Fall Break in Branson

For Spring Break 2020 we had planned a little trip to Branson, but then COVID happened and we had to cancel our plans. Seven months later, we were finally able to reschedule and get away for a couple of days. We're all enjoying the flexibility of homeschooling this year and not having to schedule our vacations around school schedules. We left on Wednesday afternoon and got to Branson around 4:00. We checked into our hotel, unloaded and then headed to dinner. The kids always have to ride on the baggage carts. It was their first ride of the trip, ha!

We headed to the Branson Landing for dinner. Matt and I had found an awesome Mexican restaurant with the BEST steak fajitas during our last visit, and we wanted to eat there for dinner. The kids are happy with any restaurant that serves chips. The weather was great, so we sat outside and watched the fountains while ate. It was a great dinner!

After dinner, we did a little shopping. The girls and I picked up a few things at H and M and Elisabeth spent her leftover birthday money at Claire's. 

We rejoined the boys and watched the fountain show. 

We headed back to the hotel, and the kids played with the hotel phones for the rest of the night. It's funny how the smallest things entertain them. 

We were up early on Thursday morning ready to conquer Silver Dollar City. The kids were ready to ride the rides!

Nathan was extra excited because he was finally tall enough to ride Time Traveler and Wildfire. We headed to Time Traveler first thing.

We were ready to ride!

While we rode Time Traveler, Matt took the other kids to Fireman's Landing. Katherine's favorite ride of the day were these Fire Doggies. Matt said she named her doggy the first time she rode. 

Nathan and I rejoined them after our thrill and we rode the rest of the rides in the Fireman's Landing area. Samuel was tall enough this time to ride the Fire Fall. He was excited to ride some of the bigger rides.

We walked over to PowderKeg and Fire in the Hole next, and while we were over there, Nathan and Matt also rode Wildfire. 

Powder Keg is always Elisabeth's favorite ride. She was just barely too short to hit the 48 inch mark and ride some of the other big coasters, but she loved Powder Keg and rode it four times!

These kids always get along best when they get off roller coasters. 

After lunch we headed over to the train. While we waited for the next train, we rode the carousel. 

Katherine was so cute. She had to give her bear a hug and a kiss after the ride was over. We all enjoyed experiencing the magic of Silver Dollar City through her eyes.

Katherine insisted we had to ride the train. The big kids had never ridden it before. The line was always too long, so it was a new experience for everyone. 

Nathan wanted to ride Time Traveler with Matt, so the other kids and I went to the littler kids area. Samuel and Elisabeth rode the kiddie coaster, while Katherine rode the Butterflies. I think this was her favorite ride of the day. 

She asked all day to ride the frogs. 

We rode the big swings as a family, and then the other kids stayed and rode Dumbo while Nathan and I rode Wildfire again. The boys headed over to ride Outlaw Run and the Giant Barn Swing, while the girls spent more time at Fireman's Landing. Samuel was so excited to be tall enough to ride Outlaw Run. He declared it his favorite roller coaster. 

Later in the day we were back at the Ladybugs and Butterflies with the girls, while the boys rode bigger rides. 

I got a little sentimental watching them ride the Butterflies, because it felt like the end of era of those little kid rides for us. We've only taken the kids to Silver Dollar City a handful of times, but they have always enjoyed and looked forward to those little bug and frog rides. I got to thinking that during our next visit, our kids may have outgrown those fun little rides. There's definitely so much to look forward to them being all able to ride the big rides and a new type of fun ahead, but I think I'll always be a little sad when they're too big for the kiddie rides. I'm so thankful for the sweet memories of their smiles and joy riding those frogs, butterflies, and ladybugs with their siblings and their friends. 

We took a quick dinner break and prioritized the rides we all had to re-ride before the night was over. For the most part, the lines were short on all the rides, so we had plenty of time to ride and re ride everything we wanted to. 

One of my favorite parts of the night was riding the Giant Barn Swing with the boys in the dark. We pretended we were blasting off to outer space. Samuel wanted to fly to Jupiter but was worried about having to cross the Asteroid belt, ha! It was a special moment with him. They begged me to ride it a second time with them, and then afterward Samuel grabbed and held my hand (something that's not normal for him). I hope I always remember that moment with my boys. We also rode Outlaw Run and Time Traveler in the dark which was a fun/different experience. 

We ended the night back at Fireman's Landing. 

We squeezed every second of fun we could out of the day. We arrived at 9:30am and closed the park down at 9:00 pm that night. Our kids are troopers and have a crazy amount of stamina when it comes to theme parks. I think Nathan said he took over 34,000 steps that day according to his watch. 

We ended the night with a quick photoshoot and began the long walk to the car. 

Katherine never napped or even dozed in the stroller the whole day. She did finally pass out on our walk out of the park. Sweet Baby!

Bedtimes were easy on Thursday night!

Friday morning, the kids wanted to swim at the hotel, so we counted that for their baths for the day, ha!

After swimming and getting ready for the day, we drove to the Outlets for a little shopping. We all ended up being a little disappointed in the shopping and the weather was cold/rainy, so it wasn't as fun as we had hoped. The day before at Silver Dollar City, we had perfect weather. The cold/yucky weather on Friday made us extra grateful for such nice weather on Thursday.

We stopped at Steak and Shake for lunch before we left town. 

We drove to Springfield and took a tour of Fantastic Caverns. It was a great homeschool field trip! The kids learned about stalagmites, stalactites, and cave water systems. It was an interesting tour. Katherine was bored and wanted to get out of the tram, but the other kids seemed to enjoy it.

We headed back home after our tour. I think the busyness of the previous day finally caught up to everyone, ha!

We came home with tired, happy hearts after two days of family, fun time. I'm always so thankful for the quality, bonding time we get as a family when we get away from the everyday stress of work and school.