from the home of country....

Our family took a mini vacation earlier this week down to Branson, MO.....home of cowboy boots, bright lights, country music and about a jabillion singing/comedy shows. It's a little too, um, country for me, but every now and then it's fun to go down there. If anything just to get away......a vacation anywhere is a good vacation! :-) This time we went there and stayed with my in-laws who were staying the week. We just stayed 3 days, I didn't want to keep the kids out of school all week, and plus Jer couldn't really take off work all week. So we left Sunday after church and drove down, and stayed until Wednesday. As always, it wouldn't be a blog from yours truly, if it wasn't covered in pictures......so here ya go :-)

(Jeremy's sister) Aunt Jen enjoyed some quality baby Gena time.....

My mom-in-law just cracks me up......we go down to Branson, where there are a zillion lot of things to do and she brings 2 huge boxes of crafts and stuff to entertain the kids. They were definately not bored! As soon as we got there Sunday she pulled out the first craft..... :-)

Here she is helping Isaiah make a can-snowman-candy cane holder thing......not sure the technical name it is called - but it was very cute.

At bedtimes, we pushed all the toys outta the way and blew up our air mattress for the kids to sleep on. There are 4 kids in this picture below, but my nephew Ben, ended up moving up to sleep on the couch. I think he felt a little crowded....lol

And below is Grandma telling the kids a bedtime story... just like we always do at home :-)

Here is my 9 year old nephew, Ben....he just loved playing with Gena and spending time with her while we were there, it was so cute :-)

Here is Lilly, showing off her fruit loop necklace she made...........

After spending much of Monday around the room, we got out Monday night and all went to see the Dixie Stampede show. (muchos kudos to my father-in-law for treating us, BTW!) :-)

For those unaware, the Dixie Stampede is a dinner and a show....it's super cute around Christmastime, and have "snow" falling, and show the manger scene, and bring Santa out at the end in a sleigh....and of course, the whole theme of the show, lots and lots of horses. Below is our family enjoying the show....

Oh.my.word. One of my less flattering moments occured at the Stampede that night. (aren't you sad to of missed it? lol) We (as in, me and Jeremy) were chosen from the audience to be a part of the show. We were up there with 3 other couples, and had to compete in a horse/snowman race. Jer had to saddle a play horse (you know, the kind that kids play with, that has a horses head and a stick for a body?) and I had to saddle up behind him. (wow, it's even worse reading it! haha). We then had to run a few feet, and go around a pretend snowman and come back to where we started and go again, as if the first time around wasn't torture enough. Needless to say, we did not win for our team, and it was a hair short of humiliating. All in all, a great night! lol

On Tuesday, we got to do some of my favorite - shopping! Here we are taking a lunch break at Wendys....

And we even managed to get in a visit from an old friend. Robbie used to go to our church and moved to Branson 3 years ago.....she got to meet our newest....

All in all, we had a great trip. If you've never been to Branson, I highly recommend it. at least once. :-)