Branson 2011

Several months ago a group of the women in my family decided that we should plan a trip to Branson.  We set a date and then I impatiently waited for April to get here.  Well last Thursday we finally made our trip.  There were 10 of us that went....me, my mom, my grandma, Aunt Terrie, Jackie, Aunt Sue (My grandma's sister), Jodi, Paige, Micha (3 of Aunt Sue's daughters), and Johnna (Micha's daughter).  Aunt Sue, Jodi, Micha, and Johnna arrived in LR on Wednesday and spent the night with us.  Everyone else (except Paige - she flew into Springfield) left from my hour Thursday morning.  The weather was nice on Thursday which made the trip up very good.  By the time we arrived in Branson we were STARVING!  We decided to have lunch at the Fish House at the Branson Landing.  Well, we got there and it was closed due to all the flooding.  The only restaurant open at the Landing was Cantina Laredo and they were serving a limited menu.  Even with little to choose from the food was still good.  Afterwards we did a little looking around at the landing, then went and check into our hotel, went to Tanger Outlet for a little bit, and finally ate dinner at 9pm.  Again I was starving by the time we ate.  We went to Landry's and the food was awesome.  Johnna and I split the Cinnamon Bread Pudding for dessert and WOW it was good.  I am pretty sure I was asleep withing 2 minutes of my head hitting the pillow Thursday night.

On Friday morning, we went to the BODIES exhibit.  My father-in-law and brother-in-law had gone in Vegas, so I kind of knew what to expect.  It was really cool, but all of the bodies were of Asian people so that was a little weird to me.  I can't even begin to describe everything, but it something worth seeing.  In addition to full bodies, there were also body parts in cases and a little right up about it.  One of the coolest things I saw was of an arm and they had cut off the skin and muscles, but the nerves were still in tact.

After the exhibit, part of the group went to Silver Dollar City and part of us went shopping.  Of course I went shopping.  If given the choice between paying $50 to get into a place and buying $50 worth of clothes, I chose clothes!  We had lunch at Fudrucker's and it is one of the best cheeseburgers ever.  We did lots of shopping.  Actually I bought more clothes for Scott than myself, but it was still fun.  That night the 4 of us that went shopping went to the movie to watch Soul Surfer (loved it! loved it! loved it!) while the rest of the group went to a show.  They went to SIX and said it was awesome.  I am not really into the shows.

On Saturday morning, we went zip lining.  OMG it was soo much fun.  I hate heights and hate the feel of free falling, but this was totally not like that.  The worst part was climbing the 65 ft spiral staircase.  Once I made it everything was fine.  The funniest part was when Aunt Sue was coming across on about the 4 set and the guy was yelling "BRAKE! BRAKE! BRAKE!" and Aunt Sue totally did not break and went slamming into the guy who went slamming into the padded pole.  It was so not funny when it happened, but once it was over an everything was OK, we all had a good laugh.  On the last run on the zip line the guy told us we wouldn't have to hold on or brake at the end because you end up slowing down yourself when you come in and you are pretty close to the ground.  With this being said I decided to try to hang upside down on the last one.  It was soo much fun but I kept trying to flip back up.  My grandma wasn't able to zipline because she couldn't climb the stairs but the people at Adventure Ziplines of Branson were soo nice and they left her do the training zipline.  This way she didn't have to climb any stairs, only onto a box.  She was sooo excited that she was able to zipline. 


After we finished, we decided to home an Old Time photo made.  We ended up having to wait 2 hours to get the picture made...who knew you needed an appointment?  Let's just saying getting the picture made was pretty funny.  As soon as it was over, I had to run back to the outlet.  I had a couple of things I needed to buy and had a 30% off coupon that was good for Saturday only.  Again we ate a pretty late dinner and I was asleep within 2 minutes after my head hit the pillow.  I would like to thank the Hampton Inn for your awesome beds!

We woke up Sunday morning to nasty, cold weather.  I had the privilege of driving the 3 hours back in the rain.  It was NOT fun.  By the time I got home, I felt like I had been in the car for about 10 hours. 

This trip was soo much fun.  I can't wait to see if we do it again next year and if so where we will go.