Home again, home again...

We're back!!!! Ahhhh......it sure is nice to be home again. Don't get me wrong - I was very sad about leaving and it's no fun unpacking, etc. But it's nice to sleep in our own beds. The picture above was our saloon-type photo taken in Branson. Brooke did a great job suprisingly! I think it was the dressing up part that she most enjoyed. She loved her little hat!

These are from our day at Celebration City. That's a theme park there in Branson that has got loads of stuff to do, from roller coasters, to shows to a kiddie park and more! We got to see a Veggie Tales show and a sea lion show. Can you guess which one Brooke liked more???

Then we got up early one morning and went to downtown Branson and rode this train through the Ozarks. It is a train from the 1940's, complete with lounging cars, dining cars, dome cars and more. It was about an hour and 45 minute ride but since you could move between cars, it wasn't too confining and we got to see some magnificent scenery! I won't bore ya'll with pics of the mountains,but it was really pretty! After we got through with the train ride, we did a lot of shopping in downtown Branson and went to all of the THREE outlet malls. Talk about being burnt out on shopping! But it was a lot of fun...

They have many 'family fun parks' on the strip in Branson and we hit a couple. These parks are free to get in to and you only have to pay for what you ride. Brooke had a ball in the bumper boats. We switched off riding with her and she thought it was hysterical when we would bump each other and get splashed. And I can't blame her, I had a pretty good time too!

Here's from our stay at Brad's friend Terry's house. Brooke loved playing with his kitty-cats. Though I am not really sure she got much real 'playing' in. Mainly it was just following them around and always asking, "Where'd the kitty cat go?" But she really liked going to Terry's house. She talked about it for 3 days before we left Bryan and then when we were leaving Branson telling her we were going back to his house, she was so excited! Thanks again Terry for letting us stay a couple nights!

I just had to nab this picture of what Brad would call "Grumpy Greta"...no offense to anyone named Greta out there. But this is how Brooke looks the majority of the time in the car. And trust me, it's not just when we are travelling 7 hours in the car, though that doesn't help things. It's even on short drives across town to Target. She is not a good 'car person'.

So, at our hotel, they had free everything! Free kayaks, free paddleboats, free bicycles and free fishing poles. So we decided to let Brooke take a stab at fishing for the first time in her life. We thought it would be more of a photo opportunity than anything, but little did we know she is apparently a natural. While Brad was baiting the hook, she found some fish food off to the side on the pier. So she was throwing the fish food into the water, then went and picked up her pole once Brad got it ready. Sure enough, she caught a fish within 2 minutes! And then another one...and another one....and another one.... Funny part of the story - once she caught the fish, she thought that they still needed to eat. So before she let Brad throw them back into the water, she ran over, got some more fish food, and hand-fed the fish she just caught. And the fish was very much happy. Now, how much sweeter can you get?

On our way home, we found a place in Glen Rose, Tx called Fossil Rim Wildife Ranch. We had been to one outside of San Antonio before and I cannot begin to explain how much fun this kid has feeding these animals. To see her eyes light up when she 'sees someping' is so heartwarming. Anyway, so when we found this place, we knew we had to stop by. And sure enough, once again she had the time of her life! It was a really neat place and I highly recommend it. You get one bag of food to drive up the 'mountain' seeing and feeding the animals. Then when you get to the top they have a great restraunt (it was suprisingly good food), gift shop, and petting zoo. Then when you are ready, you can travel back down the other side seeing and feeding more of the animals. The best part in my opinion was feeding the giraffes through the sunroof! That was great!

So, all in all we had a great time on our vacation. Sad to go, but happy to be back home and getting back into the swing of things. We are excited to get our little Bailey back. We missed him so much on our trip and he is coming home today! Sorry if this post is a little picture heavy, but it was a long and great vacation!