BRANSON TRIP: HIGHS & LOWS, PART TWO

We had a great time in Branson - here are the rest of our highs and lows.  (Part One, here)

High:  We could walk right down to the pool from our cabin which was oh so handy and oh so fun.

High:  We ate every dinner on the back porch.  There was plenty of seating, and our weather was unexpectedly wonderful.




Low:  On Wednesday morning, I told Bella she could go in and get the twins out of their pack n plays.  She ran back into my room and said, "I am not going to get Violet.  She threw poop everywhere."  I got out of bed pretty quickly with that bad report.  There was poop everywhere.  All over someone else's stuff, though, thankfully, V was in our pack n play and not the borrowed one.  The bath and overall poop clean up set back our leave time and made for a rather unpleasant morning.

Low:  We did get out the door eventually, but when we got close(ish) to Silver Dollar City, the line of cars was insane.  Like, it took us about 45 minutes to get to the parking lot.  Good thing everyone in our car took that well.  (sarcasm font)  We went through a lot of snacks and drinks just trying to get to the park.  The lines of humans waiting to get into the park were also pretty intense.  At the last place, William was screaming, and I was near tears from the sheer stress of it all.  I wanted to flip off the people around us, especially some of the people in front of us.  By the grace of God, I refrained.  We made it into the park, but I was extremely flustered by the time we did.

High:  We all calmed down a bit and got our bearings once we got all the way into SDC.  Our kiddos genuinely love it, and seeing their love for it makes me love it too.  We had a great day with many great moments.


(William was not exactly excited about his first ride.)

We realized that as a general rule, we tend to value the great memories over the realities of the present.  There were plenty of whiny, hot, hungry, thirsty moments.  I about lost my mind all over again when it came time to stand in line for lunch.  My sweet sister kept me sane.  But, when I look back at the pictures, I think about how great the day was.  I'm so thankful for the time we had there with our dear people.

High:  "On our way" home, we stopped in Siloam Springs.  It's actually two hours out of the way, but we got to get pictures done by Uncle Luke at Main Street Studios.  The kiddos mostly did pretty well, and I can't wait to see the way the pictures come out.  

(Luke also took a picture of John and I in front of this new mural!  Siloam is so dear to us after meeting and marrying there.)

And, we got to see cousins one last time.  Violet sure loves her some baby Hutch.

Low:  We had an awful lot of screaming on the way home.  Like, hours of it.  

High:  John and I actually responded pretty decently to all of the screaming.  We attribute this to a couple of things.  1)  Our expectations are at rock bottom, so there was no gap between expectations and reality to be disappointed by.  2)  We have learned helplessness.

Now we are home and trying to regroup for the start of school in two days.  Can't even believe it.  Hope your weekend is going well.