Mirror, Mirror on the wall, Who is the bravest of them all?

Here we were with a trip to Branson burning a hole in our pockets. We bought into this high pressured mini vacation well over two years ago and they continually call us to see if we want to use it. I finally got so tired of them calling I agreed to a date. And, with almost no money to spare, off we went. We figured we would fill the gas tanks, take our own food and use whatever incentives they gave us to entertain ourselves for two days. The day we drove down was a beautiful as could be. The kids did pretty well (until the end) and we were able to check in with no problems. The hotel bed quickly became a trampoline and after a mighty fine dinner that I prepared and brought down, we were off to the pool.

Now having just had a baby, I was a little hesitant to put on a swimsuit but with the encouragement of my children yelling at me to hurry up, we went off in search of the pool. Everyone quickly jumped in and I asked Katie how the temperature of the jacuzzi was and she answered "hmmmm...decent" I had to smile at her fine vocabulary. We swam, played, tried in vain to convince the kids to go to bed and finally Day 1 came to an end.

Day two began with breakfast. Now, most of you know how cheap I am. While we ate this fine Continental breakfast I noticed there were peanut butter and jelly packets and I got the brilliant idea to make us some sandwiches to eat for lunch. With a few yogurts, apples and donuts to boot, I thought it was a great savings. I quickly sent an embarrassed Andy up to the room to get me a bag to hide the food in. He came back down with the bag hidden behind Griffith and stuck it under the table. I then slyly began to place food into the bag when no one was watching. Andy kept giving me a nervous smile but I wasn't concerned. Then Andy went to get a donut. Katie, bless her dear little loud voice, then yelled across the dining area, "Dad, get me one because mom is saving food for lunch." Of course everyone looked over at us. So much for being sly.

Then it was off to a very long high pressured sales presentation. It was long, especially with three children, and despite trying to be polite, they would not let us leave. They made me feel evil since I wouldn't buy into it and what if Andy died and we had no vacation to remember him by?? I explained how we were getting out of debt and to no avail. I think Matt Smith would have totally caved by the end of it. I hate these and am not sure I would go again. But we dutifully collected our prizes (tickets to Silver Dollar City, dinner and Omni Max tickets) and off we went. The weather was freezing cold and with rainy looking skies, we decided to stop at Walmart and buy sweatshirts. We were blessed to find grey ones for 2 dollars, the only catch being they only had size small. I told Andy to suck it in and off we went.


And if anyone knows our biggest laugh when we got married was that I am a sucker for amusement parks. I love to ride the rides, feel the thrills and spin till I can't breathe. Andy on the other hand, is comfortable going on one ride. Which makes paying a lot of money for amusement parks redundant. But here we were...so off I went. On what has to be the best invention I've been on. You sit on this thing like a motorcycle. Then you rock back and forth as fast as they can get you to go (like a pirates ship ride) but then the added twist is that they spin you as well. You spin front and then back until your stomach feels like it's in knots. You come so close to trees you could floss your teeth on the leaves. What a thrill.

And then, after the thrill of a lifetime, it was time for Andy and I to switch and he got to go on a ride as well. You can see that we each got exactly what we wanted out of Silver Dollar City!

And the best part is, it went up and down! You just can't beat a ride like this...
And after a long day, we rushed off to dinner and a movie about Dinosaurs that was guaranteed to give our kids nightmares and then off in search of a Branson Letterbox. All in all a great trip.