Branson Wednesday TableRock Lake

 We spent most of the day on the lake. I cooked breakfast early and had it laid out as a buffet soDavid, Ben and I could be at the Indian Point Marina a little after 7:00 am to arrange the boat for the next 3 days. That went well and within 20 minutes we were on our 7 minute trip back to the house where there was still some food left for our breakfast. David drove the boat for the younger kids which went on the first group out. The boat only holds 12 so we had to take turns. Philip drove the boat for the older kids. While they were waiting for the boat to come back they went to the pool. After lunch they switched. 

If you would like to see the rest of the tubing pictures click HERE.

Below are a few of the tubing videos

They all had plenty of time at the pool. Some went to Silver Dollar City.

and some got dunked.

It was very hot again. A few of us went back to Silver Dollar City around 3:00 pm to tour the cave but when we got there the line was too long to make the 3:30 tour and the next one was at 5:30 pm. Instead we went to the Saloon Show. We had to wait in line about 15 minutes and by the time we got into the airconditioned building we were all dripping with sweat. We made it home in time to whip up hay stacks for dinner. After dinner the big kids went back to Silver Dollar City while the younger ones went out on the boat. Mark and I stayed back to listen to Gabe have the message at church. A big storm came in and it started pouring. The group on the boat got soaked. The group at Silver Dollar City did too but they were dancing in the streets in the rain. No pictures of any of that. 

Tuesday In Branson

 I overslept not waking until 6:00 am and had the first pot of coffee brewing when David and then Ben walked in for a cup. They were both content to wait until that pot finished. I started frying the bacon at 6:30 am frying up 4 pounds and then making maybe 35 pancakes and a dozen and a half of eggs. Breakfast was ready by 8:00 am and by that time the kids were starving. After breakfast the kids all left to hike to the waterfall. Below are pictures of that.

After playing in the water and jumping off the cliffs they left for the hatchery. Below are pictures from that.

Mark and I left for John and Beth's house. They live less than 4o minutes away from Branson and it is an easy trip. We saw first their house then went across the field to Tom and Tarah's house and finally drove the few miles over to JR and Sherry's house. John gave a tour of most of the land. 

Above is the humvee John used to see all the roads he made on JR's land and below is JR's pool.

They also had the neatest swinging chairs set up.

Below is the barn John brought with him when he moved from his farm in Illinois to Missouri. He is going to finish that off to store hay in the sides. Right now it is holding his baler, trucks and boats.

Below is his loader, another piece of equipment and Amy's old horse trailer. I bought that, used it for years then gave it to Fede then Fede gave it to John and he is going to use it for his goats.

Below is the engine of John's sawmill.

He harvests the cedar trees on his properties then uses the sawmill to make lumber.

Below is the barn he is siding it in cedar planks

Below is the orginal barn that was on the property when John brought it. He is siding the entire barn with cedar and fixing up all of the insides.

John hooked the wagon up to his golf cart and gave us a tour of his property while the grandkids rode in the wagon.

Below is the wagon tour.

The house in the picture below is Tom and Tarah's house.

The pool is at John and Beth's house.

Below is John's tool shed. All of the walls are covered in tools.

Below is the video of riding in the humvee. It is long but the roads John built were impressive through the woods.

We drove back to Branson had to charge the car, stopped at Aldi to buy more eggs and bacon then to Elevate, a thrift store to buy 6 books and finally back to the house where I cooked chicken and added it to the left over Indian food from last night for our supper. The kids were all leaving for Silver Dollar City when we got home. Below are the shoes that they did NOT wear. We sure have an abundance of shoes here.

A very busy but fun day.

Monday in Branson

Breakfast was a little slow and that was becasue the big burner on the stove wasn't working correctly. I didn't discover that until after about 10 minutes waiting for the bacon to cook. After everyone had suffiecent the group left for Silver Dollar City. Below are a few pictures. 

The lines weren't long as it was a very hot day here in Branson reaching 100 degrees. They were glad for the air conditioned shows. By 1:30 pm they were starting to drag. They came home for a late lunch, rested a bit played games inside then all of left for the Tyler Reed magic show and dinner. The tickets were $20.00 each and included the dinner. The dinner wasn't great but the show was really fun. We had a group of 18 so got front row seats and almost all of our kids got to be part of the show. 

Above we were playing a game while finishing up eating and below Zion was called up to the stage for a preview of the show to come.

Below are a few videos of our evening. The first was Zion helping with the pre-show,

The second is the conclusion of the Pepsi trick.

Because there was such a big group of us we were seated together in the first and second rows. This meant that most of our kids were called on to help in the magic tricks. The video below is as we were waiting for the show to start.

Below Tyler is reading Braelyn's mind.

Below Mark was given a pack of cards and asked to pick one.

Below the kids were asked to name the cups of colored water (you guessed it, they said the first looked like pee) Then came the funny stuff. At the end of this trick, Nolan was asked to take a drink. Did he? Was he brave enough?

Stephanie was asked to pick a number.

Can Eden FLY?

Does Zeke get wet?

The kids were called up to learn the egg and scarf trick.

Tyler asked for a hundred dollar bill and Lee offered one of his. With this trick Jace ended up leaving the show with a dollar bill and half of a lemon. Did Lee get his original hundred dollar bill back.

There was much more to the show and we didn't get home until after 10:00 pm. I could hardly wait to climb into bed. A really fun day for everyone.

Sunday In Branson

Even though we went to bed late we were up by 5:00 am. This house has 2 coffee makers but one I never could get to work. At least I got one pot going. We went into the city to attend a church that started at 8:15 am. The music went on and on and was very loud but when the speaker spoke his message was on James 4 vs 1 and 2. Conflict and how to resolve it. 

Below was how to resolve the conflict.

Interesting and I felt I was supposed to be there. After church we dropped Braelyn and Israel off at the house and had the car drive to a charger which just happened to be next to a super Walmart. We went there next and bought enough fruit, bread, cereal and milk to last a few days. This afternoon I pulled up Peoria on AC Central and watched Dave Beutel give a message on our statement of faith. This was quite a sermon and the truth was spoken. I'll try to post that here once I get home from vacation. It reached 100 degrees today here in Branson.  Rachel took Nancy home from church and Nancy got to feed Faline, the fawn.

When we got home most of the family had already gone to Silver Dollar City. They came back hot and tired. Next were games at the big table and the floor.

We ordered Indian food for our dinner and had Mark's car take us to the restaurant to pick it up. I had to take a picture of the octopus that was across the street from the restaurant.

There was a tent in Israel's room so he brought that up for the girls to play with.

That was the girls fort, the boys made their own fort.

This evening a bunch went back to Silver Dollar City to watch the fireworks and ride the rides. Mark, Sarah, Stephanie and I stayed back with Iris, Zeke, River and Elisabet. Someone knocked on our door and when we opened it were surprised to see Connie and Dave along with 2 of their grandsons and one son in law. 

Turned out they were staying in a house 2 houses down from us. We had a nice visit then they walked home. The house they are staying in has 9 bedrooms as their basement is finished. Ours is just dirt. Jack, Jace and Israel walk around to check ours and found a place to crawl inside. Jack came back and told us it was dirt and really smelled. I told him that's because that is where they bury the bodies.

We got to watch the fireworks from Silver Dollar City off our balcony tonight.