Friday night and Saturday - our last day :-(

So this recap has taken me nearly two weeks. Gosh I need to get on the ball!!

Friday night Shawn and I went back to Branson Landing after J was in bed. Karen and Dan were nice enough to let us out for yet another date night! It was so nice outside - I was expecting mosquitoes but I don't think I was bit once!

FIRE!! You don't really need the sound for this video - a cover band was playing but I wanted you to see the sheer wicked-awesomeness of the flaming water show!


We didn't go in, but I had to get a pic of the "Bud Store" - all Budweiser stuff. Reminded me of home... :-) (except replace "Bud" with "Miller")


After grabbing some nachos at a fancy Mexican restaurant on the waterfront (and only a slightly embarassing incident involving my poor Spanish language skills), we walked back along the lake to our car. The mist was a bit creepy!


Every morning we'd all cuddle in bed once J woke up. This is how Shawn looks when he first wakes up!


That's better!


This is inside (long title here) "The Shepard of the Hills Inspiration Tower" - it's quite beautiful. J and I stayed inside while Shawn and the kids went to the outside observation deck - um, no thanks!


Looking down...again, no thanks!!


Alec and Krystal dutifully posing.


He. Never. Stops. Moving. (unless he's sleeping, but even then he twitches a lot)


Safely back on the ground - J's thinking: "What's up with that dog??"


The kids walking.


We did a little shopping afterwards then headed home to pack up - we had to leave Branson around 530am to get to the Springfield airport and drop off the rental car for our 845am flight.

They had a great play area right by our gate just for ones J's size. He loved it.


And finally, on the ground in Phoenix - glad to be home but sad to be back in the oppressive heat. Thanks for traveling with us!

Branson, the final days

Sorry for slacking off!!

Friday morning, Shawn, J, and I had 'antique' or old time photos done. Here are the ones we bought:


This picture of J is so cute I just want to squeeze him every time I look at it!!


After that we went to Branson Landing , this cute outdoor mall along the waterfront. It was so nice!


Having lunch.


J really wanted the lemon from my water so I let him have it. Silly boy!


The "water/fire" show along the lake. If it's one thing Americans love, it's water and fire shooting out of things!! (there will be a video later!)


A pic of everyone!


More to come later...

Day 3 & 4

I'm going to try and condense the trip so we can get back to life in real-time! Life has still been silly and a little bit crazy around the Roland house.

Day 3 - The Cave and Date Night

J & Karen & Alec

Sweet! Caves. (Guess what we found out? Jeremiah is not a fan of caves, especially ones that are completely vertical and you can only go up and down wet steps in. I wish they would have warned us beforehand, we would not have gone.)

Before the cave tour - happy family.

No, I'm not including pics in the cave, I took a few and they're not that great. It was a good tour, if you don't include the screaming baby part.

The crew eating lunch at "Michal's Family Resturant." Very interesting - when you're from the west coast, you forget that a lot of the country still allows smoking indoors. Icky.

We had spaghetti for dinner - it was great!! (thanks Dan!)

Date Night - taking a train to the top of a mini-golf course


Shawn with the airplane, of course.


Afterwards we got frozen custard (duh, you have to!!), and I added up our scores. We TIED!! Ugh.

I took this video for the sound - those of us from 'back east' may appreciate it. I call it.."Branson at Night."


Day 4 - Hiking!

I think we chose the most humid day to do a group hike. We were all really sweaty by the end of it, but J had great time picking flowers and playing in the dirt again.


"Are we done yet?"


Later, while the crew was back on the lake trying their hands at water skiing, we drove around and found an Amish store. We had to take Shawn's pic in front of the horse and buggy. (He gets teased at work for his "Amish" beard LOL)


Before we picked up the crew from their boating adventures, we found this park with all these trees. J had a great time running through them.



Notice the scraped up knees? He didn't seem to mind falling and getting hurt - surprise!

Branson Day 2

Footie Jammers


Someone thought it would be a good idea to leave the garbage out the night before. Ooops!!


Morning at the playground - I'm pretty sure he mistook this huge chipmunk for our dog, Prince. He usually hugs him that way.


The cute bridge leading into the condo development.


While the crew went jet-skiing, the three of us headed out for a little hike at an observation area we found while cruising around. The weather was perfect and for some reason being surrounded by all these trees made me very homesick for Wisconsin.

Pictures really don't do the view justice - it's all trees and rolling hills out there, so beautiful and so green.


Look at them trees!


Take a picture in front of them!


J loved walking along the path and picking up (and sometimes eating) rocks. And dirt. He is really an outdoors kid. (made me very excited for winter here in Az!)


That night after dinner, we all headed out for frozen custard, a treat that you don't find here in Phoenix. J had his first taste of it:


And more tastes of it...(see his hands? he's signing 'more,' he's also learned the sign for 'please' and that it will almost always get him what he wants. yikes)


J and his new BFF, Alec (13). Alec was really great with him. It was sweet.
I think I know a few people who could fill the manager position, right?


I made them turn around - Alec looks like this in all his pictures - almost no smiles. But he's a happy guy.

Travel Day + Branson, Day 1

I was so anxious leading up to this trip. Especially about the plane rides - we had two scheduled out to Springfield, Missouri. The first was about 90 minutes from Phoenix to Denver, then about 2 1/2 hours of layover, then another 90 minutes from Denver to Springfield. Then, a 50 mile drive to Branson. Oh, I was so worried, mostly about Jeremiah being one of 'those babies' who screamed the whole time on the plane and made everyone around us give us dirty looks. I couldn't have been more wrong!


J's first plane ride! He was getting over a cold - you can tell he wasn't 100%.


J slept nearly the whole flight from Phoenix to Denver. I'm sure the gentleman in the aisle seat appreciated that - in fact, when we landed, he said: "I'm pretty sure none of my children EVER did that." Once in Denver, we met up with Dan, Karen, Alec and Krystal, who we'd be vacationing with. As pure coincidence, we were on the same flight from Denver to Springfield and they were all sitting in front of us. We ate lunch and while J did not sleep on the way to Springfield, he was happy. I didn't even have to bust out the candy or other 'emergency' tricks I had packed!

Branson - Day 1
I know what you may be thinking - Branson??? Isn't that a little cheesy? I have to say that it isn't - we didn't go to any shows, but it sure is beautiful. Lots of grass, trees, flowers and bugs, it's very different than the desert.

Morning cuddles...


Where J slept! (he adjusted to it so well, he only really cried the first day at naptime and then again at bedtime. After that, he was great.)


We woke up earlier than the rest of the crew so we needed to find ways to stay entertained and quiet. Here is J on the back porch.


Next, we went for a morning walk - it was cool and beautiful.


We decided to check out the lighthouse - I'm not a fan of heights but did it anyways. I did not go outside, though.


View of Table Rock Lake from the lighthouse.


View of where we stayed - Stormy Point Village. Each timeshare is a seperate house, and they are all really cute.


We all rented a boat and headed out on Table Rock Lake. It was fun.


Daddy and J.


J driving the boat with Grandpa Dan.


Daddy dunked J in the lake - he liked it, then didn't like it!


Just the three of us went home so J could nap. While Shawn went to pick up the rest of the crew (they spent another 2 hours on the lake tubing), J woke up and I took some photos of our house.
The view from our back porch.


The living room area.


The kitchen.


While I was taking pics J decided it was just too dirty so he swept up.


A pic of the outside.


There are more pictures but this post is huge! I really need to go grocery shopping and unpack...so more tomorrow!!!