Spring Break, Part 2!

Continuing with the spring break visit…

On Friday we headed to Branson.  It was a perfect day weather-wise.  We couldn’t have asked for pretty weather. 

Our first stop was the Shepherd of The Hills Fish Hatchery.  Hey, it was free!  But, really we had a great time, the kids enjoyed seeing all the fish of different sizes.  The hatchery produces 1,125,000 trout annually.  The fish were everywhere!  (OK, ignore the black tees the kids are wearing, it will make more sense later!  No, we were not trying to make them look like some kind of school group or daycare or something!)

All the kids and Clay checking out the fish.

After the fish hatchery we ate lunch at our favorite, Danna’s BBQ then we headed to the Hollywood Wax Museum.  This is a small wax museum but in Branson it is a good choice for “preteens”.

Madison and Dorothy.
 
Kellen, Mallori, Garrett, and Madison with people from Star Trek.
 
Kellen, Mason, Garrett, Mallori, and Madison with Indiana Jones.
 

Attached to the Wax Museum was a mirror maze and 5-D ride (or movie or something, I really don’t remember what it officially is).  Here are Callie and Clay in the mirror maze.  The funniest thing about this picture is that up until now, she had been scared to death of Clay.  When he pulled up at our house and got our of the car, she ran and hid.  She had not gone near him for three days.  But, once in the mirror maze with everyone screaming, and really for a minute, thinking we would never see the light of day, she decided Clay was her best option!  I don’t know if she was looking for a “daddy”, or if she decided I wasn’t going to be any help since I had brought her here!  The maze was really fun.  There were mirrors that would light up with characters behind the glass, totally scary!  I was really getting  claustrophobic thinking we wouldn’t find our way out!

Here are the four big kids in the 5-D movie thing.  Apparently there is the movie, the glasses, there are things you feel, things you shoot, and you move.  Those are the five “d’s”.  (Obviously this is not something I am into, but you get the idea, right?)  Clay, Mason, and Gannon were a few rows back.  Callie opted not to do this, which was probably a good thing.  I am the most scaredy cat of all of them, and the way they talked I would have not made it out!

From the museum we made our way to Branson Landing.  I love Branson Landing.  Mainly because I love any outdoor shopping on a beautiful day!  We had decided to take the guys to Ridemakerzz.  It’s like Build-A-Bear only with cars.  I mentioned it last summer when we visited one in Chicago.  It is a really neat concept and guys (and girls) of all ages love it.  The boys and Mallori picked cars and put them together.

 

From Branson we headed to Lambert’s to meet Todd.  He agreed to go stand in line for us while we were driving so we wouldn’t have to wait too long.  Friday night of Spring Break, we knew it would be crowded!  Above:  Garrett and Mallori, Kellen and Madison, Gannon and Mason (they had obviously had enough fun for the day!) then Kellen and Madison, enjoying their rolls.  In case you don’t know, Lamberts has been featured on The Travel Channel for the best pig out place, or something to that effect.  It is the place where they throw rolls to you.  We live just down the road from Lambert’s, but we only visit there when company comes for obvious reasons!  We do not need to be frequenting a pig out place!  But, it is a lot of fun and the food is good, so it is fun to go occasionally.

On Saturday, the Spring Break blizzard was coming in.  In Springfield we were just getting rain, but in Oklahoma it was already ice and snow.  So, Clay opted not to leave on Saturday.  We were glad to have more time! 

The big kids, Callie and I headed to the mall for a little bit.  Not much else we could do since it was raining , and the girls and I were disappointed we didn’t have more time to shop in Branson, so we needed to get it out of our system!  Kellen and Garrett decided they would come too, a decision I think they regretted after about ten minutes at the mall!  It was so fun for me to shop with someone who actually wants to shop!  Madison and Mallori looked and shopped and looked and shopped.  I even offered to buy them something but they are such good and frugal shoppers they only spent about $10!  Claires seemed to be their favorite, we looked at every rack of jewelry and all the other trinkets they had.

We got something to eat then Garrett talked me into trying the hurricane machine.  That is what is in the pictures above.  After the other kids saw Garrett they decided the needed to try.  It was too funny.

Lastly we headed to 1984.  Not really back in time, but sort-of.  There is a place downtown Springfield called 1984 where you pay five bucks and play all the video games you want.  They have all the old games, Donkey Kong, Burgertime, Frogger, Ms. Pac-Man.  Yes, they have some guy games too, but these are the games I loved!  Lots of fun!  Above pic is Clay and Madison playing Asteroids, I think.  It was clean and no riff-raff allowed, so we will for sure be back there sometime!

Of course, we woke up Sunday and the blizzard had reached Springfield.  So, Clay didn’t get to miss driving in it after all, but that was ok.  We were glad we had another day of fun with them. 

Again, we are so excited to be close to family.  Here’s hoping all of our family can make it here at some point, and all of our friends from North and South!  We have a great area to visit and we’re not bad company!  So, who’s next?!