We took a little mini vacation to Branson this weekend. My mom found a great deal on Silver Dollar City season tickets, so we needed to use them of course :). We scheduled this trip close to Nathan's birthday so we could have an early celebration for him. Initially, I had planned for this trip to be Nathan's big birthday celebration and then just have a small family party for his birthday, but Nathan (and his mommy) love birthday parties, so we have a birthday party planned for him anyway next weekend.
Matt and I started our vacation a little early with a fun date night Thursday night. We went out to eat at a new restaurant which was delicious and then headed to see Phantom of the Opera at the Performing Arts Center. It was a great show. We didn't know anything about the show before we went, so it was fun to be surprised!
We left town Friday morning. Scott and Debbie ended up joining us for the weekend too. It's sort of a tradition to stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch on the way.
And of course vacation means dessert after lunch!
Once we made it to Branson we spent a couple of hours at the Outlet Mall. We needed to pick up a few things. The boys were great to put up with our shopping. A stop at the Disney store helped :).
We checked into our hotel which was an awesome two bedroom suite. With three kids, we love having extra space in hotels! Then we went to dinner at one of our favorite steak houses and came back to swim for a bit before bedtime. The boys were wired and went to bed way too late. But that's what vacations are for, right?
Saturday morning, we were all so excited to head to Silver Dollar City.
We had a fun day. Matt, Barry, and I got ride one big roller coaster, but we focused on the kids the rest of the day. We thought the boys would love this boat ride. We didn't realize how many times they would get shot with water guns by silly teenagers. Samuel was in tears by the end, but Nathan said it was one of his favorite rides.
Elisabeth was a sweet girl to hang out in the stroller all day.
We rode a few rides, and then Samuel crashed about lunchtime. Too little sleep the night before caught up with him. He slept close to 90 minutes in the stroller.
While he napped, Matt and Nathan rode a few more rides. Nathan is fearless when it comes to amusement park rides. I've never seen even a smidge of caution when he rides the rides. Matt was teaching him how to keep his hands in the air!
Unfortunately Samuel was about an inch too short to ride a lot of the rides. It was frustrating that he wasn't tall enough to ride even the simple little kiddie rides. We did find a couple of rides he was tall enough to ride, and he rode those over and over while Nathan rode bigger rides.
He really liked this butterfly ride. If we pushed a button, he could go high. The first time I pushed it, he laughed and yelled, "I'm flying, I'm flying." That was probably my favorite memory with him of the day.
He also loved these little frogs that hopped up and down. He yelled, "Ribbit, ribbit" the whole time!
Nathan rode more of the kiddie rides, the big pirate ship and the giant swings. I rode the swings with him, and we talked the whole time how we were like Spiderman and Superman flying across Silver Dollar City. It was my favorite moment with Nathan of the day.
As the afternoon wore on, the park got really crowded. We headed to another area that had more kiddie rides, but it just got too packed to enjoy it. We did ride one more ride and played in some indoor playgrounds before we left.
We did have a fun day, but we were all disappointed in the park. The layout was so disorganized. When we took Nathan to Frontier City last year, all the kiddie rides were grouped together in one area, and it was so easy to just stay in that one section of the park. And there weren't varying height requirements that caused frustration. That was not the case at SDC. Everything was so spread out, and the lines were so long. When the kid rides were intermingled with other rides, more people (like teenagers) were riding the silly little kid rides, making the lines way too long. We were also frustrated with how inefficiently the rides were loaded and unloaded and overall how disorganized everything felt. And it was so crowded! Honestly, it left Matt and I longing for Disney World :). We kept saying, "This would never happen at Disney World." I think if we could have gotten rid of some of the crowds, it would have solved a lot of our problems. We'll try again (since we have season tickets), and maybe Samuel will grow an inch before then :). Nathan did have a fantastic day, and we all made some special memories.
We picked up some pizza for dinner and headed back to the hotel to eat.
Samuel couldn't wait to swim after dinner. The pool was definitely his favorite part of the trip. He calls the swimming pool the beach. So he kept saying, "Go Beach! Go Beach!" He loves jumping in the pool, and had the best time.
And this cutie tried on her bathing suit for the first time. Boys' swimsuits are way easier, but not near as cute as little girl swimsuits!
The water was a little chilly and it was close to bedtime, so Elisabeth didn't seem to be a huge fan. But we'll try again soon. She's going to have to love the pool as often as we go during the summer!
We packed up and headed home Sunday morning. We were all exhausted from such a busy, fun weekend. I just love taking time to get away and spend time with my sweet family. The memories are priceless!
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