Christmas Vacation Wrap-up

 

Thanks to my parent's time share, we went to Branson for our Christmas vacation!  It was the vacation that almost wasn't.  Last week, each of us was sick for 1-3 days.  Unfortunately, Rachel had to miss her Christmas concert because of it.  Fortunately, there were 2 snow days from school last week, so the kids were able to stay home and get healthy without any stress.  Jason was mildly sick the first day, but we all made it!  We stayed at a lodge condo.  The kids loved it.  Kayla says it's what her house will look like.  She loved the wardrobe to put her clothes in. 

The shower was awesome and reminded us of our master shower in our beloved Utah house.

Rachel loved the cheetah print stools.

Everyone's favorite part of the trip was the indoor water park at the resort.  It was the off-season for much of Branson, so on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we had the pool mostly to ourselves.

The slide kept everyone busy.

We went there every day at least once except for Sunday.

 

The resort also had free mini golf, which we took advantage of on Saturday because it was a warm day (low 60s).  Kayla stayed home to make us a paper Christmas Tree.

 

 

 

Then Rachel and I stayed behind at a playground.

The resort also had an activity room, and we went one day when they were doing Build your own stuffed animals.  At first we went so Rachel could make one, but when it turned out our family was the only one there, the other kids took advantage too.

 

 

Sunday morning we went to church, which is always interesting in Branson, because many of the performers from the shows are lds, and we got to see them, hear them sing, and listen to them teach lessons.  We were there for the Christmas program.  Can you imagine singing with a congregation of musical performers?  It was really neat.

We spent some more time in the activity room playing ping pong

 

 

Kayla especially loved the big bean bags and pretty soon everyone was playing on them:

 

Foosball (sp?) and pool anyone?  These pictures make it look all fun, but the kids quickly got either bored with them or couldn't get along well enough to play together.  This vacation was not all fun, I tell you.  Just keeping it real, here!

 

There were only 2 beds, and the the hide-a-bed was not big enough for the 3 of them (i.e., they couldn't get along well enough to sleep in it together), so we made Rachel a makeshift bed, which she seemed to enjoy.

On Christmas Eve, we went to an Aquarium and Wildlife place.  It was pretty cool.

We got to feed the sea turtle

 

 

and the sharks

 

Then we got to look at a whole bunch of animals through glass.  We took a lot of pictures.  The kids said they were taking them for Jacob.  So Jacob, I hope you see these and know your cousins were thinking of you, wishing you could see these cool animals!

 

 

 

We got to pet the dingo

look at the wolves

and pet the rabbit and lizard.

 

 

These fish eat dead skin.  Kyle was so brave.  So were Jason and Kayla.  Rachel and I finally got up the nerve to stick one finger each in while holding hands.  It lasted about 2 seconds. :0

snakes for Jacob!  I left out the spiders and a few other things.  Wish you could have been there!

That evening, the kids just wanted to watch Disney Channel.  This is what happens when you limit t.v. watching in your house, and you only have a few stations to begin with.  Whenever any of us go to hotels, we enjoy watching lots of t.v.  This weekend was great because there were a lot of Christmas movies on.  So Jason and left the kids like this, and this is where we found them 2 hours later after going to dinner and shopping:

We gave them their Christmas p.j.s and went out for a drive through the festival of lights.

 

 

The next day we had a fun Christmas morning of opening gifts and having the water park all to ourselves.  Then we headed home.  It was a great trip filled with fun, laughter, bickering, joy, boredom (I don't understand that one), tears, and hopefully lots of memories.  Please tell me we aren't the only ones with a mixed bag when we go on vacation :)
Thanks so much Mom and Dad!