Branson Weekend Getaway

We try to take a family trip to Branson once every summer (at least) but this year only one of my brothers could make it with us. Maybe they can all come next time! On Friday, we started our vacation with lunch at Shorty Smalls (my favorite) and the Dinosaur Museum. We saw it on our last trip and knew it would be a must for when we went back! Noah loved it! His dinosaur knowledge amazes us! He knew what all the dinosaurs were before we could even get to them and read their names and facts. He and Ryan both got to color dinosaur pictures and hang them on the wall in the lobby of the museum :)

Shorty Smalls!

Family picture in the dinosaur theater :)

Such great art work!

We then checked in our hotel and followed by some shopping and then we had dinner at Pasghettis - a new restaurant on the Branson strip. The restaurant was decorated so cute! It was like a little city. Then upstairs they had a little arcade and a mini ferris wheel. Then we went back to the hotel for a late night swim before bed :)

They LOVED the quarter rides! We spent a ton on them!

Branson Landing

Our view from the ferris wheel in Pasghettis!

Late night hotel swim :)

Ryan cracks me up :)

We got up Saturday and hit up the outlet malls before they got too busy and it got too hot. We found some great deals on work clothes for Nathan and school clothes for Noah. Getting to buy school clothes is something I have looked forward to for a long time :) We then had lunch at Joes Crab Shack (Nathan's favorite).

We then met up with my brother's family at the Dixie Stampede. We had never been to it before - it was a lot of fun! I liked the show a lot. Now the food - the food was good, but probably not anything I would order. I am not much on chicken with bones anyway, but you don't get silverware there so that made it extra difficult, especially with kids climbing all over trying to see the show. I had food all over! But the kids both liked the "white ham" (pork loin) but they wouldn't eat anything else that was served.

Once the sun went down we decided to get in some outdoor activities we were wanting to do while it was cooler. We rode go-carts, bumper boats, Nathan rode extreme go-carts, and we did Dinosaur putt-putt golf. The kids did SO good - especially considering we got back to the hotel after midnight from doing all this!

Extreme go-carts! He got 1st place!

Ryan was a good cheerleader for Momma :)

On Sunday we slept in until 9:00 (that is late for me and Noah), had a late breakfast and headed to meet my brothers family at Silver Dollar City. It was hot, but not unbearable and the shade was nice. we let the kids ride all the kid rides and play in the ball room and then we went to eat at Lone Star before heading home.

I absolutely LOVE going on vacations with my family. It is seriously one of my favorite things to spend money on. I have the best memories of traveling with my family as a kid and wish I had more! Each night I would ask the kids their favorite part of the day and listening to them tell me with a big smile on their face makes it all worth every penny. Some of their favorite parts were not even what I would have guessed.

Now it is back to reality and summer is almost over! We have lots more packed in what little time we have left though!