Our amazing/depressing vacation...

So...we left on vacation/dropping off oldest daughter at college and spent a couple of good days in KC with SIL and BIL. Science City was...well, not quite what I expected! It was good, just not really for teenagers. 12 and under would be a good age for it. Out of my 4 kids, only one is that age! But the others survived. Brave 2nd daughter rode the SkyBike, I thought she was incredibly courageous!

On to Branson to Silver Dollar City...only we discovered on Sunday morning that Silver Dollar City was closed this week - and this week only - until Friday. And we had to leave Wednesday morning. And Silver Dollar City was the whole reason we went to Branson. They were, however, open Sunday afternoon...and had some friends of ours known we wanted to go, they could have gotten us in free for the day. I should explain that with six of us on a small town pastor's salary the only way we were even going to SDC is because someone else could get us discounted tickets during the week...so we were all a tiny bit (ok, make that a whole lot!) disappointed. And with no idea of what to do in Branson. Because everything costs a million dollars when you have four kids who no longer qualify for children's rates. There were a couple of shows we thought we were going to get to see, but those fell through too or were sold out!

BUT....we usually find some fun and this time was no exception! We went swimming in Table Rock Lake (seriously warm water), went on Ride the Ducks (thanks to the above mentioned friends who found complimentary tickets for us!), walked around in Branson's Landing and saw a neat, albeit short, water show, bowled at Hillbilly Bowling (yee haw!), rode the trolley around the Landing, went to Ripley's Believe it or Not. Tuesday we also went to the Titanic Museum because they have a great deal on a family pass. Unfortunately some of us came out of there extremely depressed. Especially me because I have this weird imagination where I get so into things that I could feel the people's terror and sadness. Plus my person (they give you a bio at the beginning of the tour) died. Sad day. So that may not have been the best thing to go to. The day got better though when we went out in a pontoon boat on Table Rock Lake and had a great time. The pseudo-daughter I've mentioned in other blogs came out for the afternoon, so that was awesome. And that evening some friends came and we went out again. I wondered what we would do out on the lake for several hours, but the day just flew by. It was great!

Then came Wednesday...the day we had to pack up and leave our oldest baby at college. Everyone was tired and sad and oldest daugher was nervous and cranky! Especially when I didn't let her drive her own car on the windy roads... We cleaned the house we were renting and headed out. If you've never left your daughter at college, well, let's just say it's a hard thing for sure! I did pretty good, until we got home a couple of days later and I walked in the house and started bawling and couldn't stop. One day later I'm down to sniffling so I'm making progress. Anyway, back to Wednesday...no, that was a depressing day, so let's move to Thursday! We left the college town and headed for Wichita to see my husband's family (the ones that don't live in KC). It is always fun to be with them, and we had some great food at my SIL's house there. My youngest son got to spend the night with his cousin so he was happy.

Friday, we headed home, and I think everybody was depressed about leaving oldest daughter, so we were glad to stop for lunch with some friends and spend a couple of hours laughing.

So...I guess you could say it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. We didn't get to do the things we planned, but we did get to spend lots of time with friends and family! So, no complaints...except that I miss my baby. But she's happy and having fun, so it's good!

Ok, I'm done rambling! Have a good weekend!