Fall Break Part 1

Every Spring Break my boys sit back and watch all their friends go to fun and thrilling places, like Disney World (that you to those parents by the way).  Spring break is NOT a time of year that we can go anywhere.  It's hard for us to even get away to a city as close as Branson, Dallas, or Kansas City.  I think the most we could do would probably be an overnight in a local hotel so the boys could play and swim a few times.  Whew!  Now, that's a SB to remember!  Thanks to crazy work schedules in the spring, our family does Fall Break!  

This FB we loaded up and headed the 3 1/2 hours to Branson.  We went with our good friends and neighbors, Olen and Tanya, with all their kids that might as well be siblings to our boys.  These 5 do everything together, most times without tears, fighting, and drama.  Note I said "most times."  Owen had never been to Branson before (insert GASP) and Will had only been once when he was 4 years old.  To say our boys were excited was not a strong enough word.

We loaded up on Wednesday and off we went to Ozark, MO to get filled up at Lambert's Cafe: Home of the Flying Rolls.  They should also add...home of the pass around.  They literally walk by with okra, fried potatoes, macaroni, green beans, black eyed peas, etc.  I'm sure I'm forgetting things but how one human can possibly eat all that food is beyond me.  Steven's dinner, no lie, arrived in a full size skillet.  Oh my heavens....If they only knew that Steven does not eat that much food!

Our first fun activity was Thursday morning with a trip to the Branson Belle on Tablerock Lake.  This is like a dinner (in our case it was lunch) and a show type of deal, while floating around on a paddleboat in the middle of the lake.  The kids loved it, the food was good, the show was okay (typical Branson show), and Steven won a dumb question game which awarded him with a free strawberry banana smoothie in a light up mug.  The kids drank on that the rest of the show.  Yes, kids, as in plural.  I'm pretty sure all 5 children ate and drank after each other the whole time we were gone!


I'm thankful for friends who want to live life with us.  Friends who make us laugh, who've been with us off and on (mostly on) for almost a decade, who raise our kids with us and who are now moving with us again into our THIRD neighborhood sometime in the next year or so.  I'm thankful for a fun and safe FB even if it was "only" to Branson.  How these parents squeeze out Disney over these small school breaks is beyond me.  I'm not jealous.  Okay, maybe a little.....