Most Awesome Vacation Ever- Saturday

We got to sleep in a little bit on Saturday morning and then we piled in the SUV and drove to Illinois. Our first stop was Auburn, IL where Kenny’s dad and Susie lived for several years and Kenny spent many of his summers. We visited his dad’s Dairy Queen and had some ice cream. Then we drove around and explored a little. We even got to stop at a yardsale (I didn’t even buy anything!).

Ron and Susie's House just a block from their Dairy Queen 

A pond we found behind the school 

We had a little time before our lunch plans with Jerry, Kathy, Jerry Jr. and Brett so we spent some time at good old White Oaks Mall. Kenny spend many hours at that mall with his dad , clothes shopping for back to school or going to the movies.

Lunch with the Kuhns was really nice, but not long enough,(next time we will need to spend more time in Springfiled). The Kuhns got to know Little Kenny and Brian a little bit and the rest of us got to catch up. Brian said Jerry and Kathy reminded him of our grandparents (which is a huge compliment since we had the best grandparents ever). Little Kenny also commented how neat they were and enjoyed the couple hours we spent with them.

Me and Jerry Sr. 

Brett, Kenny and Jerry Jr

Kathy, Brett, Kenny, Jerry Jr., Me and Jerry Sr.

All of us 

Next we made the drive to Peoria to visit Ron’s gravesite. We drove right into a rainstorm that really cooled things down!

The cemetery where Ron is buried is just beautiful. We visited and explored awhile.

We also drove by Kenny's grandparents (Ron's parents) house:

We finally made it to Oquaka, IL that evening. We walked down to the Mississippi River and played a little with Jennifer and her kiddos:

Kenny Jr

Jaylen, Little Kenny and Jaydon 

We walked up to the store later to get a few things... I thought it was hilarious how Kenny bought whatever Jaylen and Jaydon wanted!! He always teases me for doing that with Little Brian and Jacob all the time.

He ended up buying them some foam swords that Susie had said recently said no too... isn't that perfect for an Uncle to do?

Jaylen, Brian, Jaydon and Little Kenny

Oh and we bought bunches of scratcher tickets to play with... a tradition we have with Susie. We lost...

Little Kenny, Brian, Kenny, Jaydon, Susie and Jaylen

Susie and Kenny 

Jaydon and Kenny playing video games... this is totally normal right? 

Me

Auburn  1 hour 41 mins, (DQ), Springfield  30 mins- lunch with Kuhn’s, Peoria 1 ½ hours, visit Ron’s grave, Oquaka 1 ½ hours  

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. 

Most Awesome Vacation Ever - Thursday

 Thursday morning we drove from St. Louis to Branson. Although we were all running low on energy we had so much fun talking, laughing and joking the entire way there. Brian and Kenny were super excited about the rental car and had tons of fun driving it and figuring out all the features.

Although, we had a tentative plan for the trip and lists of things we wanted to do we hadn't really pinned down the details. The car ride was a  great time to try to figure out those details.... for being the only woman in the car I have to say I was with the MOST indecisive bunch of people ever! We finally figured out everything we wanted to do... sleeping wasn't included on the list at all.... lol

We ended up stopping at an 'information' building and Kenny and I got roped into doing a time share presentation the next day... small price to pay for getting such a great deal on all the activities we wanted to go while we were in town (and then some!)

Our first adventure was the Ball Knockers.... not to be confused with the ever popular baldknobbers also located in Branson. Basically its a giant human size inflatable hamster ball!

The hill wasn't very steep, but enough to get you rolling pretty well...

Little Kenny waiting his turn 

Kenny and I 

Brian 

We went down in pairs... 

Brian and Little Kenny first : 

Here me and Kenny go: 

Me getting strapped in 

The ride as pretty awesome, head over heels down down down the hill. You really couldn't help but just laugh all the way down... talk about being a kid again. It was a little scary to see Kenny strapped to the other side of the ball, appearing to come at me every time the ball turned. At one point my foot came unstrapped and trying to get it back in the strap just made me laugh even harder uncontrollably...

Unfortunately the ride and pure exhaustion caught up with my cousin Kenny. After our quick lunch at Taco Bell the poor guy was in bad shape. There are only a handful of times I seen the color leave someone's face like that....

We decided to head to the hotel for a little rest before our next excursion. Kenny and I experienced the crazy GPS phenomenon the last time we were in Branson, but neither of us remembered that until we had been chasing our tails for over an hour looking for the darn hotel... It ended up being RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE TACO BELL we ate lunch at! Unbelievable. This whole time we searched (across town) for our hotel, Little Kenny got sicker and sicker.

Doesn't seem like you could miss it right??? 

We finally got to our room, got Little Kenny situated (he didn't even remember that later) and my Kenny decided to take a nap too... Brian and I didn't want/need to rest so we went shopping in the Ozarks.

Again we followed the GPS... seriously I don't know why we didn't just try to find a real map... We crossed the river... again and again... He was driving... I was laughing. I couldn't even tell you what he said that was so funny, but I laughed so hard I literally peed my pants...

We arrived back to the hotel to get the Kennys (and change), but Little Kenny was dead to the world so we had to leave him.... we left a note and told him to call if he woke up. We all felt terrible for leaving him but we only had a limited amount of time in Branson and a lot to do... if he was awake we would have stayed and kept him company.

We had a reservation (made earlier that day!) for Ziplining. The course consisted of 2 miles of lines with a  ¼  mile and ½ mile run. The technique of ziplining was different than Kenny and I had experienced in Colorado and Hawaii.... we had to self break!

I am not a fan on the self breaking AT ALL, but the course was still a lot of fun! 

One of the towers 

This is one of the bridges we had to cross.... Kenny hated these! 

Kenny and Brian all ready to go 

Kenny, me and Brian 

See how calm he looks... its all an act! He hates heights, but still does these crazy things : )

Kenny

Brian 

Me!

The guides were super unprofessional and kept talking about how it was their first week.... not sure if they were joking or what, but it didn't make me feel safe at all. They made a lot of 'safety' mistakes and I think this company is just waiting for a major accident...

They let me, actually encouraged me to hit one tree without self breaking... just to see what the difference was like... It hurt and knocked the wind out of me. The 'catcher' guide didn't appreciate it much either.

We all really enjoyed zipping, but the weather was crazy! This was my first real taste of humidity.... it wasn't like it was all that hot out, but I just felt stick, hot and gross!

We got back to the hotel to find Little Kenny STILL SLEEPING! He must have really needed it... but we decided he wasn't going to miss any more of our vacation so Brian woke him up :

We did a little shopping at Dixie Outfitters. They had some really funny tshirts. Here are some of my favorites:

We decided to do a Haunted walking tour that night.... Not sure what we were all expecting, but what we got was a bunch of ghost stories and orbs... we were told to take pictures of different areas and look for orbs... speaks of dust to me.... the history was interesting (if it was real), but we decided to cut out early.

First theater in Branson

cool mural on the side of a building 

After the tour we went to Steak and Shake for a late dinner to end our 2nd day of vacation. Although, things didn't go exactly as we had planned overall it was a good day.