Vacation Day(s) 1, 2, and 3!

Our vacation started out great! We got on the road a little after 8:00 Saturday morning. After gas and breakfast, we were headed Northeast. We met up with the parents just inside Missouri at the Visitors Center. From there we went to Subway for lunch and then continued down the road to Branson (Hollister), Mo - to the condo. 

Once we were settled in to the condo, the "Grandmas" (as the kids call them) and I headed to the grocery store with list in hand. Boy, was that an adventure! (haha) While we were strolling through the grocery store, the boys were working on getting a boat rented for Sunday. 

That evening I made pizzas on the grill for everyone. They are so easy to make and they were a huge hit with everyone. After dinner, we went to check out the pool and hot tub on the grounds. 

Sunday, Scott and my parents went to pick up the boat and met us outside our condo to pick up the kids, myself, and Scott's mom. We had the boat from 7am - 7pm. I, being a boat/water lover, didn't think that was nearly long enough. I soon realized it was more than enough time. We had a great time on the water though, and with the crazy heat wave going on, the water felt amazing and so refreshing.

We have a boat slip right outside our condo, so making a lunch stop was so easy. After we filled our bellies, back to the water we went for another 5-6 hours. The kids really wanted to go tubing, so we went to the Marina to fill up with gas and get a tube. Boy, did they have fun on that! They spent hours on the tube. It was a little boring for the adults after awhile, but the kids enjoyed it. (They are paying for all of that fun today - they are sore, sore, sore!) 

All of the adults took turns on the tube too. Even Debbie, Scott's mom, took a turn on the tube. She seemed to like it okay, although she said it wasn't "fun" like we thought it was! haha 

Scott and Jayden jumped from a cliff, into the water. It was hard to take a photo during this process. Scott's mom got a good one of Jayden going down. Me, not so much.

Here is Scott jumping. The splash you see to the left is Jayden hitting the water.

 Here they are swimming back to the boat after jumping! 

Monday morning we all slept in a little to recover from the long day on the water. After breakfast and a short search and rescue for Jayden's lost cellphone, we headed to Big Cedar Lodge to check out the Lazy River and other amenities. 

Big Cedar Lodge is huge! The amenities and lazy river were okay, but nothing super spectacular. I'm sure there were more amenities elsewhere, but we just stayed by the pool/slide area. We only stayed there an hour or so and then headed back to the condo for lunch. 


After lunch, we all got cleaned up to go to the Branson Belle Showboat.

Fish outside the Branson Belle Showboat

Post for Tuesday & Wednesday coming soon!