The Gunns head to Branson 2014

We went on our summer family vacation to Branson this year. We were originally wanting to go to St. Louis since my dad has family there but my kids (mainly Ryan) does not travel well for long distances yet and my 2 sister-in-laws are very pregnant so it was not an ideal time. But, a weekend getaway to Branson was perfect. We decided to try out a new waterpark hotel this time and stayed at the Castle Rock. The rooms were really cute - they had a little bunk bed room in them which the kids all thought was so cool! There were 15 of us there together and we had a great time!

Nathan and I love Branson - there is a lot to do there and we have been so many times that we know how to get around traffic and where everything is. The first day we checked out the indoor pool for a while and then Nathan and I took the kids to see the lights on the strip and we had dinner in the car while driving around from a new burger place there - we like trying new places to eat :)

Shorty Smalls

Bunk Beds!

The next day we hit up the malls! They have the best shopping there for our tastes. We love Carters, Disney, Nike, Gap, Eddie Bauer, Bass Pro just to name a few of our favorites :) The kids LOVED the Disney store - Noah kept saying "this is Disney World!" while we were there :) They each got to pick out a toy and a shirt and they were thrilled! We also let Noah do his first Build A Bear (I wanted to wait until he was old enough to really enjoy it and not have me do all the enjoying). He chose a horse and we had the best Build A Bear employee! She gave him just the right amount of stuffing and then had Noah pick a heart out and he had to rub it on his cheek so the horse would know what he smelled like, and rub it on his heart so he would know what his heart beat sounded like, and he had to close his eyes and make a wish with the heart before we put it in a sewed him up. His wish was that his horse would be one of his new best friends :) He named his horse Henry and said Henry didn't need clothes because horses fur was their clothes - I was fine with that, saved me some money :) He also had a clown make him a balloon animal t-rex - and he is not a fan of clowns so I was impressed with him walking right up to him and talking to him.

We then went back to the hotel waterpark for more fun before my Dad's birthday dinner :) We wanted to go to Joe's Crab Shack but the wait was two and a half hours so we walked down to a different restaurant and they had a table for 15 not show up - so we took their reservation! Dinner was crazy but that is how vacation dinners go with a party of 15 (over half of which is kids). We then went and rode go carts to end our night of fun :)

Happy 66th birthday Dad!

The next day we checked out of the hotel and went to Silver Dollar City! Noah and Ryan had so much fun - you could just tell they were so excited about everything! There was an overcast sky and even a little rain so it was nice and not too hot at all. Ryan was 2 inches too short for a lot of rides but she loved the rides she was able to ride. We left there and everyone else headed home but Nathan and I took the kids and our niece Savannah to Joe's Crab Shack - it is our favorite place to eat so we really wanted to go there before we headed home. Then we had to take Noah to a putt-putt course that had dinosaurs everywhere to take pictures with them and one more round of go-carts.

We had so much fun and lots of memories were made. Some of my best memories are family vacations (and a lot of them are of Branson) so I am glad to get started making these memories with my kids and family.