Most Awesome Vacation Ever- Friday

First thing in the morning Kenny and I went to the Time share presentation. It was basically described as the  Costco to the travel industry… travel at cost well plus the $9000 'membership fee' We declined to purchase. 

We stopped at Wal-mart, because I was still fighting a headache and just not feeling good. When we pulled out onto the strip (highway 76) to head back to the hotel Kenny accidentally cut off someone… a cop, and we got pulled over. The guy was super nice and let Kenny off with a warning…

We picked up my brother and Little Kenny, checked out of our hotel and headed off to the Adventure Ducks! The "DUKWS" are land and water capable vehicles that were made back in 1942 with a military purpose. 

They handed out the most fabulous 'quacker' noisemakers which we had way to much fun with!

Kenny and Me

About to leave land and enter the water:

About to leave the water:

Another Duck!

Our tour guide had a fabulous personality and made the tour super duper fun. I really enjoyed it and later when we talked about the trip all the guys said it was one of their favorite things we did too.

After the ducks we visited the Veteran’s Memorial museum. It was all fascinating, but this statue that took up an entire room was my most favorite. The retail was amazing. There was one soldier from each state depicted in the statue. 

Little Kenny in front of the museum 

Next we used some of our 'free passes' earned from attending the time share presentation to tour the Castle of Choas... tickets were normally $15 each.... I am VERY glad we didn't spend real money on that! It was an interesting 4D experience, but just not worth all the money.

Since the local scrapbook store was right near the Castle of Coas, the boys were nice enough to let me shop for awhile while they entertained themselves on the kids quarter rids....

As our last adventure in Branson before we left Branson we visited Inspiration Tower. It is 250 feet high and the zip ride extends over 1/2 mile! Its really more of a ride than zip lining, but was VERY fun. I would do it again if it wasn't so expensive! 

The Tower 

A view from the top of the tower

Little Kenny all ready to go! 

A View from the bottom 

We also got a tour of Shepard of the Hills area, I wish we had more time to see the live play they put on there! The stories are very interesting and I will be ordering the Shepard of the hills book when I get home!

Being that Lambert’s Café was on the way between Branson and St Louis we had to take Brian and Little Kenny to the world famous home of the thrown rolls. The place was packed, but we only had to wait about 30 before we got a table (not too bad). When we walked into the restaurant it smelled just like Barb’s house when she has us over for dinner… delicious!

We had a super fun server and got to celebrate Little Kenny's birthday! Our server brought a giant cup back and pretended to spill it on Brian and Little Kenny (the cup was empty) which totally cracked us all up : ) The guys weren't as impressed with the food as Kenny and I were, but we still had a nice dinner and had fun catching rolls!

Brian pretending to catch a roll for me 

Kenny, Brian and Little Kenny showing off their huge meals 

Little Kenny with his birthday balloons 

Since fireworks are legal in Missouri, we of course had to stop at the Fireworks Super Store. Little Kenny stayed in the car, but Kenny, Brian and I were like kids in a candy/toy store! Brian and I were having so much picking through the individual cheap fireworks and Kenny… well he was having fun picking out all the things we can’t get in AZ. We ended up wasting way too much money on the fireworks and walking away with two bags of stuff!

Little Kenny sleeping in the back seat

The trouble with buying two sacks of fireworks is finding a place to set them off! Since we bought so many it was going to take quite awhile to set them all off. We looked for a clearing for about an hour and then we resorted to setting some off in the road…Defiantly not the smartest thing we have ever done, but it sure was a barrel of fun. Taking turns lighting the fuses and running towards safely was probably the most hilarious thing I have seen/done in awhile. While we set off the first couple we heard cows mooing in the background which only added to our uncontrollable laughter. We moved up the road a couple miles and set off one of the flower ones I chose and then a seemingly endless firecracker called a bunker bomber that Brian choose.

We continued on our 4 hour drive back to St. Louis (which we turned into at least a 6 hours because of all of our stopping and searching for places. We finally decided to go to a place Little Kenny knew of close to his house. We ended finishing off quite a show at the park. We were all pretty nervous and ended up having my fearless brother set off most of the fireworks. He commented later that we were all laughing during our warnings to him saying things like, ‘You are so stupid back up… now go light the next one’ Another night VERY full of laughter, fun and excitement.