More Of Branson

so continuing with our branson trip.....

on saturday we hit the town. we did some shopping in the rain (thank you to the kind man who took wren and i in under his umbrella...okay my sister may have pointed him in our direction...), then warmed up by a fire at the fish house where we ate lunch and the kids fed ducks.





from there we went to the sights and sounds theatre and watched noah's ark. it was incredible....i was just as impressed as the kids. and we all got a good laugh over shaeya leaning over to my brother and asking, "who's Jehovah??"



that night the kids were pretty tired, so we put them straight to bed



and then my brothers tried to teach me to play rook....i'd like to say that i totally get it now after 3 hours of playing 1 game, but.....

sunday we had church and then hit dogwood canyon. we took a tram ride through the canyon and saw waterfalls and caves,





and a church made of cedar wood (okay, this wasn't the actual church building- i thought it was a cute place for a picture, but after i took it i realized these were probably the bathrooms- oops.)



then we fed some rainbow trout, and got really up close and personal with some elk, buffalo, and texas long horn cows (or horny cows as tess and tekoa call them.)







we were pretty chilled after the canyon so we went back to the lodge and sat in the hot tubs for awhile. it was rainy and cold, but the hot tubs were wonderful.

that night my dad cooked the fish from the one (and only :) fishing trip, and then i let the guys play their rook. my sister and i joined my dad in the theater room and watched a movie. hidden secrets or something- bad acting, really good message- why is it you can't ever get both?

monday morning we packed up and headed for home.
but, dave and i made a last minute stop at the meramac caverns with our kids. it was really fun. the kids had never seen anything like it and it was great to see it all through their eyes. they could hardly grasp the fact that we were 360 feet underground, and tyden loved the story of jesse james hiding his loot there after robbing a train.
















pretty incredible, huh? and pictures just never do it justice.

and we had to stop for this picture on our way back from the caverns-



and now it's back to reality....
tomorrow i take the lighthouse kids down to the courthouse for our music performance- i'm a bit nervous, but i'm sure the kids'll do great.
then thursday we have a showing so somehow i've got to get this house back in order....