Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Spring Break 2015: Silver Dollar City

I can hardly believe that Spring Break has come and gone; we had a really fun week.  It started out slow and easy, which was a really nice change of pace for sure.  We had several days in a row of picnics and playdates with friends. The big boys very much enjoyed being out of school!
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This is a wonderful group of kiddos, how cute are they--just watching the ducks and looking at the boats?
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One afternoon the boys asked me if they could swim around in the hot tub, we usually say no, but I couldn't resist their passionate requests.
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And sweet Ava Jane wanted to play the piano like Daddy one morning, so I thought this little moment was too cute not to document!
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Toward the end of the week several families had decided to rent a cabin in Branson and take the kids to Silver Dollar City and to ride Branson's Scenic Railway. As we planned the trip, I knew it was going to be a bit of a crazy endeavor.  How many people do you know who take 15 kids to an amusement park, most of who were six years old and under?  But the best part of the trip (other then all the smiles on our kids faces) was the fact that all of us were on the same wave length, we all went into it knowing that there was sure to be a hairy moment or two but we all embraced the crazy and had a really fun time!

Three families arrived on Thursday evening.  While the adults unpacked the cars, our children got acquainted with their surroundings and ran off a little pent up energy.  They also enjoyed playing foosball and watching the dads play a little pool.
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Once all the kids were down each night we enjoyed playing games.  I got a refresher course on Settlers of Cattan, its a strategy game that is challenging but fun.  It was nice to have time for uninterrupted conversations where many a laugh was shared.
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As we were walking into Silver Dollar City on Friday morning it was a bleak, cold, rainy kind of day.  I was hopeful that we would have fun, but was not totally convinced that the whole thing wouldn't go down hard and fast with our small pre-school that we were herding through the entrance.  With a few sprinkles falling we decided to go under ground to avoid the cold conditions.  So we toured SDC's Marvel Cave.  It was huge, to say the least.  The cathedral room was so large, that on its 100th anniversary they were able to blow up five hot air balloons inside of it.  I must say, with the 600 steps down and back up, our children did pretty good, though most of us adults had our arms full with one or two toddlers at any given time which meant we got a good bicep burn.
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After we left the cave the weather was actually clearing up, though it was still pretty cool, but that didn't phase the kids, they were ready to hit the rides.
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There were all kinds of tasty treats, from smothered nachos to fresh made pork rinds and let me not forget my favorite…the funnel cake!
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There were some crazy moments, I won't lie, but truly overall, the day at SDC went amazingly well all things considered.  I was a little leary that we'd be able to make it from open to close without having naps, but all the kids were such troopers, they did awesome and we literally shut the place down.

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The sun came out and we had a lot of fun with people we love and that made it a great day!
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To see Carol's take on the trip click here, the train ride will be up tomorrow.

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