Silver Dollar City and a birthday

On Friday, we went to

Some people don't seem to care for Silver Dollar City, but we really enjoyed ourselves!  I recommend it!!  Picture overload on this blog, but if you are wondering if this place is worth it, look at the pictures and see for yourself.   

We parked the car and took the tram in.

 

After we crossed this bouncy, swingy bridge, it felt like the ground continued to move for awhile!

The children were measured and told which rides they could go on without adult supervision.

We all rode this roller coaster!

(feeling sorry for this one little girl!)

 

 

It was a very muggy day and we were glad for water sprayers

We enjoyed the train ride 

 it came with a train robbery!

 

Who doesn't love a carousel?

Claire took turns walking and getting a ride

the crazy tilted house was fun!

I hid behind Allen so I wouldn't get so wet!

We'd been forewarned to wear clothes that would dry quickly.

Good advice!  We were drenched!!

 Staci (who has a season pass) said that normally this place is way more packed, but most schools had started already so the crowds were down.

 Lightening was spotted in the area so for over 1/2 hour, rides were shut down.  We found a place to hang out for awhile before rides resumed.

When rides started up again, Jill, Claire and I stayed with the kiddie rides while the others went on the big rides.

 Claire's favorite was the elephant ride!

And because I wasn't with the others at the big rides, here are some pictures I got off the net.

(Mindy, you would have enjoyed it!!  We missed you!)

Finally, half of us were ready for a trip back to our "home",

The other half wanted to have more thrills.

 When everyone got to the house, we had a super taco supper.

And a 9 year old birthday celebration!

 Happy birhday, Sophia!  (well, not just yet, but we celebrated early for the cousins)

 Jill had made cookies cups (flip a muffin tin over and place cookie dough on it)

fill with ice-cream!

Because Claire has a dairy allergy, Jill made the cookies using coconut oil instead of butter and for Claire, she had her own dairy-free ice-cream while the rest of us had 2 other choices.  YUM!!

A Branson vacation

Initially, Josh's were planning a trip to Kansas to help celebrate Sophia's birthday.  But when we found out that the production of "Moses" would be showing at the Sight and Sound in Branson, we decided on a change of plans.  We would meet in Branson!  We found this house on-line with VRBO.

It is so much nicer to rent a house for the family than to get 3 hotel rooms!   And it is cheaper too!









Because we wanted to get to the back stage tour, we had to get up really early!   It was dark when we left.  We drove to Jill's to carpool together.  It was just getting light when we left their place at 6:30.

"The moon is coming with us!"

Funny sign en route.  

After the 5 1/2 hour trip, we made it to Branson.  We met our son's family at Sight and Sound. 

 Back stage tour.

The dressing room

The tour guides were not only so funny, but their love for Jesus overflowed!

 Baby Moses 

We got to see some of the animals.  There are many live animals in the play!

Grands in Egypt! 

Eli decided he'd like to be the guy who drives the props on stage when he grows up.   And Hannah said she would like to be an actress!




There were some other props from other plays, like the manger scene...

and Goliath.

After the tour, there was some time before the show was to start, so we drove to a nearby Culver's for some frozen custard! 

After happy tummies, we drove back.  Allen had pre-ordered seats up close.  We love that!

You aren't allowed to take pictures during the play so I borrowed some online.

It was an incredible production!!  Go see it!!

Afterwards, we were hungry and went to Culver's again - this time for supper, but no dessert this time, much to the grandchildren's dismay.  Then we used GPS to find our house for the weekend.

It was in a wooded area and very quiet (until we came!)

The kids were excited that there were even birdie pillows on the porch for Nana.

It was decorated like a Colorado ranch home, with stuffed critters even!

There were 4 bedrooms with king size beds and each bedroom had a hot tub.

What a delightful cabin for us!