We drove until about 10 pm and stayed in Evansville, Indiana. The kids love staying in hotels and especially eating the Continental breakfast the next morning. After breakfast we loaded back in the car and drove some more. We went through St. Louis on our way to meet up with Ben's parents, sister-in-law (and her sister), and Ben's cousin (and his family) in Branson, Missouri.
In Branson we hung out for a few days at a condo with everyone. It was so much fun to be with family. It was quite hot and we did a lot of swimming (but I guess I didn't take any pictures of that). Grandpa Gene taught all of the kids to play the snap/clap game (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) which they loved!
I think the favorite activity in Branson, MO was laser tag. We went one day when Scott and Kelley and their family were with us; and ended up going back another day too.
The place we went was not busy, so we were able to have the laser tag room all to ourselves. This made it perfect for the younger kids to run around without being trampled by strangers (although one was knocked down by her own father).
We also played glow-in-the-dark miniature golf witch turned out to be a little long, but at least we were cool inside the air conditioned building.
It was so fun to just hang out with everyone. My kid loved having Becca and Amy to play with as well as Scott and Kelley's kids.
One morning we took a short drive (20 minutes) just outside of Branson to The Talking Caves. It was quite amazing. We got to go on a tour of the cave. It was nice and cool, and very beautiful.
Up on the surface they had a few activities. We bought a bag of dirt/gems for the kids to pan for gems. They really thought it was cool.
There was also this "maze" on the surface called a SpeleoBox which is made to resemble the tight spaces of caves. The spelunker enters through one hole and navigates his way on his belly (mostly by scooting and dragging oneself by their arms) down, up and across this multi-layered maze to ultimately reach the exit. The kids thought it was great fun and went through a few times each. Then Becca decided she would give it a try (she is quite petite). Next thing I knew my father-in-law was calling me over to see something amazing . . . my quite claustrophobic and tall husband had decided to attempt this amazing feat. Here he is shortly after he entered, posing politely for a photo (Emma is on the level below him).
Then things started to get interesting as Ben thought the end was "just around the corner" and all of the kids ahead of him started saying things like . . . "oh, he will never make it through here" and "no, you still have to go down through the bottom level before you get to the end". At this point I asked Ben to pose for another picture three different times and was ignored on all three occasions. I figured he was getting pretty stressed, so this is the best picture I could get (of him making downward U-turn).
He did eventually make it! He defiantly faced one of his biggest fears, I was so proud of him!
After lots of fun in Branson, MO we decided to drive the remainder of our road trip (about 20 hours) in one go. We left about 3:30 am on June 24 and drove through until about midnight. If you are wondering how we could possibly do this, it is thanks to this cute girl in the middle.
Amy sat in the back seat of our van between Sarah and Emma for most of the 20 hours. She was quite the entertainer, I think that they all had fun. Thanks Amy!
3 comments:
It looks like a lot of fun. Well, execpt for the driving.
I love it. It was so much fun and so pleasant. Great memories.
wow! i thought a road trip to california was long, and i'm not even pregnant! you guys are brave!
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