All 15 of us were up Sunday morning and out of the house by 9:30 am. Everyone went to church except Stuart, Mitch and I. We headed to Monett for the surprise birthday party for the twins, my dad and my Uncle Gabe. They turned 80 earlier in the summer so we were headed to the park for their celebration. We first went to Wal Mart to get some supplies, then we drove to Monett and picked up the cakes. We got to the park center and started setting up. Most of the guests arrived by about 1 pm. Then the guests of honor showed up at about 1:30. They came in and were really surprised. My dad had a lot of former basketball players from Aurora, Missouri, and Pittsburg, Kansas, who showed up. It was a wonderful party. My brother Mitch really did a great job of planning. My dad said it was the first birthday party he and his brother had ever had. Of course, we have celebrated over the years, but just with our family. I believe they were both touched by the efforts made by everyone involved.
After the party, we came back through Springfield to rent a car. We decided if Mitch needed to go back to Chicago, we wouldn’t have the ability to leave the house with everyone. It just made things a bit easier on everyone. Once we were back at the house, we had leftovers from the party and sat on the porch for most of the evening. We ended the evening with Mexican Train (dominoes). It was a wonderful day!
Monday morning the Pennells (Russ’s family) left the cabin in the woods and headed back to Arkansas. We decided to go see the Titanic exhibition in town.
We came back to the house for some lunch. Then in the afternoon we went to Silver Dollar City. I’ve been amazed at how small the lines have been. We had to wait 30 minutes for one of the roller coasters and Jack was totally put out. Obviously, he hasn’t been to an amusement park very much. I told him to chill as the lines are usually a much longer wait than 30 minutes.
Mya’s first ride on a roller coaster.
We returned to the house for some leftovers, again. The kids had showered before we ate, and went to bed shortly after they ate. Before Jack went to bed, we had a talk with him. He has been asking for the last several months if there is a Santa, Tooth Fairy, and Easter Bunny. I have avoided a direct answer for the longest time. In the car, on the way home from Silver Dollar, we were talking about Millie getting an IPad from Santa for Christmas. He asked the dreaded question again. I told him that Stuart and I would speak with him in private later that evening. So when we sat him down to tell him about how St Nicholas was a real man, and what he had done for people many years ago, I started to cry when the reality hit me that some of his innocence was lost in these very moments. When I finished reading him my bit about St Nicholas, he said to me ‘So, Santa is not real?’ Stuart took over because I was crying. In the end, he discovered that we put the presents under the tree. He also discovered that he must help be ‘Santa’ with us from now on so that the magic stays alive for Millie. He was also told that Santa would still bring him presents in order to keep the magic alive for Millie. Then he said, ‘Okay, so for Christmas this year, I’m going to ask Santa for a segway’. Smarty pants!
Tuesday morning, I decided since I had been eating everything but the kitchen sink, I would get up and walk the following morning. I’ve determined one thing about the Ozarks. I hate hills. After my walk, my cousin, Jeff, brought his son Nathan to the house around 10 am. We’d invited him to come and spend the night with Jack. Jeff has a house in Branson, so we knew Nathan had a season pass to Silver Dollar City. Jack was excited because he has been a bit of a middle man this trip. He’s not young enough to love what the little girls and Nolan are up to, and not old enough to hang with Morgan and Emily. So he was in heaven when Nate hit the scene.
We headed to Silver Dollar City just after we had some lunch. Pop and I took the boys to ride some roller coasters while the girls went to face painting. Mitch wasn’t able to go with us, as he had some work to do in Aurora. We spent most of the day there, and when the little ones were ready to leave, Stuart and I stayed with the bigger boys for another hour. It was great because they went on the rides together and we waited for them.
Our little unicorns!
We got home and the littles were bathed and getting ready to eat. Mom started making fajitas, while I helped sort out the littles with their food. Once they were finished they went downstairs to watch a movie and the older boys and adults ate fajitas. Yum! The boys stayed up and quietly played on the PS4 that Nate brought, while the little girls and Nolan were fast asleep. We turned in at 10:30 and I told Jack he and Nate could stay up until 11:30 pm, but he would need to come in to let me know they were going to bed. And he did just that. The independence of this boy is so wonderful to see, but scary at the same time.
Wednesday morning we lounged around the house. The kids played downstairs and watched a movie. Around 12:30 pm Stuart drove me, Jack and Nathan to the Rec pool. It was free swim day. We thought it would be crowded, but it wasn’t bad. Stuart went and had some time on his own. He bought some lawn games for all of us to play. We had thought about it earlier, but only acted on it when it was mentioned by my dad. My dad doesn’t talk about things he’s not interested in. So when we heard he would want horse shoes or the game of corn hole, we decided that was a great gift we could buy for their Branson house.
Stuart picked us up from the pool and we headed back to the house. My cousin Jeff actually met us at the pool and had Nathan ride with him back to the house. Nathan is a great baseball player and Jeff had to tell him that he was the only player selected for this special team for next season. It meant that none of his buddies would be playing with him. Nate seemed okay with it, but I’m sure he was disappointed.
The others returned from Branson Landing and Mom started in on preparing for dinner. Dad got the grill out of the garage and sat it on the driveway for burgers and dogs. We ate around 5 pm. It was great to spend some time with Jeff. Nate and Jeff left around 6:30 pm, so we decided to take the kids to the carnival on the main drag of Branson. When we arrived at the carnival, the billboard flashed ‘closed’. There was someone in the ticket window so I got out of the car and asked when they would be open again. The guy said, ‘Never. We are permanently closed.’ Shame! It looked like a place the kids would really love. Well, on to Plan B, mini golf. What a hoot that was with a 2 year old. Millie, Mya, Mitch, Stuart and I played on one team, while G, P, Rony, Nolan and Jack played on another team. We were definitely the slow players of the course, but we had a great time Mitch scored the best out of all of us. Chances are he should have been a golfer. Who knows.
We headed for shakes at Sonic. Jack didn’t like his, which isn’t terribly shocking since he is not a fan of ice cream. I tried to get him to order a slushie, but he didn’t want that either. When he remembered he didn’t like ice cream, he decided he wanted something else. Uh, nope, not how it works. Then he was upset and started badgering me about it. It kind of ruins the fun when that happens. When we finally did leave he wanted to ride in the car where I was. I told him to go in the car he came in and I would see him when we got home. Once we were home, he apologized for badgering me, which I thought was very mature of him. Showers and bed were an immediate need. We ended up taking Jack’s phone and iPad and putting them in our room. He was a bit upset, but understood that we wanted him to get a good night’s sleep.
When I got up on Thursday morning at 7:30 am, someone had turned on the coffee. I assumed it was my mom, as my dad is not an early riser. Everyone else was still in bed. I fixed a cup of coffee and went out to the porch.
We hung around the house most of the morning. Pop took Jack to buy him a pocket knife for his 10th birthday. Jack was so pleased with his new knife.
He was whittling away most of the morning.
We went to the fish hatchery around noon. It looked as if it was going to rain, but in the end it didn’t. I would really like to experience a good rain shower while we are in Missouri. We shall see if that happens. We stopped at the Amish Country store on our way home. It was a new experience for sure.
The porch of the Amish Store.
My friends, Cathy and Craig, showed up around 3:30. It was so good to see them. I nearly cried when I hugged Cathy. The last I really spoke to her was almost a year ago when her mother passed away. Getting older seems to be more difficult than I thought it would be. We did come catching up on the porch. We then played some games with the kids and then headed to Flat Creek for dinner. We came back to the house to play Mexican Train.
Friday we got up and went to Target. Cathy and Craig met us there and then Cathy, Craig and I headed to Dick’s 5 and 10. After lunch we went to the World’s Largest Toy Museum, which might as well have been called World’s Largest Flea Market. It was full of old toys and creepy dolls. We were so glad we didn’t pay much for the tickets.
We got home and started playing Chinese checkers while Stuart, Mitch and Grammie went to Wal Mart to get food for dinner. Morgan and Donavan showed up around 4 pm. We grilled out and then started the Mexican Train again. I didn’t realize our family liked games so much. I’m so glad we enjoy each other enough to be together like this.
On Saturday we got up and went to breakfast at Billy Gail’s, a local cafe. Jack and Millie rode in Morgan’s convertible.
Jack had the ultimate breakfast and I shared it with him, thank goodness. It was colossal.
We met Cathy and Craig at Silver Dollar City around 10 am. There were a ton of people there. Jack finally saw what a typical day at an amusement park was like. Because it was so crowded we decided to take a tour of Marvel Cave.
The lines were more than we cared for, but we waited for several roller coasters. Around 2 pm we decided to go back to the house for a break. We stopped at Wal Mart and got steaks for dinner. Mom and Dad had returned from taking Rony and the kids to Tulsa. They were exhausted from their trip. So after dinner, when we all decided to go back to Silver Dollar City, but Grammie and Pop stayed home.
Before dinner, I went downstairs and saw Jack speaking to Pop. I could tell it was serious. I knew it had something to do with Jack’s new pocket knife. About 20 minutes later Jack came up and sat out on the porch with me. He began his story by saying he had been ‘foolish’ the previous day. Yep, he used his knife on a leather chair in the basement. He claims he was curious how sharp his knife was. Once he told me the whole story, I asked him what he thought we should do. He went into the house and brought me his knife. Then he started crying. He went inside the house and I followed him. I spoke to Pop and he told me about his conversation with Jack. He let Jack know that he wasn’t going to tell me about the incident. So Jack told me on his own accord, which we all thought was very mature. However, the fact remained that he cut a leather chair. Grammie and Pop were fine with it all. I’ve come to realize that my children can really do no wrong. Well, maybe it’s just handled differently than if it were me.
We left for Silver Follar City just after 7 pm. We only got to ride Time Traveller, but we saw the fireworks, which were epic. Jack got his Time Traveller t-shirt and then we returned to the house for, you guessed it, Mexican Train. It was the best way to end the week!
