SISTER VACATION HIGHLIGHTS

As much as I DISlike being separated from Scott for any amount of time, I love the reuniting after a long separation-be it 12 hours, 4 days or 3 weeks. It's the best thing ever. He always makes me feel so loved and I love him so, so much! Life really is better when we're together, no matter how much fun we could be having apart.

This is how he welcomed me home since he was at work when I got back from the trip. What a sweetheart.

THE CLIFFS AT BIG CEDAR LOGDE
I had no idea how beautiful this part of the country was. It felt like I was at the top of the mountains again, and everything was sooo green. Here is a little taste of where two of my sisters and I stayed with all 5 of our kids last week on our "sister trip" to Branson, Missouri.

FUNNY TRIP-HIGHLIGHTS

1. Melissa chucking the apple core at the lady at the pool-
I don't know if it has to do with her pregnancy, but we learned one thing for sure: DO NOT let Melissa eat apples in public. For one thing, if she's in the pool eating an apple and is too lazy to walk it to the trash can, she will just try to chuck it over the fence and fail miserably, resulting in a flying chewed-up, slobbery, gnarled apple core flying straight at a random, innocent lady trying to relax peacefully in her lawn chair. I made her go apologize, but the lady had no idea she had just almost been decapitated by an apple core due to those big black shades she had on-- she was super confused when Melissa walked up to her practically drooling while cracking up and bent down to crawl under the lady's lawn chair while trying to apologize for chucking her apple core at her. So funny and awkward.

2. Motorcycle farts- 

The second reason Melissa should not be given apples to eat in public is....well, let's just say among other things, she woke all the babies up with her motorcycle-like noises on the car ride home...which resulted in all the windows needing to be rolled down...several times. Thanks, Mel, for making our trip...interesting. ;).

BEFORE                                                            AFTER
                                                                                                                            (Don't ask me why she's not plugging her nose too).


3. Jumbo s'mores are harmful to children-

We journeyed on.

Closed!
(click for larger view)

Dessert seemed to be VERY hard to come by while we were there. We always had to work REALLY hard to get something sweet, including hiking through the amazon jungle with limo-long double strollers that are very difficult to steer, just to have the only ice cream shop in the city closed until summer and then having to either go to a gas station 20 min. away or the nearest restaurant on site to wait 30 min. and pay high-price just for a little bit of ice cream.

Alas! We found a place w/ ice cream.

Our last night there, we were sticking with our plan to roast s'mores up by one of the pools/hot tubs overlooking the valley. We got back from Branson Landing (shopping area) with all the kids, threw the 3 babies in their pack n' plays, then took Kaely (3) and Cole (5) up with us for their first real s'more-roasting experience. It was pitch black up there, and you couldn't see a thing but the fire and the glowing pool. We probably looked like wild beasts as each of us grabbed our own separate tree and started gnarling it apart to get a measly tree branch to roast with. These trees were really healthy and moist and those branches were not breaking with ease!!! Cole found a nice stick on the ground after 30 seconds and after failing miserable at breaking off 2 branches from my tree, I just used Melissa and Kaely's branch when they were done roasting their 40-POUND MARSHMALLOW!

These mallows that Michelle bought were serious business. The only way to roast them properly was to catch them on fire separately on each side. Otherwise, we would have been there all night waiting for them to even warm up. We were just making fun of how big and fat and chunky they were when Kaely came up to Melissa and with the sweetest, almost-trembling-on-the-verge-of-tears little girl voice said "Mommy, my fingers really hurt from holding this." She seemed really worried and almost started crying when we asked her to hold her jumbo s'more again for a picture. It was like a huge, scary, marshmallow-monster to her. I mean really, what kind of s'more makes your hand hurt from holding it? I cracked up every time I looked at Kaely for the next 1/2 hour. WHAT FATTY McFAT S'MORES!!

Caution: Marshmallows were MUCH larger than they appear 

4. An old lady calling Melissa handicapped-

Gma and Gpa's old house :)

On our way home we stopped in Springfield to see my grandparents old house where they lived before they died; where our second childhood home existed. Since we were passing through Springfield, my mom called and asked us to pick up a specific plant for her at the local Lowe's, which was specific to the area's climate and not sold in KS. We kind of drove in a couple large circles around town before figuring out where the Lowe's was and were a half hour behind schedule (that wouldn't be the last time we drove 30 or 40 minutes out of our way on the drive home...). So, when we found the Lowe's, Melissa didn't want to spend another second finding a parking place, so she pulled up to the yellow striped unloading zone inbetween 2 handicapped parking places. This parking lot was literally crawling with elderly people-it's a Springfield thing.

When Melissa opened her car door, she almost hit one of them. The elderly lady said "Wait! It's a really tight squeeze here. You parked really close to the line!" Then she looked at Melissa in the face and said point blank, "Are you handicapped?" HAHAHAA!! We knew she was asking because she'd parked in a handicapped place, but it more sounded like she was just calling her handicapped. Sooo funny.You could tell everyone was freaking out, everyone passing by. Those HC spaces are golden in that city! She obeys the law and parks in normal parking until she's in the city where handicapped parking is needed the very most!  Don't worry, I moved the car as soon as she ran inside (just one space over to safety too) and the world continued to turn again.

5. Michelle sewing on a sewing machine in the car, on our really cool road trip. What a grandma!! She would totally fit in in Springfield. (Not really a highlight of our trip (that would be sad), but it was funny. :)

MORE PICTURES FROM THE TRIP: