little children!

Volleyball started for the boys and 'coach' Beloved this week. We spent Monday evening learning all the volleyball basics, warming up and practicing. The boys have really enjoyed the time they have gotten to play over the last year and are anxiously awaiting the new season to get in full swing.

The younger children and I took a trip to the Stratford park to have a play date with the lovely Henry family. We so enjoyed getting to know them better and playing together. My Beloved and Josh were finishing up the NEW Air conditioning at the Pound family home!! Yea for them!! Joe was off cutting alfalfa hay for Mr. Russell and Mr. Elliott. We were blessed with the work for all the menfolk!

We also had our second Keeper of the Faith Meeting this week. We learned the art of Quilling from our dear friend Mrs. Click. She did an amazing job teaching about 18 girls plus 8 moms this very fun craft skill. Each girl was blessed with a quilling tool to bring home and so we've had more opportunities to quill during our daily rest time.

My beloved got and lost his first buck of the season this weekend. As much as you hate it, when hunting the animals sometimes get to far for you to find them as was the case with this buck. He'll try again next weekend...while hunting is a passion for him, it also provides a good portion of our family meat for the year. We are always blessed to eat what daddy brings home!

I got the blessing of staying in my junkie clothes all day on Saturday and just doing my 'fun stuff'. I got to scrap in Miss A's album and now she is up to September 2010!! How good it feels to have somebody caught up. I also got Leelee's album up to date! Next, I got a chance to just do all the little projects hanging around...a little mending, reading, sorting, planning school for next week, and hanging out on our computer. I'm not sure if the house looks better or worse for all my projects, but at least something is being accomplished.

Today the girls and I took a trip to the library to get more of my favorite things~ BOOKS~ We keep about 20 checked out at all times. This year in school the older girls and I have been reading all the 'Sonlight' reading books from their catalog. They've made some neat and fun choices. There are very few that I've been disappointed with. Miss A and I are reading through the 'Before Five in a Row' readers. Again, excellent choice of books that she has enjoyed greatly. We finished up our day grocery shopping and a trip to McDonalds. I'm so blessed that my girls think a chance to eat inside AND have a $1 hot fudge sundae is a treat. For $8 we girls had a fun 'girls day' out.