Our Accommodations

Once again, we booked a resort for $209 U.S. for the whole week, which is our 4th time booking super cheap resorts with the deal that Jared gets through his work. We are very thankful for discount vacations! The name of our resort in Branson was Holiday Inn Club Vacations Holiday Hills Resort. Yes, it's a mouthful. We had a 2-bedroom condo, so the kids had one bedroom, Jared and I had the other room and my Mom slept on the sleeper sofa, which we had arranged beforehand. This was the entrance of the main building. Our condo was at the top right corner. This building was the massive indoor pool (and also hot tub). This was the outdoor pool right in front of our condo. The kids preferred the indoor pool as the water in the outdoor pools was a lot colder, so I think they swam in this one twice. This was the view from our back balcony. The kids played on it a couple of times when we weren't busy doing other things. This was the living room. We gave Haley her birthday presents from us and my Mom right as we were leaving for Branson, so she had a set of 3 Frozen puzzles which the kids did over and over.

The kitchen which we mainly used to make breakfast and lunches. I think we ate all of our suppers out except maybe one.

This was the room Jared and I used along with the ensuite bathroom.

This was the kids' bedroom. Haley slept on a sponge mattress on the floor which worked well.

This was the huge indoor pool which was definitely a highlight for the kids! It was nice and bright during the day as the whole building was surrounded with windows and skylights. Reading reviews ahead of time makes it difficult to know what to expect, as some people rave about it and some people complain about every last thing. One review wrote about the huge spiders they saw while staying there but thankfully I didn't see a single one! We really enjoyed our stay there!

Branson, Missouri Day 1

On Haley's 5th birthday (August 12), we left for our 2nd summer trip and this one was 15 hours south to Branson, Missouri. We took my Mom with us and drove through the night on the way there. After driving through the night, we had breakfast at IHOP in Omaha, Nebraska. FYI: they have tasty omelettes. I enjoyed seeing all of the signs for the different states as we entered, especially because we had never been to Nebraska, Kansas or Missouri before! I also like their big water towers. On August 7, just 6 days before we were there, a 10-year-old boy died on this waterslide (Verrukt) at Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City. He flew off of the raft and was decapitated on the wire mesh around the slide. It is the world's tallest waterslide, at 168 feet, or 17 storeys, which is taller than Niagara Falls and the Statue of Liberty. I was horrified when I saw the news story pop up on The Weather Network app on my phone. I didn't think we would see it, especially so close to when the tragedy took place but when we left for Branson, we discovered it was a small detour to go see it, so we did. The slide is going to be torn down. There looked to be dead tree trunks in the water, which we were puzzled about. The scenery got very green and hilly which we really enjoyed! We went over this bridge every day when entering and exiting Branson, as our resort was on the outskirts of Branson. Branson had temperatures of +35 and hotter for much of July, but thankfully it cooled off and was around +28 most of the week we were there, which was perfect! It was also calling for rain for much of the week when we were there, but thankfully there was hardly any rain and we were able to do all of the outdoor activities we had planned! That happened on both of our trips this summer and it was a gift from the Lord!

More August Fun

Our August fun continued as we hit up a town fair. It started on Friday night with their semi-outdoor movie night and they showed Zootopia. Saturday morning, we met up with friends to watch the parade. Jared's Mom's friend had won tickets for children's wristbands for Saturday afternoon, plus some free chicken dinners and she wasn't planning to use all of them, so they got given to us which was a blessing! The kids enjoyed games, bouncy castles, face painting and balloon animals.

The next day we got to go to my brother-in-law's family farm as they wanted to take pictures and drone videos of people enjoying their farm for their website. We got to do every activity there, including a corn maze (which we could not find the end of), paintball shooting at an old car, a tractor train ride, animals, play structures, dress up, a forest trail and ziplining. The day ended with a hot dog weiner roast and fun was had by all.

It was seriously about +30 outside and Kiera picked the warmest costume to dress up in!

August 12 was Haley's 5th birthday! She had a Frozen party with 6 friends. :) Apparently we found time to do a puzzle as well! Last year, on Blake's birthday, we left for Florida! This year, on Haley's birthday, we left for Branson, Missouri! I am looking forward to posting those, and maybe some of them will hit my blog before Christmas!

August Long Week-end

I'm calling this post August long week-end but really most of August long week-end was in July, so it was strange how that worked out this year. Nonetheless, my Dad's side of the family continued their 25+ year tradition of going to the lake (Minaki) altogether. This year the weather was hot, sunny and perfect and guess who only packed one pair of shorts and forgot their bathing suit at home....ME! It's a 2 1/2 hour drive, so going home to get more clothes was not an option. I was so concerned about packing everything that the kids needed that I forgot to pack all of my stuff. Lesson learned. I did not go swimming but managed to keep cool enough by having my wet kids sit on my lap and dipping my legs into the water. My kids had a really great time playing with their 2nd cousins. Our week-end started off not how we expected but it all turned out great. Haley was walking along a rail tie about 2 feet off the ground next to a concrete sidewalk. She lost her balance, fell backward and landed on her head on the concrete. She immediately had a huge goose egg and cried for a long time. The problem was, it was after 10 p.m., which was past bedtime. My cousins strongly advised that we go get her checked and not let her go to sleep, in case she had a concussion. So, Jared drove over half an hour to get her checked at the Kenora hospital. The ER was packed when they arrived but thankfully she could get checked by a nurse almost right away. Haley was totally responsive, could walk straight, her eyes were focused, she wasn't puking and the nurse said she did not have a concussion. Jared had the option to wait all night to see a doctor but the nurse told him the doctor would just say the same thing, so Jared took Haley back to the cabin and she was in bed around midnight. The goose egg was significantly better by the morning and we carried on with our week-end! Praise God for His protection! There were several group swims to the island. I think Blake went once and Kiera went at least twice. Jared swam with the kids. I love how the water just sparkles! This tube got played with a lot by the dock. I got a picture of Kiera on the island along with the rest of the group who swam there. We stayed in the 4-plex cabins and I caught the rainbow in this picture, too! The sunsets are so beautiful. We left on Monday morning and stopped to eat a picnic lunch outside along the way. It poured after we were finished lunch, so that was really great timing. The sky looked very interesting! It was a fun week-end away halfway in between our 2 trips. We love our family and enjoy the time we get to spend with them!