Branson: SDC

Well, again, thanks to the lack of digital camera, my pictures from SDC aren't great, which is really said because it is absolutely beautiful with all of the lights. But with some pretty intense editing to the pictures, I got a couple to come out alright. We hit the city in the afternoon, and headed right for lunch- cheeseburger soup (the best) and chicken fingers! :) We also rode Powder Keg and, since it was just the two of us, we rode in the front car-WOW is it different then! Powder Keg doesn't have anything coming over your shoulders, just a lap bar. And if you're in the front seat, the front of the car only comes up to about your knees. So when it goes 0 to 60 really fast, you feel like you're just free falling, flying through the air attached to nothing, and there's nothing to grab onto! It was awesome! :)

Once it got dark it was time to enjoy the tree lighting, which is done to music and is really amazing. I hate that I didn't get any good pictures of it, that just means you'll have to go and see it yourself someday! It is too good to miss! After the tree lighting we rode the train, because it is too good to miss during Christmas. Instead of having the train robbers like normal, it's a "Sing Along Train" and it is all lit up, each car outlined in a different color. Then when you get to the robbers' shack, it's "Grandpa" instead, and he tells the Christmas story. As he does, the different characters (Mary & Joseph, wise men, etc) light up behind him. It's amazing. I think that's my favorite part of going to SDC during the Christmas festival, because they don't mince any words- it's not Happy Holidays or anything politically correct. There it is Christmas, and Christmas is about Christ's birth, and they want to make sure you know that. It's just amazing to me that a theme park has the guts to take that kind of stand in such a politically-correct, profit-driven age.

On a lighter note, the other best part about it being Christmas is an entire building filled with nothing but Christmas trees and ornaments!! :) So we spent some quality time there (I know, I know, I need a 12-step program). But, really, we only bought 4 ornaments for ourselves. And we got one free (for attending 6 of the 7 SDC festivals, we need help). All in all, it was fantastic trip, and a great way to relax after the stress of parent/teacher conferences and before the stress of Thanksgiving! 

Branson: The Landing

Ok, so it's been weeks since our annual post-parent/teacher conferences trip to Branson... but I haven't posted mostly because I am an airhead! The first major thing to happen in our trip is I realized that I packed the camera in the suitcase when we left Columbia, and neglected to get it out of the suitcase when we left Springfield. So all of the pictures were taken with a disposable camera we bought at Bass Pro when we got to the landing. Which would account for the fabulous quality of said pictures... or not! I forgot how annoying it is to pay to develop pictures, get them back, and have about 3 of 27 pictures be usable! But that was about the only not-so-good thing to happen on our trip, so I guess you'd call it a success! :)

We started off Saturday morning by having breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa (breakfast casserole, yum!) then we headed to Branson. First stop was The Landing. Josh and I had been there briefly, but this time we were there for hours. And we had a great time! Our first find was a candy shop that had this huge model train going around this elevated track. It was very cool! And the shop had some awesome candy! So we picked some out, and wandered around the rest of The Landing munching on it! We got chocolate covered Oreos, chocolate covered coffee beans, chocolate covered toffe (are you sensing a pattern here?) and lots more! So that gave us strength to continue the arduous work of Christmas shopping!

We had a blast! The Landing has tons of cool stores (Discovery Channel, Disney) to play in. So we definitely found some cool gifts, which I would tell you about, but then I'd have to kill you... :) I will say that we cleaned up at the Discovery store, and that was mostly due to Josh's outstanding gift ideas! On top of all of the neat stores, The Landing was also beautifully decorated for Christmas; the pictures just don't do it justice (thank you very much disposable camera). There was a huge tree (and yes, that's my husband in front of it) and little trees and decorations everywhere. The cool thing is that they still had the fountains running, too, so we tried to take a picture of ourselves in front of the fountain (those take it of yourself pictures are always so flattering). The other picture is obviously us in a trick mirror... thus Josh looks 18 feet tall with a head the size of a golf ball.

Anyway, we had a great time, and a very successful time, shopping-wise! We have definitely added a new stop to our Christmas shopping trip!

Quick Note

For those of you beginning to wonder if I'm still alive... rest assured that I am! I have lots of blogging to catch up on, I know! But it has been a busy weekend, and this week will be even busier! Hopefully I will have some time to blog on my only night off this week (Thursday), but I may also just collapse in a heap on the couch and be incapable of doing anything but watching Smallville and ER! So you'll just have to check back to see! Meanwhile... for fellow Bachelor fans... what did you think? Did he choose wisely?

Heeee's A Helper!

Truman decided he would help Josh and I make the bed the other night. Trouble is, he wasn't much help. He mostly just got underneath each layer and attacked anything (including sheets) that moved. The result: Josh did most of the bed making while I took pictures! But at least the pictures came out cute... :)

Let the Good Times Roll...

Well, it rarely happens, but this weekend was actually our second weekend with no youth events and nothing to do! So, to celebrate, we invited some friends out to dinner Saturday night, and actually got to spend an evening out with another couple! This never happens... we so rarely have weekends off together that, when we do, we guard the time and really become hermits. But this week was our second weekend off, so we weren't feeling like being hermits. So we got to go out to dinner with Jeff and Diane, and we had a great time! We went to Jazz (in case you hadn't already guessed) and really enjoyed ourselves. The only problem was when the band started playing, we were only seated about 10 feet from them, so it sounded like they were sitting on our table playing. Which made conversation a little more difficult. And gave us lots of chances for those times when it's really loud so you're yelling, then all of a sudden it gets quiet and you're still yelling, so everyone in the restaraunt has now heard your Christmas plans or your latest dog issues or whatever it was you were talking about! See 10 Things I Hate About You, the "scary" guy pulls a nice move with one of those at a concert! :) Anyway, we had a great time, and really enjoyed hanging out with another couple!
This week is conferences, which is always a bit stressful... but I'm surviving by focusing on this weekend, which is going to be all about me and Josh and Christmas shopping and Christmas at SDC and I am so excited! So, for all of the fam, if you have Christmas present requests (or ideas for anyone else), get them in now! :)

Election Day

Wow... I went and voted early yesterday morning on my way to work, and everything went the opposite way from what I voted. I voted for Talent, McCaskill won... I voted against the stem cell amendment, it passed. Those were the big ones, but there were others... I voted against the minimum wage hike, and it passed (bye-bye dollar menu). I know it probably seems heartless of me to vote against the minimum wage, but I don't think people realize the imact it will have on the businesses around Columbia. Plus, I don't like the automatic increase every year. The legislators snuck one in on us, though... in all the uproar about the bigger issues, the one about the pension thing slipped under the radar, and sounded really great on the ballot. But hidden in the wording (which has now become law) is a clause that says it now takes a 2/3 majority to vote DOWN a pay raise for legislators. Whoops... didn't read that part on the ballot! Anyway, so I am a little frustrated this morning, and a little nervous about where our country (and state) will be heading for the next 6 years. I guess there have probably been times like this before, and the balance is usually restored. That stem cell thing, though, that's really unfortunate...

Too Cute!

"Barkeep... I'll have a milk, straight up."

P.S. NOTHING interesting has happened in my life in the last week... thus the lack of blogging!