Summer Comes to an End

I am so sad that our summer is over.  I have had one week of staff development and the students come to meet Mrs. Alford and Coach Alford on Monday morning.  Have I ever mentioned how blessed I feel that we are both teachers?  We will never be rich but we have so much time with the kids together and it is just such a blessing!  We had a great and fun summer so I am very sad to see it go!  The kids are getting older and love to go and do!  It is so fun to give them experiences that they have never had before! 
Brooklyn will be attending the Early Learning Academy for Spring ISD teachers just as she did last year and I feel so blessed that she is there!  The education is just amazing and the independence she is gaining is awesome!  Her teachers will be Mrs. Sanford, Ms. Sue, Ms. Chelsea, and Ms. Christina!  I know it will be a good year.  We went to open house to meet them and they all knew her from last year.  She got to see Mrs. Linda, Jeri, and Sandi from last year and she was so excited to see them.  She cried when she saw Mrs. Linda because she wants to be in her class again this year!
Colson will be with Deanna again for his 3rd year!  He loves being there so much and I feel like we have the best babysitter in the world!  She has been a part of our family for 5 years now and I cannot imagine what it would be like not dropping off a kid there every day...she says I need to have more kids for her to watch but NO WAY!  The first day back at DeeDee's house he screamed and cried when he had to leave and didn't want to come home at all!  PLAY DEEDEES is all he said!  Too funny! 
I don't know why but I haven't been taking many pictures so we will pick up the camera and start taking more!  We will be posting some of the first day of school for Brooklyn so come back and check!

Summer Playdates

We got to play with so many friends this summer and are so sad that it has to end!

Love our time with Ricky and Everett!

Got to visit with Avery and Madalyn

Kuhn and Heemer time on the 4th!                    Our regular playgroup kids!

Luke and Marissa came from Oklahoma to play!

Playing with Ashleigh and Michael

Colson playing with Everett and cooling down with Marshall!

Emma time!                                Ethan, Kate, and Luke had fun playing with us!

We are so blessed to have great friends!!!!!!!

Our Family Road Trip Part 2

We then left Memphis and headed to our final destination which was Branson, Missouri!  We stopped on the way at what my uncle thinks is the second best cavern he has ever seen.  Curt has been to others and he said it blew the others out of the water!  He loved it!  The kids were amazed that we were outside and underground all at the same time! 

It was just phenominal to see God's creations!

We then went to see the natural springs that feed into the cave!  Colson fell head first into the water!  It was so funny!  It didn't seem to phase him a bit!!

We arrived in Branson and had a beautiful condo that our friends Doug and Shelly own.  They let us borrow it for a great price and it was FABULOUS!  We had a great view of the pool which was a favorite of the kids!

Great views!

Colson loved the balcony and looking at the pool!

Our first day in Branson we Rode the Ducks which was so fun!  It is an army vehicle built in the 40s that gives you a tour of Branson and then even goes into the water on Table Rock Lake.  Brooklyn loved the free quacker they gave us and LOVED when she got to drive the vehicle in the water!  She adored our driver, Captain Amazing, and I think she was a favorite of Captain Amazing's also!  Colson enjoyed the first part but then had his only meltdown the whole Branson trip.  Oh well!  Can't win them all!

A huge industry and attraction in Branson is trout fishing so we took the kids to the Hatchery and they got to feed the fish!  They loved it!  The size of the fish was amazing!

Monday night we went to the New Shanghai Circus and it was AMAZING!  The kids LOVED it!  Brooklyn still says that that was her favorite part of the whole trip.  It was pretty amazing what these people could do with their bodies.  At the end of the show we got to take a pic with the hula hoop expert!  Colson was so well behaved and we were thrilled because it was a 2 hour show!

The kids were so excited but no photography during the show!  B was so thrilled to get a picture with the hula hoop acrobat!

We spent the entire next day in the most fantastic family-friendly amusement park we have ever been to.  We went to Silver Dollar City.  It is clean, shaded, hilly, and carries an old-timey theme throughout the whole park!  Brooklyn was tall enough to ride most rides with an adult but Colson was very limited which was hard for him to understand!  They had a great time and we definitely plan to go back and visit again! 

The kids were chosen to clog with the cloggers on stage!  Brooklyn loved it!  Colson didn't get it at all!

The kids had a great time!  Can you believe that Brooklyn rode those high swings!??  She loved it!!!

The foam world was so fun!!!!

Kids' first ICEEs!  They love them!

Long but wonderful day!!!!

We spent the next day at Table Rock Lake.  It was so beautiful!  We played in the water at Moonshine Beach and the kids loved that!    Then we went out on a 50 foot sail boat that towed a large inflatable slide, kayaks, inflatable trampolines, and floatable mats!  We all jumped in the water with life vests and had an absolutely awesome time!!

Sand castles at Moonshine Beach!

This is the Spirit of America boat that we took out on the lake!  You can see the sline and inflatables that we played on!  It was like we were all kids again!

We went to historic downtown Branson and the Branson Landing.  It was fun to walk into the 5 and Dime store and see what fun things they had and eat at a quaint little old town restaurant!  The Branson landing has beautiful fountains and firework shows but we were not there at that time.  IT WAS A HOT DAY!

We went to the Dixie Stampede that evening which was  the second show that we went to.  It was a South/North show about our country's history played out in a very fun way!  The horses were amazing!  They fed us as we watched the show...whole cornish hens, corn on the cob, soup, biscuits, potatoes and pork all eaten with no utensils!  OH MY was that interesting with a 2 and 4 year old!!!  Again no pictures during the show so we just got some pics on the grounds...so beautiful!

IT WAS A GREAT SHOW!

The next day we went fishing on the Taneycomo River.  The kids caught a few small fish and they loved it!  Curt couldn't do his serious fishing with the kids around so he went back during their nap time to check out the current during the afternoon.  He didn't have any luck but would like to try to trout fish up there another time with my uncle!

Brooklyn loved the worms and even named them as if they were her pets!  Love this pic of Curt helping his son!

She knotted the worm herself!  She was so proud but we couldn't believe she did that!  So funny!!

WE HAD SUCH AN AMAZING VACATION!  We have talked several times and feel truly blessed that we could give our kids these experiences.  I had so many moments of pride, joy, and just peace during this vacation.  God is good!