John and Carol Show: BRANSON SPRING BREAK FUN

The past several years we have taken some quick spring break trips with friends. This year, with very little pre-planning, we embarked on an adventure with the Head family for a couple of days spent in Branson. Our party of 12 went on the road. 👊🏻

(the four adults in the CFA parking lot where we loaded up on chicken before the massive 3 hour drive. it seems that children are always always hungry until it is time to eat a meal when they seem to be never hungry. Maybe that's just my kids.)

We had several "firsts" this trip:

Our first time at a Hibachi grill (the kids mostly thought it was great, though the twins were particularly nervous about the fire, and at one point Bella was against the wall when the chef started throwing vegetables for us to catch in our mouths 🤣😮🥕)

Our first time at Fritz's Family Adventure - a super fun place that recently opened in Branson. We all had a blast - though it made for a late night.

(They had a mini-ropes course for littles with harnesses and everything!)

(Bella rocked the big ropes course with John!)

Our first visit to the Sight and Sound Theatre to see Moses. It was amazing - truly. They use live animals and all kinds of other effects - the production level was unbelievable. Talk about having the Bible come to life! 3 out of 4 of my children made it through the whole play, and Violet got to hang with John a lot in the lobby- so much so that they gave us a complimentary DVD and gave Violet a stuffed lamb. 👊🏻😂🐑

We had our first visit to Mel's Hard Luck Diner where the wait staff sings while serving you. This was highly entertaining for everyone, though not all of the boys at our table enjoyed having their hair ruffled by a singing waitress. William was so worn out from the fun that he slept through much of dinner, and because it was the night before my birthday, they sang to me. After the singing, a man who introduced himself as Santa also came over to wish me a Happy Birthday. Gosh I love Branson.

(Why Santa doesn't always dress this way is a mystery to me.)

Besides firsts, we also had several family trip standbys. There were pancakes and cinnamon rolls for breakfast on our two mornings there.

There was fun downtime just playing with friends and going on "Nature Walks" near the golf course we were staying on.

There were a few unpleasant instances, like when Lily got overheated and motion sickness kicked in and she vomited in the car around 10:00 pm on our way back to the condo after Fritz's. She was so proud that she didn't get any on her new shoes, and she immediately felt better, thank goodness. During one afternoon, it was reported that kids were playing with play dough on the carpet. We did discover that by "kids," this mostly meant one kid, and it looked like she was giving hot pink play dough CPR when we got down there. Nothing is more fun than cleaning hot pink play dough out of someone else's carpet. 😒

On our last morning, we headed to mini-golf and had a grand old time. It is amazing to see how much more fun things get as our children get a little older.

(To speed things up, John created "Twin Golf" where they would hit their balls at the same time - this delighted them both, and they would giggle and giggle as they chased their balls down the green. So cute.)

We rounded it all out with a quick picnic lunch before we hit the road and the storms blew in!