Our Branson Trip

We had an amazing time in Branson. It is really beautiful there and the weather couldn't have been better. Before we left I took Karley to the beauty shop for a little mani-pedi so we would look beautiful. She LOVED it!

Mom, Karley and I left on Tuesday to go to Jamie's house. She was getting new windows and doors put into her house and needed someone there to let the guy in. We spent all day cleaning her house (your welcome jamie) and admiring the look of the new windows. Todd joined us after work on Wednesday and early Thursday morning we were off.

We arrived around 1pm and went to the downtown area where there was some fantastic shopping and we decided to do the Ride the Ducks tour. This is a land and water tour of branson that was amazing. At the end of the tour Karley got to drive the boat and we were lucky enough to see the fire and water show from the water. It reminded me a lot of the show outside the Belagio in Las Vegas.

After the tour we hopped in the car to go to the Hotel. We stayed at the Welk Splash-a-torium resort. It was comparable to the Great Wolf Lodge and we immediately went to the waterpark after we checked in. There was a water slide, outdoor water play area 2 hot tubs a huge pool.

After swimming we hit up this awesome outlet shopping center. We hit up the Coach outlet (notice the new purse Karley is carrying) and Todd got some new swim shorts at Ralph Lauren. There was a lot of great shops there!!! After the outlet shopping we drove up and down the strip and found this really neat looking ice cream shop. So, here we are enjoying our ice cream and cheesecake. YUMMY!!





Day 2 we got up really early to go to Silver Dollar City. We arrived at the park around 8:30 and had breakfast at a bakery inside the park. After breakfast we were trying to decide which way to go and ran into our next door neighbors. They were there with their kids and her parents (who are season ticket holders) Karley was so excited to see them we just decided to hang out with them for the day. It was a lot of fun and really neat for Karley to have a friend to play with. Here are a few pictures from the day.
The weather was 75ish and the crowd was very, very low. The longest we had to wait was 5 minutes for a ride! At the end of the day we took a tour of Marvel Cave. It was quite the experience! We walked down 600 stairs and then back up 10 flights to catch the train. Karley and Kylie did amazing through the whole 1 1/2 hour tour......It was dark and cold and there were bats and lots of water! It was very beautiful though and we had a great tour guide. After the cave we rode the train around Silver Dollar city and then took off. The park closed at 6pm which seemed kind of early but whatever. Side note: I don't know if anyone noticed but karley had to change her clothes mid-day because we got on a ride that Matt swore we would not get wet on.....I have never been more wet from a ride in my entire life. It was fast and fun but wearing wet jean shorts for the rest of the day was not so much fun. I did have an extra change of clothes for Karley in the bag....Lucky girl.


We left and went to another great shopping area to eat at the Hard Luck Diner. The whole staff here are professional singers and they will randomly sing songs while walking around. Every one of them came up to our table to sing to karley and she thought that was pretty cool. Our waiter was a contestant on American Idol season 4. I am not sure how far he made it but he was a really good singer!!! Here he is with Karley along with a few more pictures of us at the shopping area.



We ended the day with a little more shopping at some craft and antique malls and a few of the shops that have 35,000 items in them. On our way back to the hotel we had to stop for some more ice cream.



Day 3- We woke up and went to breakfast at a locally owned restaurant called Chesters. After breakfast we went to the Ripley's Believe it or not museum. It was so much fun to see all of the crazy things in there.







The picture above is still from the museum but it is a mirror where you check to see if you can roll your tongue. We probably stood there trying to do it for 5 minutes and then at the end of the museum you walk behind the mirror to find out it was a 2-way mirror so we got to watch other people making fools out of themselves......


We spent the rest of day 3 at silver dollar city where Karley discovered she was tall enough to ride the adult roller coasters. Again, there were not lines so we literally rode one ride 20 times in a row. The faster the ride, the more she liked it.


We ended the day at a restaurant down the street from our hotel. It was a steakhouse that had a man who would throw rolls at you. Here are a few pictures of karley trying to get a roll and one right after she caught one.


We ended the last night swimming in the pool and hanging out in the hot tub. It was a nice relaxing evening to our nonstop action packed trip. We had so much fun!!!