We rented a Pontoon Boat

Schaun really, really wanted to go out on the lake. We drove around from one marina to the next for about an hour and a half before we found a boat available for rent. We rented this nice pontoon boat. It had a nice shady cover on it, so I was good to go. We spent four hours out on the boat. The girls each got to drive it. Schaun and Bridget took a little dip in the lake at one point. I don't swim in lakes, so that was a no go for me. Becca wanted to, but I said no. She gets too freaked out sometimes and that was too risky for my taste.

Other things we did

We did a lot of things that I didn't have my camera for. We went to the outlet stores to shop a bit. Not much to photograph there.

We went to a park and rode bumper boats and go-carts. Too wet for the camera there. That was so much fun and that water felt so good! Just for the record, Becca and I won the go-cart race.

There was another park called Celebration City. It is mostly rides. They have this gigantic ferris wheel that the girls were really excited to get on. It was so high up there but no fear from either girl. This park was disappointing for Becca though. She would see something that she really wanted to ride and she would be too little. One ride she spotted from the ferris wheel and we walked over there to find her too small and she started crying. Whole-hearted crying, pure sadness, heart-breaking. At the end of the night they do a laser and fire works show. We missed the beginning, but what we saw was great! Bridget kept asking if it was the Forth of July. She loves fireworks!

We went to this new river walk area. It was all new and nice. The stores there are like stores here, like Disney and chain clothes stores. They have some nice fountains too. Bridget has to throw a coin a make a wish at ALL fountains. She is so sweet.

Did I mention it was hot? It was almost 100 degrees at all these events!

Silver Dollar City

Tuesday we decided to go to Silver Dollar City. We might call this Becca's coming out party. Bridget has always been willing to do new things. I never had to talk her into riding a ride or a pony or going in a building to see something. Becca, well I spend a lot of time in failed attempts to get her to do things. At Deanna Rose just last month she would not even think about the pony ride. This same child, took one look at the rides here and transformed! She wanted to ride every single one of them!

It was so much fun with both girls wanting to do things. On the other hand, I have never been so sweaty anytime in my entire life! The girls didn't seem to mind how hot and sweaty we were. We just drank and drank lot of water and walked thru every air-conditioned store we could to get to the next ride.

It was Kid's Fest while we were there. There were clowns and balloons all over the park. Becca couldn't wait to ride the carousel (something she has been unwilling to ever do at Oak Park Mall) so that was really fun for her. Bridget is a pro at that though. I think Bridget liked the water part of the park best. Becca is not to hip on getting sprayed in the face. I didn't get photos of that though because there is no safe place for a camera in that area.

Monday

Our first stop was at the Osceola cheese factory. It is a good place to stop, stretch, and sample.

























This little restaurant is in the old part of Branson. Schaun said he always wanted to eat there, so that is where we went. Nothing great there except he got to eat there finally.
















Now we needed something FUN to do!

Ride the Duck

After eating we decided to get into the swing of things. We went and hopped on the Duck. If you don't know, this is a land to water vehicle. They drive you around Branson telling you silly jokes with some history of the area then you just drive into the lake. The cool part is they let the kids on the Duck drive once we are on the lake. While you wait in line to get on the Duck, they give everybody a "quacker". It looks like a duck bill and makes a loud quack when you blow. Those were fun too.

Back Home

We are home from Branson. It was a great trip. We had lots and lots of fun. To sum it up though, it was HOT. Sometimes I thought we were vacationing on the sun. I'll get to the photos in a little bit.

A very girly layout

This page turned out so girly! I really love how it turned out!

Sweet Girl (again but for Becca)

I did one of these books for Bridget previously. Some of the photos are the same, but it is a whole new book.

Picnic Tme

Last night, Schaun and I were sitting and watching some tv show when Bridget came in and announced that she had the picnic ready for us. I couldn't wait to see this. We went out in the other room to see. The girls had set up blankets on the floor, got out paper plates, and toy food. It was set up perfect. We had silverware (aka crayons) and napkins. It was a sort of formal picnic. Then Bridget served us our food. We were getting ready to eat when she said we had to say our prayer. I thought this would be interesting as this is not something we do. She told us to all hold hands and she started our prayer "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America......" and she said the whole Pledge. I was giggling so hard I had tears running down my face. It was lots of fun!

SISTERS

Credit where credit is due--I scraplifted this design from Tammy Kay's "Love You" on 2peas. Which to my non-scrapbooking blog readers, that means I copied her.

Photo of Kristin and me last year. I really like this picture and I was happy to put it on such pretty papers!

Summer Fun

Sprinklers, slip-n-slides, and swimming pools. All this fun in our backyard!

Finished another one

Whew! I made NINE layouts this weekend! Granted seven of them are for classes, but I think that is a record for me.

I struggled with this one of Bridget for a while today. It finally came together for me though.

What A Sweetie

This page is one I designed for one of my upcoming classes. I dressed it up a bit and added my photos. They really seem to like seeing it like that in class. Sometimes I show the pages to my girls when I finish them. I showed this to Becca today when I was done. I told her that the pictures were of her when she was a baby (cuz she is all big now you know *insert eye roll here*). She was fascinated with the strawberry on the shirt. Then she looked closer and said "That's me with the red thingy on my eye. The red is all gone now"

I was a little shocked by that. I didn't think she ever noticed. She has never said anything about it ever before. She didn't seem upset. It was just a statement, and then she ran off to play.