Branson Vacation!

We recently got back from the annual Stowe family Branson vacation and I figured if I don't blog about now, I never will so here goes! We left Sunday July 5th and got back Friday July 10th. James, his 2 brothers and their families and James parents all went, (oh and of course Parker and I went as well). James' parents own a timeshare and try to head to Branson once a year with the whole immediate family. Why Branson you may be wondering...well even though we aren't as easily able to take in the "touristy" things now that there are 4 little ones (Parker and his 1 girl and 2 boy cousins), the trip is only about 6 hours away so it's pretty doable (although still a long day for young kids to have to sit in the car). Since James is currently in grad school and he and his brothers all have young families, it is just not financially in the picture for each family to try to afford plane tickets to fly anywhere in addition to the money lost due to not being able to work during the vacation week and all of the other random expenses that inevitably occur on vacation. Plus Big Cedar Lodge (located right outside of Branson) is a great "resortish" hotel right on the lake with several heated pools, hot tubs, walking/hiking trails, fish pond, restaurants, and other very nice amenities that we all seem to enjoy. It's a nice little vacation getaway! :)

Now on to the actual trip. Basically the trip consisted of: LOTS of walking, LOTS of pool time, some SHOPPING (hooray!!:), feeding the fish at the fish pond, and relaxing in general. Also, one morning on the trip, James' parents took Parker and his cousin Elsie (who is only 1 year and 5 days older than him) to a place called "The Butterfly Palace" (Here is their website if you want to check it out!:) It was a nice trip and all-in-all Parker did really well on the drive and with sleeping in a new place in his pack n' play instead of his crib. I'm looking forward to next year's Branson vacation already! Here are some pictures from the trip for anyone interested...

Dressed and ready for his first day of Branson fun!


about to head to one of the pools


He loved playing with the water jets at the pool! I got a video of him playing in the water jet but have been having difficulty getting my videos to load to You Tube lately. I'll post the video on here whenever I can...


Parker playing with cousin Elsie at the pool. They have so much fun together! :)


Feeding the fish in the fish pond at Big Cedar! I have a video of this too so if You Tube will EVER allow me to actually load it then I'll post it on here too!


at the butterfly palace...


cousins walking hand-in-hand at the butterfly palace...aren't they just too sweet together??!! :)


In the car on the way home...Why is he so happy you ask?...


...this is why! He was getting restless and when he saw me blow my nose, he decided he wanted to play with a Kleenix. I gave him one (a new CLEAN one of course...what kind of mother do you think I am??!) and he proceeded to shred it into tiny pieces! Needless to say it was quite the mess but TOTALLY worth it to have a happy baby! ;)