no holiday for homeschool hostages

Well, well, wouldn't you know that after all of my frustration last week, God had a nice treat at the end of the weekly tunnel. The kids were PERFECT on the way to Branson. Oh, yes. We did not hear a whimper or bickering from anyone. Even the baby was happy or sleeping the entire way.

We started off with the Outlet stores. I love Carters clothing, and they have some fabulous clothes. I didn't buy anything this time, but I got some good ideas! Then we went to the Imax theater. My Dad treated us to a movie, to kill time before we could check into the hotel. We had planned to do the Branson Landing, but it was just too chilly!

Soooo, we went into Spiderwick Chronicles with the kids. I'd say it was very entertaining (for adults). Very neat movie as far as special effects and imagination and storyline! Christianity Today says it's "Much more fantastical and far more handsome than the trailers reveal, The Spiderwick Chronicles is a thrilling adventure for children of all ages." It is awesome, but not appropriate for all ages. And, just so you know, it's another kids movie with a broken family. Do they make any more movies with a happily married couple and children? Must the dad or mom always be running off or dead? And the main character said several things that should have just been left out of the movie.
Still, I enjoyed most of it and I greatly appreciate my Dad treating us to it. The kids were great in there as well!! Wow. I felt my "competent mom" feeling returning a little bit... ;-)



Okay, so on to the Grand Country Inn waterpark hotel place. The kids LOVED that. The few pictures that I got just don't do it justice!! I didn't get pictures of the huge ropes, climbing areas, the big bucket that fills up and dumps all over everyone, water basketball, etc. My kids stayed mainly int he kiddy section, with spouting water and mini slides. They're chicken. And I like it that way. Of course Fred id all the "big kid stuff!" :-) We went around the lazy river a few times, too. The water was about 84 degrees, which was perfect for me! I've heard others complain that the water gets too cold, but that's just if you're in the big kid section, where it's constantly cycling.

Back at our room, we had a long night in store for us. My parents had an adjoining room, and Isabelle and Ethan stayed in there. In our room, Fred, Oliver, and I slept on the king-size bed, and Trevor slept on the fold-out couch.

We have a baby who is very used to his schedule. We usually put him in his crib and he goes right to sleep. The poor kid wasn't sure what to do with all of us around him. He woke up several times in the night fussing, which woke Trevor up. (sigh) We got *maybe* 4 hours of sleep. But that's okay. Lots of coffee and a hearty breakfast and we were in good shape again! The kids got up before 6am, as usual, so we had some time to kill before we got to the Titanic Museum which opened at 9am.

It was awesome! Unfortunately, they would not let me bring my camera in there, for copyright reasons. Dang!! So I got a few pictures of my folks, Fred and the kids outside of it. Brrr.... Inside was amazing. They give each person a boarding pass, with the name of an actual passenger. Then you keep up with who you are and what happened to you. I was Sarah Roth, one of the third class passengers that survived.

The artifacts were amazing. They had lots of hands-on things, too, like a tub of 28 degree water to stick your hand into, sloping ship decks to climb, a shovel to add coal to the fire (my kids got scared at the roar of the flame), and so forth. I could have spent another hour or two in there, reading everything, but my kids were a bit young yet to take it all in. The poor little homeschool hostages didn't exactly get Presidents Day off. They had to LEARN! Heh heh.


We went and ate lunch and then back to the pool after that. Very warm water and a nice big hot tub. Mmmmm....hot tub.... I could just stay in one forever. I think Heaven must have hot tubs.

On the way home, the kids were perfect once again. In fact, they ALL slept the WHOLE way home. WOW.
And now I am tired and must go to bed. There's my update. I knew I'd have to do it tonight, or it wouldn't happen. And, yes, I realize that I still have not posted Valentine's pictures. Or done a host of other things that need to get done.
(The competent feeling is starting to fade...more on this whole thing later...)
But, hey, it was a FUN, happy good weekend. Very educational, and a nice break from household chores and being stuck inside with four little ones.