We Survived!

It was hot and humid but we survived. It is good to be back home and have the little girls back in their own cribs. Man bedtime was R-O-U-G-H! They don't like sleeping in the play pens and were miserable. After grumbling for a couple of hours every night they'd finally settle in and sleep. Morgan managed to sleep with us a few nights after waking up in the middle of the night. She slept fine once she was in bed with us.

The trip down was pretty uneventful. Jason, my brother-in-law Billy and my nephew Cody went in my sisters SUV and had most of the luggage etc. with them. I took my sister and my niece with me in the van with Kori and the trio. The DVD players were going and we had walkie talkies to communicate with the boys. We stopped a couple of times to potty and had lunch and got in around 3:30 or so. The cabin was GORGEOUS! Beyond our expectations! It was really great! It smelled so wonderful too. The deck was fantastic as well!

We got in and got settled and headed down to the Branson Landing to "ride the ducks". It was a bit long for the trio and my niece but all in all not bad.

We split up again and Becky and Cody and I headed to the grocery store while the hubby's took the girls back to the cabin for bathing and jammies.

We had some dinner and got everyone in finally.

Tuesday we headed to Silver Dollar City. After a bit of a delay, allow me to translate that. My husband refused to take the map I had and decided to go a different way. Not a problem, except for the fact that he and Billy both failed to see the big sign indicating that to go towards the Table Rock Dam we would need to go right. Nope they missed it and 20 minutes later we found ourselves in a lovely area of homes. The boys were too proud to ask for directions, but being a woman I was not. I drove over to a nice man working in his yard and he got us going on the right path. WHAT is it with men and directions???

Anyway after 45 minutes or so we finally arrived. Morgan was less than thrilled about the whole thing and wasn't shy about voicing her displeasure. In her defense it was hot and humid. Her nose was a bit runny and I think she wasn't feeling 100%. I had a horrible sinus infection that I developed just in time for vacation so I wasn't feeling super hot either. After a couple hours of her grumbling, groaning, screaming, yelling and just generally being miserable, I'd had enough. In tears I told my hubby I was taking the trio and heading back to the cabin. My sister went with me to help out and the rest stayed behind for more fun.

Things were going great until all three of the girls fell asleep in the strollers while waiting for the trolley to pick us up to take us to the parking lot, which by the way was about 5 miles away. Well it seemed that way in the heat otherwise I would have just walked it. So after getting my sister on and settling the three very unhappy girls on with her, folding up the two strollers we were on our way. While Kamryn and Alexis were unhappy about being awakened so soon after falling asleep, they managed to make the best of it. Kamryn quickly started eating some kettle corn and Alexis busied herself with the remaining bit of some frozen strawberry lemonade. Morgan, well she was a WHOLE different story. She was VERY UNHAPPY and was not shy about voicing her displeasure. She screamed the entire ride back. Did I mention we were in the last row of the tram, right in front of the nice gentleman trying to chat with everyone via loudspeaker. He was nice about it all and informed everyone that there was a little one on board not happy about leaving Silver Dollar City. So after a few strange looks, lots of sympathetic ones as well, we finally arrived at our parking lot. After tromping the 3-more miles to the van, we loaded everyone up, popped in the Little Mermaid and sat for a minute to collect ourselves. I was sweating, stressed, hot and thirsty. My sister was equally as sweaty and hot. She was also covered in lots of Morgan's tears, and even a bit of snot and boogers I believe. Woo hoo! Loving me some vacation now...NOT!

I took the long way back thinking the girls would sleep. Not so much. We got everyone in and I gave them a bath and then we started to make some tacos for dinner. The rest of the crew arrived later and we had a nice dinner. Jason stayed with the little girls while the rest of us went swimming. That felt nice!

Wednesday Jason and Billy golfed in the morning. The course left a lot to be desired apparently and a lot of balls were lost. Upon their return we headed in for some lunch and some more sight seeing. We also pit-stopped at Walmart to get some medicine for the sinus infection that both my sister and I were now suffering from. One of our stops was at the Table Rock Lake fish hatchery. We were told that would be a fun thing to do with kids. NOT SO MUCH! My sister and I both needed some Xanax when we were through there. It was hot first of all. Then there are lots of concrete "tanks" (for lack of a better description) in the ground. They are covered with a flimsy net covering that my kids kept wanting to lean on. The "tanks" are full of water and trout, lots of trout! This is where they keep the trout that they stock the lake with. Did I mention LOTS of trout? They sell food and you can feed them. My girls were enthralled but it was very stressful with three two year olds. I kept seeing them falling in and swimming with the million of trout in there. It was not fun. My sister and I joked about wanting to crawl into the fetal position and cry it was so stressful. So we got rid of our fish vittles and headed for the car. We got drinks at Sonic and re cooped. Even poor Cody said it was stressful. Never again thanks.

We headed back to freshen up a bit before Becky, Mallory, Cody, Kori and I did the Dixie Stampede dinner show while the hubby's kept the little ones. It's a fun time, but there are no high chairs and such for little ones, and with three that would be tough. It was a blast and we all had a great time!!!! The food is served without utensils which is kind of fun. It's food you can eat with your fingers, chicken, pork loin, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, soup and apple turnovers. Kori thought that was awesome! Mallory loved the hee-hee's, or horses as we call them.

On Thursday Becky, Billy, Mallory, Cody and Kori visited the Titanic museum. Jason and I did that two years ago when we took the girls when they were 3-months old so we passed on that.

That evening we went to the Celebration City amusement park. If this is any indication for you my husband comment was, "It's nice someone thought to put an amusement park on the surface of the sun!" It was sooooooo hot and miserable. Morgan did better here than at Silver Dollar City but after a few hours and some dinner they were done. They did get to ride a few rides which was interesting. They just didn't understand the concept of getting off and getting back on. Alexis was super grumpy about that and had a bit old tantrum about it. So after dinner Jason took them back to the cabin while the rest of us stayed. We were wanting to ride some more rides and see the fireworks/laser light show at the end of the night. There was a play area at the resort that the girls could enjoy so they had lots of fun there. LOTS! They were also very dirty and left a lot of residue behind in the tub. At least they had fun.

We ended our night VERY wet! Well Becky, Kori, Mallory and I did anyway. We rode a water ride three times with the girls. They LOVED it, despite the rather large hill we went down, and wanted to do it over and over. Becky and I would have stopped after the second time but when the boat came into the loading/unloading area everyone (except for us) was chanting "one more time!" so they just sent us along again. Man we got duped into that one! So totally soaked, but with happy kids we left. The fireworks/laser show was good. We enjoyed some deep fried Oreos while we watched. Yes you read that right. Dipped in funnel cake batter and fried. They were rich but yummy!

Friday Becky and I took the four little girls shopping while the boys and Kori went to play mini-golf and ride go-karts. We hooked up later for dinner and then headed back for some swimming. The little girls LOVED the pool! Alexis liked it the least, but enjoyed watching the others when she got out. Morgan and Kamryn LOVED it and had so much fun. It's stressful taking three little ones swimming. We were glad to have lots of extra hands there.

It rained overnight Friday night and into Saturday morning. They had gotten 5 1/2 inches of rain when we left. There was lots of flooding and damage which is too bad.

The ride home seemed long to me. My niece was unhappy, my sister wasn't feeling well and it just seemed to be going slow. We survived though and that is most important.

There were high points as well as some low points. We laughed a lot which is always good. There was lots of good food too which is great! Taking 4 two-year olds on vacation isn't relaxing in the least, but we did it and we survived. Where to next year you ask? Too tired to even entertain the thought. Ask me in six months.