Our Trip to Branson

We decided to go to Branson the Sunday before Labor Day and spen a few days letting Ry, Liv and Alec & Jack have a little vacation, while Taylor was gallivanting around Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island with her grandparents (Grandpa Bob & Grandma Darlene). More to come on the Nova Scotia trip later! Anyway, I would post pictures, but seeing that we sent the camera with Tay, we don't have any! And sometimes certain trips are better not remembered later anyway! That would be the case with this one. We lost Alec in Silver Dollar City. Upon finding him at the Ice Cream Shoppe, the kind employee who sat with a hysterically crying Alec, felt so bad for him that she gave each of the kids a HUGE free ice cream cone. Now Ryan is trying to convince Jack that next trip it's his turn to take one for the team and get lost so we can get more free ice cream. Aw, the brotherly love! Did I mention that this was day 1 of our trip! Maybe that should have told me something. Jack was. . .well, Jack the entire time we were gone. So when he accidentally washed his mouth out with Tide, I wasn't feeling all that magnanimous! I forgot the laundry detergent, so Bobby's Aunt had given me some and we had poured it in a glass. Well, the washer/dryer combo was situated right behind the double sink in the master bedroom of the condo. It was hidden behind a set of double doors and I would make sure to put the detergent on the washer and close the door, but I had placed it on the sink top to switch the load. I got distracted by Jack getting into something and then I left for the store, forgetting to move the soap back to the wash machine. Jack comes bee-bopping into the bathroom, thinking that the soap is his Agent Cool Blue mouthwash (hence I said blue. . . it was the same color as the soap!). Well needless to say there was a very mad bubble blowing dynamo until his dad calmed him down and rinsed all that soap out! Dad told him he got 1 free bad word to me since he had already prepaid for it with washing his mouth out with soap on accident! Later in the day Olivia fell of a rock retaining wall. (crocks and wet rocks do NOT go together) She tends to be a little heavy on the "drama" so trying to assess the situation sometimes gets a little frustrating. She scrapped herself up and bruised her ribs pretty good, but thankfully no broken bones. A short time goes by and I am still tending o Olivia, when we here this loud banging. I do a quick head count and guess who's missing? Jack! Well, he had gone back outside with his Uncle Dave who was grilling, but when he came back up to the condo, he went 1 floor to high and was banging on the door upstairs from us. Jack started yelling at Uncle Dave, "My dad locked me out and won't let me in!" Dave is cracking up telling Jack that it's the wrong door and he needs to come downstairs, but my bright child just keeps banging away until his dad picks him up, shoves him in our door and tells me to keep him inside! Less than 10 minutes later, Jack "accidentally" pulls the glass front off the fireplace. It is the kind that has the fake logs and the glass front has two handles on it for cosmetic purposes only. But Jack, thinking it would be like Grandma Barb's, gave a good yank and there it went! Bobby and Ryan were able to fix it, but after that we adults were ready to go home! Talk about needing a vacation from your vacation! So we are now back home and back to a school schedule and all is right with the world!