Branson Day 2

So, over 6 months later, I am finally taking time to continue blogging about our trip in August. I've spent the past month uploading our photos to Google Photos and so far I have uploaded 5 years worth and have another 5 years to go. So, we drove through the night to get to Branson and spent the first day and a half just relaxing and doing a bit of exploring. Our first supper in Branson, we chose Cracker Barrel which is always fantastic! I had meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, ham, mac and cheese, sweet potato with butter and brown sugar, fried apples, a cornbread muffin and a warm biscuit with jam. It was a feast in my mouth! During our second day there (Sunday, August 14), we went swimming during the day and I read my Karen Kingsbury book on the deck. We went to pick up the tickets for the Moses show that my Mom and I had decided to go to. We ended up at a place that sold tickets for a whole bunch of other shows at 75% off, which we were really excited about, but then found out that we would have to go to a timeshare presentation to get them. We had heard horror stories about timeshare presentations but decided that we really wanted to see these 2 other shows and we didn't have a lot of extra cash to spend, so we decided to go for it. That story I will continue another day. I picked Mel's Hard Luck Diner to go to for supper, which ended up being my absolute favorite restaurant in Branson! It is a 50's diner where the waiters and waitresses sing. SO fun!! They were quite talented, too. Their albums were available for purchase in their gift shop and they were displayed on each table so we could request a song if we wanted to.

This was outside the restaurant. There was a gift shop and a pretty courtyard area.

The burgers were massive and we asked for 3 kid-size pop drinks with their meals and soon regretted that. They were HUMONGOUS!

I enjoyed the decor.

I saw on one of our waitress' albums that she sings "Let It Go." I was secretly hoping, for Haley's sake, that someone would request that song but I was too embarrassed to request it myself. Sure enough, someone did, and Haley was thrilled! She came and sung to her which was super cute!

I liked the jukebox, too.

Branson has been nicknamed "Little Nashville" as there are so many music shows, a lot of which are country music. I've never been to Vegas, but part of it reminded me of it in that there is definitely a "strip" where there are many attractions and bright lights, although much more family friendly. Branson is in the Bible belt of the States, which I think is wonderful! I heard one of the waitresses talking with a customer about which church she goes to and how they knew mutual people and that was neat.

I like how their water tower is lit up at night.

That's a sneak peek of Branson! Hopefully I'll post again before it's another 6 months!

The Battle of Offense

I woke up at 5:45 a.m. this morning, which was an hour before my alarm was going to go off. Not my favorite time to wake up but I had a lot of thoughts swirling around in my mind and it gave me time to pray. Since we lost a year and a half of our photos when our computer died, I have been busy uploading all of the rest of our photos to Google Photos instead of blogging. This morning, I had it on my heart to blog something more personal. Right now, our community group (Bible study) is going through "The Bait of Satan" by John Bevere. I have done this study quite a few years ago but it is still just as relevant today as it was then. It is all about the sin of offense. Last night's session was about being offended at leaders. As I watch what is going on in the world around me, the many different opinions on social media and how people view the prime minister and the president, I thought this session was extremely challenging and thought-provoking. He talked about the story of Saul and David in the Bible. God appointed Saul as king and David was appointed his armor-bearer, married Saul's daughter, ate at the king's table and had favor with Saul's sons. Fast forward to after a battle when people sung, "Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands." Saul became bitter and turned on David, his son-in-law. For 14 years, (David was ages 16-30), Saul and his army of 3000 men pursued David in the wilderness. On more than one occasion, David had the opportunity to kill Saul but chose not to. When Abishai was about to kill Saul, who was in a deep sleep, David said, "Don't destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?" David was very aware of the fact that it is God who appoints leaders and he trusted God to remove Saul in His timing. Saul was a terrible leader who even had 85 of the Lord's priests killed. David had every opportunity to be angry, bitter and full of revenge but he held no offense in his heart toward Saul. Amazing! When Saul died, he even wrote a love song (a psalm) about Saul and taught it to the people. Now I think of today's current leaders. How do I react to the decisions they make? Am I quick to point fingers all over social media or in the quiet places of my heart that people don't see? Is my first reaction to judge them or to run to the Lord and pray? Have I ever sat in the seat of the prime minister or the president, having to make decisions that will affect an entire nation while millions of people watch and wait to pounce on me for every thing they don't agree with? No. I am guilty of judging instead of praying and of harboring offense instead of forgiving. Do I forgive their mistakes as the Lord has forgiven all of mine? Good leaders nurture and bad leaders refine. My character will either grow stronger or bitter. Those are my options. So my challenge for all of us and especially me is to extend grace and to pray. To trust that God is moving even when I don't see it and to pray. To forgive and to pray. To continually place our leaders in God's hands. I don't want my heart to be clouded with judgments. Lord, help me to honor and respect those in authority and to trust that you are in control.

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!