Arkansas and Branson for Memorial Day Fun

So this last weekend we very last minute decided to make a trip to Arkansas and Branson along with the rest of Nick's family for Memorial Day. Nick actually had a 5 day weekend, which was really nice as it was his four day weekend to begin with (what he usually has before the week he has to take call) and then he got an extra day off with Memorial Day being this last weekend. We originally were going to just take a trip to the Temple and then stay at home, but everyone in Nick's familiy was going to Silver Dollar City on Monday so we decided to join in on the fun since we would be the only ones not going if we didn't go. So we started out on Saturday heading to Arkansas to Shannon's house for Addison's 2nd birthday party. We actually stopped in Joplin and looked at some of the damage by the tornado, but weren't able to see all of it as the traffic was horrendous! Then we made it to Centerton for the party. It was fun with all the cousins there and some of Addison's friends. Can you tell they all had fun helping Addison open her presents? Needless to say Shannon was probably a little bit cramped!!
She also had all the kids made their own candy necklace. Kayley and Ashlyn were really the only ones who had the most patience for this kind of craft as all the other kids only strung a few pieces of candy and then just wanted to eat the rest.

Then the rest of the weekend we spent hanging out at the house that Michelle, Quentin, and Arlaine had all rented, so it was fun to have a place big enough for the kids to play and be themselves as well as the adults being able to visit with each other. Then church on Sunday, Sunday dinner, fun in the park in the evening, and then a ride from you know where to Branson!

I have vowed that I will never ever ever drive from Centerton to Branson again in my life! I'm not really sure why Shannon even does it? She must really love us!! First of all, Nick always likes to think that he knows a better way than the way other people try to tell him to go...so the way Shannon told him to go, he didn't go of course. He decided to go a different way thanks to the GPS's route. I've never been on a more windier, narrower route in my life! It took us on turns that made you feel like you were on a roller coaster. Then we also got to see my worst nightmare, a bridge that was under water, which was supposed to be our route, so we had to turn around and figure out how to calm my blood pressure down. Then the sort of normal route we found took us through Eureka Springs...I thought Missouri had some hicks...wow is all I need to say! I also got to learn what a "slide" is on a road. The road was actually crumbling beneath us down to a very steep cliff! Luckily we made it across! Then Nick swore to me that the rest of the route was going to be bigger roads, etc. Not so much. We continued on one lane, very narrow roads and even more sharp turns in the middle of no where, with no civilization in sight! Nick kept giving me scenarios of "What if our car breaks down or a tire goes flat, etc" What would you do, would you stay with the kids by yourself...it's pitch black by the way! My blood pressure has always been low naturally, but not this night, I felt it boiling! Then come to find out that Nick could have taken a route with much bigger roads from Eureka Springs but he decided to take the windier route just to get a rise out of me! I had to remind myself why I loved him, but this wasn't one of them!

We finally made it to Branson and hooked up with Ann and Jared who was waiting for us at the Condos. The condos air conditioning of course was not working and it was 10:30 at night so no one could come fix it. They tried to see if we wanted to switch rooms, but we had already gotten a lot of the kids down to sleep, so that was out of the question. It was a long and hot night, but we all made it.

The next morning we went to Silver Dollar City and eventually met up with everyone in Nick's family. All his siblings and his mom and dad were all there as well as Ann and Jared and their two kids. We were quite the show, especially when the adults wanted to ride the big kid rides. Only Mom, Shannon, Natalie, and Randy were left watching 11 kids, 4 of which were babies. They made us promise to never leave them alone with that many kids again! But no one got lost..that was a plus!

I honestly didn't take that many pictures only because there are only so many pictures of the kids on the rides you can have in a collection and Rex cries the whole time on any of them so I only took pictures of Rex enjoying himself like crazy in the ball room. He was in 7th heaven. He loves balls and this is an area that is filled with these soft cushiony balls you can throw and put into little guns to shoot places and there's this huge conveyor belt that takes them up to the top...it's a blast for kids as you can see from the pictures. I love some of his expressions!

On the right are the guns the girls were playing with. Notice Kayley who is shooting with one hand and holding her finger in her ear with the other..it's kind of a loud gun. She used to not get anywhere near these, so this is a huge step for her to be this close!

Rex was Nick's little buddy during the day, which was great for me! In fact during the time of the ball pit, Nick left and I kept Rex in the balls, which he loves and he cried like crazy for Dad and calmed down as soon as I took him out to Nick again. I was soaking that up like crazy!! He wiped out on the train!

And I almost can never get a picture of these four together with everyone looking and with everyone making a decent smiling face. I think I sort of suceeding while they were all strapped into the train! It was a great fun day!

Fashion Show, Graduates, and Tornadoes

Earlier this month Sarah and the girls came up for a visit and Kayley and Audrey realized they had the same PJ's and were absolutely thrilled. They probably have a lot more matching clothes than they realize as my big sister supplies both Sarah and I with a lot of girl clothes thanks to her two girls Caroline and Julia and like any mother, who wouldn't want to match their girls in outfits as much as possible? So now when we visit Audrey, Kayley has to have her Audrey PJ's. Cora and Lauren don't match but they wanted their picture taken together anyway.
While they were here, our Young Women had a great fashion show! The MiaMaid girls did the fashion show as one of their Personal Progress projects. It was great as so many girls participated. I struggled trying to figure out which category to enter as I didn't feel like I had anything nor could I make anything work for any category. So I entered the princess category and of course my girls and Audrey and Lauren wanted to participate. It was great!

Then we had Kayley's preschool graduation. I have to admit, I cried a little...never thought I was one of those mom's, but when Mrs. Porter started talking about Kayley going to kindergarten and growing so much this year, etc...I teared up a little bit. It was fun with all their songs they sang and the little presentation from Mrs. Porter. Then afterward we all got to share a cookie and lemonade with them. Cora was in heaven being at Kayley's school, (can you see her in the bottom right standing on the chair to get the best view?) she is still begging to go to school. Oh...and the boy next to Kayley is one of her best friends, Marshall...she talks about him all the time. There is only one other girl in her class this last year and they were polar opposites so she connected most with Marshall. He is going to Kindergarten next year, but I'm not sure if they'll be in the same school or not. Oh and what was cute about Kayley realizing she had graduated, she had also heard me talking to family on the phone earlier that week about Ashlyn graduating from her preschool program as well as Cassie having a graduation ceremony for her Associates program. Kayley then thought that we should get a graduation cake for all three to celebrate. I thought it was a great excuse to eat cake!

Then, one morning Rex was so tired that when I went in to wake him up, I was able to take two or three pictures of him sleeping, can you say he was tired!?!

He also now knows when I'm taking pictures so it's cute to see him strike a pose. This is him striking a pose while drinking his bottle.

Then two weeks ago we had a crazy Tuesday as we got some tornadoes coming through. Of course everyone was extra cautious with everything happening only a few days before with Joplin's tornado. So we spent the noon hour or so in the basement during the warnings. Nick even got evacuated to the interior hallway of the hospital for about an hour. The kids were in heaven as they just played downstairs with toys. Rex of course got to preview one of his birthday presents and I think he liked it! It was cute as Kayley kept wondering what the upstairs was going to look like when we went up. She and Cora had both watched some of the footage of everything that had happened in Joplin after their horrible tornado and they were expecting our house to be the same. When I told them it was time to go upstairs, Kayley yells down to me, "Mom it's all the same up here! Oh wait, I need to check my room!" She goes to check it and says, "Yep, it's all here!" Then I found Cora checking the pantry and saying, "Yep, it's all here!" Then she checks the fridge, "Yep, it's all here too!" It was cute to see them react to the tornado, I was just very grateful that everything was there and that we were spared any damage of course!