Because Ryan and I are such great parents, we took our family vacation the week before school started. Who needs to get their kids back on a bedtime routine and schedule? Actually, in fairness to us, we scheduled this trip to Big Cedar Lodge before we knew that school would start so stinkin' early.
We invited my parents to come with us and headed out on a Monday to Branson, MO. We had been to this resort a couple of years ago when Caroline was only a baby so it was nice to know what to expect. The boys were really excited! (Jack actually remembered quite a bit, and Grant had seen enough pictures to know that he should be excited.) When we arrived it was great for the boys to see the room and how similar it was to the previous visit. Caroline had fun peeking through the curtains and riding on Papa's back.
A great thing about this resort is that they have a marina on Table Rock Lake. When the kids are older it will be fun to go out on some of the boats, but at this age they're just a bit too young. Caroline wanted to do everything the boys did, which caused my heart to race and blood pressure to rise a few times.
When I tell people that we're going to Branson I always feel like I need to clarify that we are not actually going to Branson. We did, however, venture over Branson Landing once on both trips. The kiddos loved this store full of everything you could possibly ever think you might want cluttering up your house. We let each of them choose one item, which was really difficult thanks to the overwhelming amount of stuff there.
Grant chose this train. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how LOUD it was until we got back to the hotel and put batteries in it. Yikes!
Jack chose a couple of superhero coloring books and crayons. He colored the entire time we were at dinner, which made the meal so much calmer and more pleasant.
One of the kids' favorite things was eating breakfast out on the balcony. The boys didn't want Caroline sharing their balcony, so it was really fortunate that we had two!
Another favorite part of Big Cedar Lodge was riding on the shuttle that took us to pools, restaurants, and different parts of the resort. (It is a HUGE resort!) The boys loved calling for the shuttle and wearing their seatbelts on the bus. Caroline, of course, had to follow suit.
One of the pools had a lazy river. Everyone except for Caroline seemed to enjoy it. Caroline rode on my innertube, and she kept trying to climb out of my lap. It kind of ruined the ride for me, too, I guess. Not quite so lazy if you're wrangling a two-year-old the whole time.
The last night we spent some time wandering around the resort. One of the sweet parts was a visit to the Airstream ice cream trailer. Yum!
Jack said they were climbing sausages on this climbing thing. I loved that comment because I'm not sure how he even knows what sausage looks like since we don't eat it!
They have a mini-golf course, and one of the holes is in this big mouth bass. The kids pretended they were Jonah in the whale, but their favorite part was when they acted out being spit out of the whale. Am I surprised? :)
They also had a popsicle social in the evening with games. A couple of years ago they did s'mores, and while I love s'mores, it's not quite so fun when the temperature is 95 degrees! One of the games they had for the kids was hula hoops. Caroline picked up one hula hoop, couldn't get it to work, and moved onto another one. Hmmm...oddly enough that one didn't work either.
The boys found the cornhole game and had fun over there. I like the top picture with Jack sticking out his tongue. He must have been deep in concentration to throw the perfect toss. After cornhole they went over to the hula hoops with their sister. I'm not sure they were much better than Caroline, especially when they were trying to do it with two hoops at once!
Our best attempt at a sibling picture--I actually think this one was pretty successful. They look like they really love each other! :)
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