Our day began with a visit to Ripley's Believe It or Not. There were lots of odd and unusual things to see inside. Just a few of the many oddities that we saw included:

the world's largest ball of yarn, a huge picture of Mary Poppins (made out of jelly beans), a statue of the world's tallest man and a real shrunken head. It was interesting.

Jake loved it. This was among the top "must see" attractions.

After lunch we went shopping. Our original gaol was school clothes and shoes. That goal did not last long once we stumbled upon this fun hat store. I won't tell you which one I bought to wear for "crazy hat day" at school.....you will just have to wait and see.

The next stop for the day was the Fish Hatchery. We used to come here often when the kids were little. They loved throwing food AT... I mean TO.....the trout. Rowdy and I used to hold the children by the waistband...to ensure they did not fall in...... some things never change.

We finished out the day enjoying dinner with my parents and brother at his favorite Rib Crib.The food was wonderful. Jake especially got into his meal. Note the HUGE pile of napkins in front of his plate.

Another fun, HOT day in Branson. Who knows what we will do tomorrow.....

One way to Beat the Heat...

Don't tell.... but we had Ice cream for Dinner tonight.
We spent the day on Branson's Landing.... mostly window shopping....
no mostly sweating....

None of us could decide on anything that sounded good for dinner....

someone joking suggested Ice Cream....

That is all it took. After all. We are on vacation. Why not?

Mini-Vacation to Branson

Can you say HOT? The temperature outside reads 104. I believe it.

We arrived in Branson yesterday. The trip from St. Louis was enjoyable. I have to admit that I do not miss the days of packing the car full of toys, games, coloring books, movies, snacks, drinks and items used for bribing good behavior. It is great that the kids are pretty easy travelers. Both kids bring books and are pretty happy in the back seat with nothing more than a pillow. Rowdy got an audio book of the last Harry Potter novel...so we plugged in it...and listened to it all the way.

We stopped for lunch at Lambert's (Home of the Throwed Roll). We had a great lunch.. and ate way too much. I got hit in the head with a hot roll... Jake really thought that was funny!)

We arrived at our hotel, unpacked and headed to Silver Dollar City.
We though that we would beat the worst part of the day (heat wise). It was over 100 degrees at 8:30pm. Although it was terribly hot.... everyone had a great time.
Emily and Jake are now old enough to ride the rides without us....we like that.
We drop them off at the entrance ....watch them get on the ride.... and we wait patiently to collect them at the exit.

Jake is all about the "wet rides" - he is not fond of things that go upside down or are in extreme darkness. But aside from that...he is game for anything.

Emily is by far the "daredevil" in this family. Emily is up for ANYTHING. She is especially in love with roller coasters. Nothing seems to frighten her. I have no idea from where she gets her courage.

More posts as our Branson Adventures continue....