Branson Recap

Today is the last post about Branson.
We packed in a lot of fun into one week!!
We can't waint until we can go back again.

Here are some pictures that I took throughout the week that I liked, but did not put on any of my other posts.
So here is a short recap of some of our week. =)

Thanks Gary & Sheril for a wonderful week!!

Fishing From the Boat

On Wednesday morning while we were in Branson, we rented a boat and went out on Table Rock Lake.
It was the first boat ride for Lily and I think it was the first boat ride for Riley too.
Zach has been on a boat, but he hasn't been on one in years.
Riley and Zach loved being on the boat and they were really excited when Grandpa started to go fast!
Lily on the other hand, was not too crazy about it at first.

Once we got to our first fishing spot, she decided it wasn't too bad.

The boys couldn't wait to start fishing!

I love this picture of Zach. =)

My three fishers!

After what seemed like forever, Zach caught a fish!!

He was SO excited!!

Here is Jeff showing him how to get it off of the hook.

Such a good Daddy.

Not long after that, Riley caught one!

This is how Lily felt about the whole experience....

hot, and not fun when you don't catch anything.

We explained to her that she might want to leave her pole in the water longer than five seconds, and she might catch something. (this little piece of advice will be funny later on....)

Then Zach caught his second fish!!

Lily was getting a tad frustrated with this whole fishing thing, so Daddy helped her.

Her very first fish!!!!

Ever!

Yeah Lily!!

After that, we decided to move to another spot.

Mainly because we were HOT!

We were looking for shade. =)

The kids liked the cool breeze from this ride.

Here is Riley being our bartender for the ride. ;-)

Just kidding, it was just ice in his cup.

We had barely gotten our poles in the water when Lily caught her second fish!

Then Riley caught his second.....and third fish!!!

Zach was getting a little frustrated that his little brother & sister were showing him up.

Jeff let him borrow his big pole and Zach caught his third fish.

By this time Lily was getting a little bit bored by this whole fishing thing.

Actually I am surprised at how good she was for the four hours we were out there.

To make the time go faster for her, we would take turns throwing out her line, and let her reel it back in.

That was her favorite part, the reeling back in part.

By this time we were throwing her line out really far so it took longer for her to reel it in.

Remember when I gave her that great piece of advice about leaving her pole in the water & not just reeling her line back in?

Well, one of the times she reeled her line back in, she yelled out, "I caught a fish!"

No one really believed her because we had all been helping the boys and not really paying attention to what she was doing.......

until Sheril (my mother-in-law) said, "Hey! You really did catch a fish!"

We all looked over & on the end of Lily's pole was a fish!

She had reeled it all the way in by herself!

It was SO funny!

This is Lily's third fish, and the first one she caught ALL BY HERSELF!

She even threw it back in by herself. =)

After that it was time to head back, which was a good thing because it was starting to get hot, and the kids were getting tired and hungry.

We had a great time out on the boat.

I was so happy that the kids caught some fish, and it was a fun way to spend one of the days of our vacation.

Shows and Other Fun Things

While we were in Branson, we got to see two really fun shows, ride on The Ducks, and go mini golfing!

On one of the nights, Jeff & I got to go on this big showboat called the Branson Belle.....

....all by ourselves!!
Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, and I loved doing lots of fun things with them during our stay in Branson, but it is always nice for just Jeff & I to get to do things together.

The Branson Belle is a big paddle boat that goes around Table Rock Lake while the people inside eat a yummy dinner and watch a show.
We saw singers and dancers perform lots of great songs, and then we saw a very funny comedian.

We got to ride on The Ducks one afternoon.

The Ducks are military vehicles that drive on land and then turn into boats.

They also go out onto Table Rock.

Everyone gets a quacker for the ride.

The kids really like these.......the adults, not so much. ;-)

The kids also get a chance to come up & "drive" the boat!!

They thought that was a lot of fun!!

On another night, we went to the Dixie Stampede!

Jeff & I have been twice, but the kids have never been.

They thought it was SO fun!!!

You do not get any type of silverware; that was especially funny to the kids.

While you are eating, you get to watch a show where there are cowboys and cowgirls riding horses, and they have chicken races, pig races, and miniature horse races.

You are either for the North or the South.

We were on the North side and the kids waved their North flags for the competitors.

The kids were really excited when the North won!

These are some pictures that were taken before the show.

One afternoon when it was raining, we took the kids to an indoor mini golf course.

They had a lot of fun showing Grandma their golfing skills. =)

I know I already showed all of our Silver Dollar City pictures, but I made Jeff scan this one so I could show it here on the blog.

We got all dressed up as cowboys and saloon girls in the tintype picture shop in SDC.

The kids had fun dressing up and I think the picture turned out pretty cute!

So, as you can see, we tried to shove as much fun as possible into one week. =)

Stay tuned for pictures on the boat catching fish!!

Dinosaur Museum

While we were in Branson, we went to a Dinosaur Museum I had seen online.
I was a little disappointed in this museum.
It wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be.
But, the kids had fun and really liked looking at the dinosaurs, so that's all that really matters.

Here they are posing in front of one of the dinosaurs.
They were really big!

They had re-creations of dinos throughout the museum.
Some of them were just heads sticking out of grass.
The kids thought those were funny.

Their favorite dino was the T-Rex.

Zach wanted his picture taken in front of him.

Riley decided he needed his picture taken too.....only he needed to make a scary face when he did it.

Lily also wanted to be scary for the camera. =)

There was an interactive part of the museum at the end where the kids got to be archaeologists and sweep away sand to find "fossils".

This is the one Zach found!

The kids had fun finding lots of fossils!

As we were walking back into the gift shop, Zach spotted this huge T-Rex head coming out of the wall.

It was just the right height for him to stick his head into....which he thought was pretty funny.

Then the Monkey-See Monkey-Do Twins decided they needed to stick their heads in there too.

The only problem was that they weren't tall enough, so Jeff had to hold them up to the head.

As my sister Amy pointed out after seeing this picture, it looks like Jeff is feeding Lily to the

T-Rex. ;-)

Even though I was not too impressed with this museum, the kids did have fun and they got to see lots of dinosaurs, so it was a good trip!