Friday morning, we went down to the free breakfast at our hotel. We stayed at Best Western Music Capital Inn. It could use some updating, but it was nice. We had free breakfast, a pool and free wifi. It was also clean, which seems to be increasingly hard to come by in Branson. I found it by reading TripAdvisor reviews.
After breakfast, we headed to Silver Dollar City! The weather was perfect and we had a great time.
We were all exhausted and headed to bed. The next morning, after breakfast we went to the Tanger Outlet, for the kids to go to the Disney Store. Next up was Branson Landing. My younger sister Holly and the kids LOVE to make Build A Bears each year. Thanks Mom and Dad!
Matthew dressed up a kitty as Spiderman and named him Catborg. He is so funny! Andy loved the Snoopy and was so happy with him. Abby and Holly made the same heart bears.
That evening we had Montana Mike's for dinner. I look forward to their nachos ALL year. They are so good and this year did not disappoint! The boys and the kids swam, while I did some much needed laundry.
Sunday morning, was free breakfast again and day 2 of Silver Dollar City. We are AAA members, so we bought 2 days for less than the price of 1 day at the gate. We do this each year and it's perfect.
After Silver Dollar City, we wanted to go to Cracker Barrel, but it was not smoke free. We ended up at Bob Evans and it was a nice restaurant. There was plenty of room for our big group of 10 and in fact a group of 18 came in right behind us.
Monday we headed for home. Abby and Dave got up for the free breakfast, but I slept in a bit. They went swimming while the rest of the family and I got ready to check out. We followed each other to Mardel bookstore in Springfield, MO. This is the closest one to us and I enjoyed it. It was nice to look at homeschool curriculum in a store. Usually it's online and you have no idea what you are really getting. I didn't purchase anything, but have some things I want to look into more.
We then decided to go to lunch together. We were trying to find the Schlotzsky's in Springfield. I think we drove around in circles for almost an hour. We even had Dave's GPS and we couldn't find it. I stopped and asked someone who told us to go one way and it wasn't there. Then I stopped and asked another person who said the one I was looking for closed years ago. He directed me to another Schlotzsky's. We finally found it and we were all insane by that point. I asked the guy about it and he said the other one is still open and apparently we were right near it. URGH!
After that joyful ride, I passed out in the back seat and we headed home!
Unpacking, showers and loads of laundry later, I enjoyed sleeping in my own bed.
We had a nice trip, but next year we have all agreed it's time to get back to a more scheduled vacation. We spent so much time driving around looking for places to eat. We need to do what we used to do and have it all planned ahead of time! Also, it sure seems like we spent a lot of time on bathroom breaks. With 10 people, as soon as someone is done, the next person has to go. LOL!
6 comments:
It sounds like you had fun (other than all the driving in circles and bathroom breaks!)! I love the heart bears! It's nice that your whole family is able to do this every year. My Dad loved Branson when he went!
I love all the pictures in this post! I tried a planned vacation this week, and it went pretty well. We didn't do everything we had planned, but it was nice to have lots of ideas of things to do.
Ugh, circle driving. I know it well. Other than that, your trip sounds wonderful! I LOVE all of the pictures!! :)
You forgot me painting my nails at Silver Dollar City, LOL.
Seriously-that circle driving was reminding me of when the Griswolds drove around the loop in front of Big Ben ALL DAY. I was about to lose my marbles. Oh, wait, I did, LOL
You know I LOVED all of your pictures. The kids look so sweet in them and like they are having such a good time.
We use TripAdvisor too for our trips and it is wonderful! It's been accurate pretty much every time.
I know exactly what you mean about planning it all out ahead of time down to eating and everything else in between. When we don't we can tell a huge difference in the level of enjoyment and time we have to actually do fun stuff vs. planning while we are on vacation.
I'm glad overall you had a fabulous time with your family, Jenny!
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