Message Received

While we were at Family Camp, I experienced something.  I have no idea how much thought actually went in to it, how much planning – when it was imagined up, did the orchestrators have any idea what affect it might have?  As I mentioned in my previous marathon picture post about camp, there were skits every night at campfire.  These skits were silly and cheesy, but always had a point.  They built on each other and each night we learned a little bit more about the characters and their quest.  As goofy as they sometimes were, these skits had a point to them, “What we want versus what we need”.  The characters all wanted something, something that didn’t seem ridiculous or undeserved, but definitely a want rather than a need. They were following a map to this wonderful place that would have just what their heart was desiring.  It’s probably not much of a stretch for your imagination to guess that ultimately, the point of these skits was to remind us that God knows better then us what we want AND need and He is waiting to grant us all of that when we are finally with Him in heaven.

We had been having “church” on Saturday.  The kids had been off with the camp staff “rescuing” the characters from the skit (they had chosen the wrong door and been tricked by a satan-y character at campfire the night before.) and all at once they came bursting through the doors of the chapel, so excited about their mission.  Our skit characters all realized that they had made the wrong choice and had been rescued, they also realized that because of their mistakes they now knew exactly which door they should have chosen.  They each got very excited and invited all of us to come with them, come with them to “La Puerta”!  They each took a section of us the audience and even though we all knew we were probably just going to the cafeteria for lunch, you couldn’t help but get a little excited, too.

And this is where my memory starts and plays like a movie that I will treasure forever.

The characters were running, with huge smiles on their faces.  College kids dressed as a sailor, a cowgirl, an indian princess and an explorer, turning and motioning for us to come, FASTER! And my kids ran.  They ran as fast as they could toward the same cafeteria where they had been eating all week. To say they were in the moment would be an understatement.  Lila took Jessie the cowgirl’s hand and together they burst through the doors.

I knew that he was just Josiah the horse wrangler.

But for that moment, dressed in a long white robe with the crimson sash, his dark skin and big brown eyes – he truly looked the part.  He knelt down on his knees and called to her, “Lila, I’ve been waiting for you!” He scooped her up and she hugged his neck so hard.

I know it was all just part of a skit, the finale of a beautiful week, and a college boy with olive skin and kind eyes.  But for that moment, seeing this representation of my Savior swinging my baby in absolute delight, with the cafeteria decorated like a royal ballroom – It was like I had been given a tiny glimpse of what Heaven will really be like.  We can read about it and imagine it, but to actually be given a visual of it, that is a treasure I will keep forever.

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My mom has been sick.  A kidney stone presented itself 2 Sundays ago and last Friday, she made her second visit to the emergency room in 24 hours.  After being in terrible pain off and on all week, after having the ER doctor see that there was a gigantic foreign body stuck inside of her, she was finally deemed sick enough to have some action taken.  Our dear friend Pam called me Friday morning and started our conversation with, “Your mama said you don’t need to come……” Any daughter who is worth anything knows that as soon as someone tell you your mama said you don’t need to come, you best get your bootie to wherever your mama is.

My weekend plans hadn’t included a trip to Arkansas, but that’s where I found myself Friday evening.  Spending the night in a hospital room with my mom, only this time it wasn’t me in the bed wearing the sassy backless nightie and we didn’t stay up into the wee hours admiring a precious new baby.  We did stay up into the wee hours, but that was due to other things.  We made our way back home at around 5 in the afternoon, two exhausted ladies who hadn’t showered and looked like death warmed over….nursing milkshakes and finally feeling a little better.

I stayed until Monday so I could go with her to the urologist.  Not because she wouldn’t be able to understand his instructions or his plans for what to do next, not because he was going to do anything else right away…..honestly, I wasn’t really sure why I had insisted on staying to go with her.  But sitting in the waiting room and then in the treatment room – it hit me like a ton of bricks.  This was the same office where my Poppy had been given a death sentence….twice.  We sat, waiting for the same doctor who nonchalantly told him to go home and get his affairs in order because there wasn’t anything that could be done, staring at an anatomical diagram of just what prostate cancer looks like.  For the record Dr. Kilambi, he outlived your 18 months, I would just like to point out that you were wrong on that.  Worse than all those reminders was the fact that the doctor didn’t even remember who she was.  His face, his words and even his hands, because I think that’s what she probably stared at after she heard those first few damning sentences – all of it will be tattooed in her mind forever.  But he doesn’t even remember her.

And that is why I stayed.

The thought of her going through that kidney stone by herself is what pulled me to Arkansas, but I shudder thinking about her going through that office visit alone even more.

And that is when I think about Lila running, full force into the arms of Josiah the horse wrangler at Family Camp.  That is when I pull that memory out and watch it over and over, closing my eyes and pretending not that I am back in time watching it, but instead, that I am in the future.  That we really are in Heaven and my girl is running to her Creator and Poppy is there and Matt is there and we are all perfect and nothing is ever going to break our hearts again.

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4

I wish I had a picture for this.  I wish you could see what I got to see that day in July.  I’m sure that when they were having staff week and learning all the skits and taking CPR classes, there was no idea at all that they would be preparing to send a message that one mama desperately needed to receive.

 

 

What’s Right In Front Of Me

I see some strange things.  Some of them are funny, some of them are disturbing, while others just kind of catch me off guard and I really don’t know what to make of it……so I take a picture.  I’ve decided that there are enough of these opportunities that I should make it a weekly feature.  So without further ado, here is this week’s What’s Right in Front of Me (that was actually taken last week, but it was still right in front of me so I think it counts.)

I could explain why there was a small astronaut in my living room……but some things are better without an explanation.  Happy Thursday, we have dance class, followed by an hour of soccer out on the surface of the sun and then a mad dash to Open House at the kids’ school – Happy is more like Hectic Thursday.

Happy Campers

Its been a while ago, but over the summer my family and I embarked on a very foreign adventure.  It was all Aunt Shannie’s idea and I will be honest, I was not totally for it.  It’s not that there was anything wrong or bad about her idea, I am just very hesitant to try new things with new people in new places.  I am not fond of being the new kid and though I’m okay with not knowing a full itinerary, I at least prefer to know how to pack.  So what was Shannie’s great idea?

Family Camp

Word on the street was that it was like normal summer camp, only instead of being in a cabin with several other girls my age and a counselor – I would be in a cabin with my own family and we parents would act like the counselors.  On one hand, this appealed to me in so many ways.  I loved camp as a child and I loved it even more as a college student when I worked there. I was water front, part of the activity staff.  If you have ever worked at a summer camp before, you know that there is a certain hierarchy of coolness and the water front staff tend to be at the top.  They are also usually dubbed as the lazier ones, too which in all fairness is probably not a complete lie.  But even with this hierarchy, camp is also a magical place (when you are staff) where people who might not normally be friends, suddenly are.  The coolness factor isn’t necessarily equal, but the family quotient is real.  Camp Staff is family for the rest of your life.  Some of my favorite memories of my college years happened at camp and the thought of getting to go back and relive my “glory days” sounded very appealing.

At the same time……all the unknowns!

I’m not going to lie friends, Family Camp was trying.  We were with our little family unit 24/7.  We tried things that were way out of our comfort zones like horseback riding (Reese), swimming in lakes(all of my children), ceramics (Brandon) and participating in just about anything that involves other people (me). And there was no phone service.  At first that was sort of frustrating, but by around day 2, I had completely adapted.  Camp was my new home, I was all about the communal living situation and embracing my lake hair.  Mattie joined us at the lake once in a while, but for the most part she had left us to become a horse wrangler.

We tie-dyed shirts, swung in hammocks, took moon light boat rides and taught the kids how to wake board.  Shannon and I had a girls night at the Ladies Only ceramic party, where we learned that bigger isn’t necessarily better when chosing an item to paint. We sang, we laughed, we went to bed earlier, and we had three meals a day provided for us at the cafeteria.  We had coffee in the morning with Chris and Shannon on the wrap around porch and were slightly dirty 90% of the time.  We laughed and cried and even did a little yelling once or twice.  Lila even fell in love  – previously, her heart has exclusively belonged to Mr. Esmund, who watches Cybill when we are out-of-town.  But then she met Tennessee McKee, the lead character in our nightly “Campfire” skits.  Here is a little glimpse into our week:

I am not a big horse back riding fan, I am really not a fan of wearing way too big camo pants that don’t belong to me, but I did it anyway and I have to say, it was a pretty fun time

Science Fun….wait for it…..

Just ordinary suds right?

The flame was in his hand! So exciting!!!!

Cutie Booties

Even the Bird got in!

Totally over his fears of natural bodies of water

Bubble Ball Soccer

This is how we should solve all of our disputes from now on

Testing out the equipment

That’s my husband….stuck upside down

Mattie easily adapted into a Lake Girl

Lila just enjoyed taking boat cruises with her beloved Tennessee McKee (also known as Ryan in real life)

Having this lady there with us made camp go from pretty good to BEST EVER!

Sadly, this mushroom is no longer with us…..but I think he had a really fun time creating it.

Uncle Chris made a lovely Oakland A’s plate

I’m not sure why we bothered to have her wear a smock…..this swim suit had paint all over it from the day before

Reese would have spent all day down in the Nature Center with Mr. Lucas and these snakes. We still pray for these snakes every night, as well as Mr. Lucas

Hammock time

Reesie Hood

Brandon got some cool points with the kids

Reese and Uncle Chris

Wake boarding also took about 5 minutes for her to pick up

Here’s proof that I was on the boat, too

Lila and Aunt Shannie made about 500 of these little bead things, but not even one is still with us

Because being at camp means wearing your swimsuit all day and playing with your auntie

It rained one afternoon so Reese did a lot of painting

The Nature Center also had these little guys….we fed the tomatoes

Lunch date with her special guy

It’s safe to say that we have already marked our calendars to go back next year.  We will know next time to bring more bathing suits and a few more towels.  Also, horseback riding is more enjoyable when you are wearing your own pants. I won’t worry about fixing my hair or having matching clothes and I’ll have a plan for my ceramic piece of the summer.

We look like quite the crew here, but we were very, very happy

Some say you can’t go back, it’s never the same…..and in some ways I suppose that’s true.  But as much fun as camp was as a camper or staff – I think going as a family beats them all.

“Sometimes the best families are the ones God builds using unexpected pieces of our hearts.” Melanie Shankle

The End and The Beginning

My Blogging plans for today had been to share, those precious back to school photos of my children standing all crisp and clean, ready to tackle a new year in school.  But instead, Cybill peed on my bed and that is all I can think about at the moment.  It’s been forever since she even had an accident in the house – she has done other terrible things recently like eating my Frye boots that I got for Christmas….that one has really stung and back a few months ago destroying a hat the had been given to one of my grandpas by the other, both of which have passed away now. – but as far as potty accidents go, things had been looking on the up and up.

I arrived home from a frazzling trip to the grocery store yesterday only to be greeted by my husband who let me know that even though I had taken her on a wonderfully long walk and I am the only member of my family who plays with her and remembers to feed her regularly, this canine that I brought into our house had hopped up on our bed and relieved herself.  Like , unloaded a full 86 lb dog bladder on our mattress.  It has been over 12 hours and I still refuse to speak to her.

Today should mark our one year anniversary of adopting her, but instead I am strongly considering putting her up for sale……..because we now have to buy a new mattress.

Her most recent photo, when I called Lila up to get her hair brushed, the blondie came running, too. We were still on good terms that day.

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While I am here though……..

Most of the local schools in town started back this past Monday……most, but not all and of the few that didn’t, my kids’ school was one of them.  We weren’t ready on Monday (we weren’t ready on Thursday when we actually had to show up!) and it was so nice to be able to push snooze on the whole regular schedule life.  We went to the zoo with friends on Monday and after a summer of feeling like there were lines and crowds everywhere, it was wonderful to be able to do cartwheels through the reptile building had we felt the urge.

Wednesday we finally made it to the Farmer’s Market at the Botanic Garden (which has been marked on every Wednesday of my calendar since May). We bought fresh okra, peaches and italian ice, then decided that since we were there anyway, we may as well take a visit through the garden.  It has been forever, probably 2 years, since we went through the garden and it was like a completely new place for Lila.  Typically, we have been there with lots of other families and the kids have had to take tiny little turns playing in the Fairy Houses or getting a chance to swing.  However, with all of Memphis being in school except for us, we had the whole place to ourselves.

Enjoying their Italian ice

There was no sharing of the Fairy Houses and each kid got their own.  They played and shouted and ran and sweated.  I found a spot in the shade on a rope swing, sat back and soaked it all in.  That’s not true, I took a few pictures, decided that my black stroller looked super creepy, thought about dinner for a bit and then I fell sound asleep.

It’s eery isn’t it?

Zonked out with my grandoll Clementine

I wouldn’t recommend that sort of thing, typically.  But as Mattie is getting a little older, (if it was still the early 90’s she could totally be out making a living babysitting other people’s children and adding a little to the pot to help buy our new mattress.) I am feeling less and less guilty about my parenting fails.  We had great time and it would have been a wonderful time had it not been so deathly hot outside.  A garden keeper kept making his rounds, checking on us every little bit.  I thought at first he was actually doing something the first few times around, picking up supplies or maybe watering something……I decided after a while that he was simply checking to see if we had died.  A mother and her three kids splayed across the children’s garden, death by sun, really doesn’t do any positives for business.

Mattie Pan

They can be sweet sometimes

We wanted to show Lila the giant koi fish, but the bridge keeper trolls (the geese) had other ideas.  They lined up like a little army, hissing and squawking at us, until the kids started tossing them little bits of fig.  We don’t just keep figs on hand for such situations, but they were free on our way out of the children’s garden and since we like free things, we took them.  Turns out we don’t really like figs…….but geese do.

Gnome King

This picture cracks me up because Mattie is trying to be such a big kid and pose, but her siblings are are staring at belly buttons and twirling in the back ground.

And just like that, our summer was over.  We went home to start back to the days of schedules and carpools, alarm clocks were set and uniforms laid out.

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Reese started 2nd grade.

He has the same teacher that he had last year and he is thrilled.  He has a new backback and is over 4ft tall now.  His shoes are the exact same size and style as his sister’s, but don’t tell her that because as of right now she hasn’t figured it out yet.

Mattie started middle school this year. She has multiple teachers this year and has to take gym clothes to school, which has really thrown us for a loop.  She carries a binder/notebook thing that is bigger than her torso and sits at an all girls lunch table, where there is lots of talking and giggling.  She is the smallest one in her class by about a foot, but she was super proud of herself for being able to hand two other girls pieces of paper when they had forgotten to bring any.  Thank you giant binder!

She posed for pictures at home, but once we got to school things took on a totally different vibe.  We parents stood back against the hard, cinderblock wall, not sure what we were supposed to be doing with ourselves.  They didn’t need us to open their lockers and none of them were crying, so we just stood there.  Not sure if we were upsetting them or if it would be more upsetting if we just left.  We also took pictures……out of habit? Because that’s why you come into the school on that first day, to commemorate it? But of what? We wallparents were completely clueless and taking pictures of our children that look something like this:

I finally got brave and asked Mattie to please stand by her teacher.

Our day ended with me pulling into the garage and realizing that the car was very quiet.  That would be because the first day of school was a Boss and completely sacked my children, even the one that hadn’t actually attended.  My picture isn’t very good because I was taking it contorted style from the driver’s seat, but I think you get the idea.

Happy Back to School and remember to catheterize your pets.

Wrapping it Up

Because this is taking forever……Here is our final day in Branson…..in pictures.  This post is strictly for me and my own memory, though Mumsey can use it, too and you readers are more than welcome to peruse it.  But as far as functionality goes, it is purely for my memory purposes when the kids ask me questions about the summer of 2016.

For our last day in Branson, we decided to play miniature golf.  Mattie has played once before I think, but the other two have not.  Mumsey is an incredible miniature golfer even though she rarely practices.  She acts very nonchalant and then hits a hole-in-one most of the time.  She beat me by one and I was actually trying.  Without further ado, here is us playing golf at Pirate’s Cove….or something like that.

I had sweat pouring down me, she looked like this…complete with her cute little sunglasses

We have finally found a sport that Mattie isn’t incredible at. Her brother beat her though she will never know that until she reads this. She tried though and only threw her club once

This guy remained uncharateristically positive even though I wouldn’t exactly call this his best sport either. He took it pretty seriously, which was precious.

This girl is terrible! Absolutely awful at miniature golf, but it could have something to do with the fact that a bunch of righties were trying to teach the little southpaw how to hold her club. She NEVER lost her enthusiasm and even still talks about how fun it was an what a great golfer she is. You keep living in that denial Lila Bird!

Posing during a water and bathroom break

We finished our golf game and had a lovely Mexican dinner….I say lovely because we were starving, but it was actually not really great and I would recommend that you not go there if you are in Branson…..but I can’t remember the name of it.

We then went to a sort of place that can only be found in Branson or Pigeon Forge – it was part giant barn, part restaurant, part tiny shopping mall, part movie theater, part arcade and had a fudge store.  We had a little treat there and then headed to our entertainment for the night, a show at the old Roy Clark Theater that is now home to the Hughes Brothers.  I won’t go in to great detail, but this show was fabulous and we were terrible intrigued about them for days, weeks later.  They are a family of 5 brothers that I’m pretty sure are mormon and have 39 (?) kids between them all.  The whole production – the actual show, the running of the theater, everything, is done by the family and they are super talented.  I think my children thought it was all pretty hokie at first, but when we left, you would have thought I took them to see someone they had actually heard of.  Unlike the mexican restaurant, I will give this place a hearty recommendation.

We came home and packed out suitcases and went to sleep with visions of mormon entertainers dancing through our heads.  It was a fabulous trip, a sad trip at times, a hard trip, but one that I am so glad we took.  Thank you Mums for a wonderful vacation in a beautiful place and for being adorable and fierce while playing miniature golf in thousand degree heat.

Livin’ It Up In Our Final Days

This past Friday I took the kids downtown.  Should you happen to have the luck of living in Memphis, you really should be utilizing all the wonder that lies along the banks of the mighty Mississippi.  And if you don’t live here, well let me tell you, there are tons of reasons why you should be visiting.  So we hadn’t been downtown all summer and it seemed like Friday was a great day for it…..especially because there was going to be a Pop-Up shop where they would be selling Memphis lunch boxes.  Who doesn’t want a little metal lunchbox with their city emblazoned across the front? This experience will probably be one of those that my children don’t talk about for 5-6 years and then when they come home from college for Christmas, they will sit on the couch late into the night and talk about the weird things I used to do with them.

“Do you remember when mom took us all the way downtown and we had to walk while hunting for an address that ended up being in an art gallery and there wasn’t anyone there except a security guard and there were all these t-shirts and mom’s favorite metal lunchbox…..but also art everywhere?  And we gathered up all this stuff and were ready to pay for it and then the actual people in charge of the shirts and lunch boxes came back from wherever they had been and told us we couldn’t buy any of it because they didn’t technically open until 2 hours later? What was all that?”

It’s incredible, right?

It’s a good thing I’m blogging about it so they will be able to go back and check the archives.  We did go down for the purpose of the pop-up shop, but there were other things are on agenda as well.  Since we weren’t exactly welcome to do any of our shopping for another two hours, we hoofed it on down the The Arcade, which is Memphis’ oldest diner and is quite a big deal around here.  This is a little blurb from its website:

“Sitting right in the middle of this historic area is the Arcade Restaurant. It’s like a trip back in time! It is this nostalgic feeling that has attracted photographers, artists, writers, and movie makers from around the world. Scenes from Mystery Train, Great Balls of Fire, The Client, The Firm, 21 Grams, Elizabethtown, Walk the Line, and My Blueberry Nights, just to name a few, have all been filmed in the restaurant. A second historical marker was erected by the Memphis Film Commission titled “Modern Movie Making in Memphis.” It is located on the sidewalk outside. National magazines such as Southern Living, Esquire, Travel, and Sports Illustrated have featured the Arcade in their publications. The Food Network and The Travel Channel have even done specials on southern breakfast at the Arcade Restaurant. Many of the celebrities from these movies have eaten the same foods you will eat today. At one time, even Elvis was a regular. All of this exposure has helped boost business. The Arcade has even become a tourist destination.”

They also have incredible chicken and dumplins and sweet potato pancakes, so there really isn’t any reason why anyone should ever miss an opportunity to eat here.

We then walked back to art gallery and waited outside in line…..like everyone else.

“Waiting in Memphis”

At one point I looked over an noticed Mattie sitting there, long legs all tucked up under her elbows, staring intently at her phone and she just looked so old! She looked like she could just as easily be here with those frat boys she was sitting next to .

Our gear was purchased (they even had cool Memphis-y pencils! ) and we decided to walk down to a new donut shop.  We made it about 25 yards and decided that donuts would have to wait for another day because it was too hot to walk any further than to our car.  We did make a visit right next to the river at the Beale Street Landing Splash park……because like I said, it was surface of the sun hot. There was lots of running around and climbing, my children doing their best parkour.

“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.” – Moby Dick

Lila made several new friends, as is typical of her, and was far too busy playing with them to let her mother take her picture.  Reese kept to himself, doing a lot of philosophical thinking atop the giant catfish and then spending a very large amount of time worrying about the clouds.  At first, I thought he was captivated by the riverboat that was docking – but upon further investigation, found that he hadn’t even noticed the boat, but was super concerned about our being struck by lightning.

And Mattie went back to being a little girl again, which was nice after that close call during the line.

“Though she be but little, she is fierce!” William Shakespeare A Mid Summer Night”s Dream

When we were headed to the car, the kids took a final romp on the Grizzlies River Fit monkey bars.  I’m not going to tell you whether they made it all the way across or not, but for a brief moment, they felt like American Ninja Warriors.

We are saying good-bye to Summer vacation, though it will remain up in the 90’s for roughly the next 3 months.  I was a good summer, probably even great – a hard summer and an emotional summer.  But we grew and became stronger and have eaten our weight in ice cream.  Ready for school to start, hardly….but capable of tackling it….I think so.

Signs

This wooden sign hangs in my middle child’s room.  The middle child is my boy….The Boy as he often gets called.  Mattie is Sissy and Lila is Sister.  They probably seem like one in the same to everyone else, but to the little people that live here in my house they are as different as Elsa and Anna.  But there is only one boy, which mean there is only one brother.  Sissy and Sister don’t realize it yet, but that boy, that brother is one of the best things that I could have ever given them.

How do I know this? Because I have one myself.  He isn’t here anymore – but I still have him.  He would be 41 today.

The Boy thinks this sign hangs in his room because of him.  Sissy think its ridiculous, but I’m pretty sure Sister would agree at least 50% of the time.  But every time I see if, I smile and think of another boy.  I think of another big brother who was Batman and Superman all rolled in to one.

And that is why this sign hangs in my little boy’s room.

Happy Birthday Matt, from your forever sidekick, I love you so much and miss you even more

I’m Not a Month Behind, But Close!

I was going to write again bright and early this week, but since I have been the only “stay-at-home-mom” left in our little village at the moment, I have been babysitting a few extra kiddos over the last few days while their mamas conquer the working world.  I had 6 today and rather than try to keep them entertained here at my house, I figured the pool and two bags full of snacks would make our time together far more enjoyable.  As you can tell by this photo, I take my babysitting very seriously.  I am all about safety and being responsible…..the best way to keep an eye on the children is to have them use you as a boat.

I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to get them all in my car until I came to the realization that Luke, (Mattie’s long-time bestie) is now bigger than me and can ride in the front seat.  After years of being a chauffeur of children, I have always ridden solo in the front seat.  I can’t tell you how weird it was to hop in the car and swing my purse into the seat beside me, only for it to be caught mid-air by this man-child.  I was not alone anymore.  It was nice having him up front with me – he played flight attendant and controlled the back seat air conditioning which is always all sorts of dramatic.  I also sent him into Little Caesars with my credit card to pick up our cheapy pizza lunch, because I felt that leaving 6 children in my car (with it running because it was 103 degrees outside) would be a bad decision.  I’m not sure giving the 11-year-old my credit card was a stellar decision either, but it was the lesser of the two evils.  And he did a great job and I am totally jealous of my friend Sara for having a child who actually looks his age.  When I send Mattie into the dry cleaners (which is about the size of my pinky nail and the front door is about a sneeze away from where my car is parked), I see people look at her as though I have sent a toddler in to get our laundry.

But enough about that, I need to get back to my photo essay of our time in Branson.

So our second full day in Branson found us heading to 1886 again……Silver Dollar City.  Their theme right now is “Celebrate” and they have all these little faux photo frames for you to stand behind and take pictures celebrating whatever you are celebrating there.

I just need Cybill and Brandon’s little heads in the extra two boxes!

They also had a darling little house that I have no idea what purpose it was serving, but it was super cute and the kids spent probably a good 10 minutes just playing on it.

Our first stop was the saloon show.  Poppy always loved the saloon show and the sheer cheesiness of it all.  He was often selected from the crowd to perform such embarrassing acts as high kicks with saloon girls.  He did these acts willingly but with a certain stiffness that made it all the more hilarious, but yet painful to watch.  He would have loved sitting there eating peanuts with us and I hate so much that he wasn’t there.  The girls were fascinated with the saloon girls (which is really funny to me because as a youngster, I too was drawn to the can-can girls when we would go to a “wild west” show……having no clue that they were depicting prostitutes in bars from long ago.  I felt it wasn’t the time to drop that bomb on my daughters…..instead I took their picture together.) and Reese was absolutely terrified of them.  He perked up when the bad guy stormed in and it looked like there might be some drama unfolding, but when the girls skipped around on the stage and those skirts with all the ruffles and layers started flying around…..his head actually went down on the table.  It’s safe to say that girls are not on his radar……except as something to stay away from.

We dipped candles…..

We visited jail…..

We milked pretend cows

And Reese and Mattie found a new respect for Mumsey because she will ride anything!  Including this gigantic swing thing that made me nauseous just watching the line move.

Look at the longing little girl down at the bottom center wishing so badly she could ride, too!

This was a much calmer ride that they had to actually work together to ride…..we need one in the backyard.

And our day finally ended with that long awaited trip to the pool.

By the looks of this little mermaid – it was a great, exhausting day.

*Only a completely random note, look at this gigantic bag of Sour Patch Kids Watermelons! It lasted us for the entirety of our visit in Branson.