Back From Vacation

We had a wonderful time at Silver Dollar City this past weekend! I think that the nicest thing about having been so many times in the past year is that the frantic pace is removed. We've seen everything many times and we know that we're going back soon and will see everything again, so we don't need to run about like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to cram everything into the weekend. We can just take it easy.

We almost always go and get taffy first thing off the bat. The Kids think it's SO COOL to get to pick their favorite flavors from the big buckets and have them packaged into their own personal bags. It's amazing how content they are with just 6 or 8 pieces of their very own! Then we just meander around and hit our favorite rides - namely, the Flooded Mine for Declan and the Thunderation roller coaster for Reilly. It was really nice being there for two of our three days during the week because the park wasn't crowded and waits were at a minimum. I love the Grand Exposition section of the park, as there are so many rides that The Kids love.

The weather was quite a bit cooler than the internet said it would be when I checked it before packing (Thanks, internet!) so we had to make a trip to the outlet mall to pick up jackets...the ONE thing that I forgot to pack! The Kids got cute ones from The Disney Store outlet - Ariel for Reilly, Buzz Lightyear for Deco.

We were staying in a nice hotel this time, courtesy of a bonus from Troy's job. (Thank you!) The hotel had an indoor pool and hot tub and the rooms had microwaves and fridges in them, and we had continental breakfast each morning. We decided that in order to save a little money, we'd eat lunch at SDC and then fix something in the microwave for dinner at night. We grilled hamburgers before we left home and took them in a ziploc bag, along with some chips and buns and cheese and some EasyMac for The Kids to have as a side dish. (We made sure to stock up on condiment packets when we got gas at QT, so I didn't have to pack bottles of those!) I also bought those single-serve microwave desserts that you can find by the cake mixes and they were FANTASTIC! The molten chocolate cake was our favorite! Reilly and Declan were super excited that I got Zoo Pals plates, bowls, and utensils to eat with, so it all turned out great. We stayed at the park until about 5:30 on Thursday and Friday and then came "home", had dinner, and went swimming. On Saturday we left the park at about 4:00, came "home", Troy and The Kids went swimming while I napped (aaaaah!), THEN we ate and went swimming again. We could hardly get enough of the pool, although there was enough chlorine in the hot tub that I left feeling a little pickled!

On the way out of town on Sunday we stopped by our favorite shoe outlet - I think it's a little scary that we have a "favorite shoe outlet" in Branson! - to see if they had any Merrells and the Carter's shop down the way was having a great sale! We got two pairs of pajamas for each of the kids for $3.99 a piece (regularly $28!!), each kid got two new summer shirts for $8 a piece and we got a skirt for Reilly for $6! I couldn't believe the bargians! I finally had to TEAR myself away before I bought the whole store because, lemme tell 'ya, they've got some CUTE stuff at those prices. (Not at the original prices, though. No kids pj's are cute enough to spend $28 on!)

It was a great and wonderful trip and I look forward to going again!

Oh, and rather than fill this post up with pictures which always seems to freak the computer out a little bit, I made an album at Flikr.com. Here's the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45168831@N00/sets/72157600009007144/

so I really hope you'll go and look at them!

Supey was on vacation, too! See, he's got his Hawaiian shirt to prove it,

even though we weren't in Hawaii!