School Pictures

 Here are the kiddos' school pictures!

Sydney- 8th grade

Taylor- 6th grade

Parker- 4th grade

Parker is 10!

My sweet boy is double digits!  As much as I want to keep him little and sweet and snuggly, time disagrees with me. ;)

Parker is sweet, active, smart, a good friend, and an awesome son.  I am very blessed to have him!

Birthday rock:

Opening presents:

I love this pic, bc you can see the tears in his eyes... he was so excited to get this gift!

Birthday dinner:

Can you tell he liked his wings?

Fall Break (Part 2)

 As I said in my last post, we had to leave at 5:30 AM from Branson to make the ~4 hour trip to make it to Stephen's 10 AM meeting!  The sunrise didn't disappoint...

We made it to St. Louis and dropped Stephen off at the customer's office.  The kids and I headed across the Missouri River to a quaint town called St. Charles!  The brick road and buildings were all 200+ years old, and it hosted the cutest little shops and restaurants.  We got to walk around here for a couple of hours before meeting Stephen and some of the work peeps for lunch.

This made me laugh.

After lunch, we checked into our hotel, hit up a mall, got Chipotle to go, and called it a night!

Friday:

Today was SYDNEY DAY!  It was her 14th birthday and we let her decide what she wanted to do today!  

We started our day off in downtown St. Louis.  We first went to see the Arch, which is surprisingly awesome... I didn't realize how massive it was!

We went by the Cardinal's baseball stadium...

We went to get brunch and Sydney got a birthday hot chocolate!

The rain began (it was also 30 degrees colder than it was in Branson!!), so we headed to a cool place called the City Museum.  This was for kids and adults and had all sorts of things to do, including a 10-story slide, tunnels and ladders and things to climb up many stories, and so much more. It was fun!  I definitely felt l needed a shower afterwards, but it was fun! ha!

We went to a place called Union Station, which had a bunch of things to do (aquarium, ferris wheel, etc).  Sydney had wanted to do one of those high rope walk things, and they had a really high one!  It was a lot of fun.

That night, we ate dinner out before heading back to the hotel.  We flew out the next morning back home!

It was SUCH a great trip!  I wish I had a few more days to recoup, but I'm thankful for a fun, safe trip.

Fall Break (Part 1)

We had our fall break in September... technically before fall even began... but that's okay, a week off is a week off, right?

Stephen had a work meeting in St. Louis that week, so we decided to tag along and make it a family trip!  First, we flew into Springfield, MO and drove the 45 minutes to Branson.  I had always heard of Branson and that it's like Pigeon Forge... lots to do for the fam.  Not only did it exceed my expectations, but it blew me away!  It is surrounded by the Ozarks, and is beautiful with so much to do.  Here's our week:

Sunday:

We arrived to Branson and headed to a place called the Branson Landing.  It's a big outdoor shopping area right on Lake Taneycomo (which looks more like a river!).  We hung out there a bit before checking into our condo.

Airport train

Driving to Branson- trees were everywhere!

Lake Taneycomo

Branson Landing

Paula Deen's restaurant

Monday:

Today was a busy day!  First, we went to the Titanic Museum.  Parker has been really interested in the Titanic lately, and we watched the movie a few weeks before.  While he and I were excited to see the museum, I think Sydney, Taylor, and Stephen were putting on smiles out of support for us. ;) The cool thing was, everyone loved it!  It was so interesting, full of facts I had never heard about, pictures of passengers, artifacts that were on the ship, etc.  There were interactive parts (a room set to the temp that the air was that night, water that is the temp of the ocean water that you can put your hand in, etc). We were all given an actual passenger's "ticket" at the beginning, and at the end you got to see if you survived or not.  Very cool!

We all survived!

We then headed to a restaurant that was recommended to us for lunch, called Billy Gail's.  This restaurant was up in the mountains from town.  It was definitely a down-home style restaurant, serving breakfast and lunch stuff.  I ordered a short stack of 2 pancakes, with chocolate chips of course... you have to see what came out...

They were 14 INCHES IN DIAMETER!  Between myself and the fam taking bites, we got through 2/3 of one pancake!  It was insane.

We stopped by a view point and a little hiking trail on the way back into town.  

Next, we went to see an illusionist show!  The show was called Reza, and it was very cool.  Kind of magic show but with lots of crazy props and acts.  Parker actually was called on stage at one point, and he gave him a magic book and a backstage pass for after the show!  We got to go meet Reza and he answered questions, and we got to tour the building to see how things work.  It was a very cool experience!

Then, we went to an indoor putt-putting place.  This was nice, because we brought the southern heat with us... it was 96 degrees every day we were here!  Hmmm... some "Fall" break it was. hehe

Tuesday:

Today, we went to an area called Shepherd of the Hills, and went ziplining!  It was SO much fun. We also did a mountain coaster while we were there.

We went back to the condo for a bit, and Stephen, Taylor, and Parker found a basketball court.

That evening, we went to downtown Branson and hit up some of their cute shops, ice cream shop, etc.  We ended the night at the Branson Landing!

Wednesday:

This was our last full day in Branson, and it was my birthday!!  We had another AWESOME day, doing something different.  We went to a place called "Top of the Rock", where you can rent a golf cart and drive about 3 miles on paths that go through caves, by waterfalls, and all around with views of the Ozarks.

They have a drive-up bar in one of the caves... it was only 9:30 AM, but why not?

Taylor wasn't quite having it this morning.

After the golf cart ride, we went to a restaurant with great views of the Ozark lakes.  Branson is at the beginning of the Ozarks, which snake through Missouri.

We were only 4 miles from the Arkansas border, so we had to drive over, pull off to the side and touch the ground, and then drive back to Missouri. ;) I'm not sure when we'd ever get back to Arkansas!

We then went on a short hike along the lake.  This was the closest we got to the lake, and if we ever go back, I'd love to stay more on the lake!

We went to see the College of the Ozarks.  Fun fact: All students here go to school for free, they just have to hold an on-campus job!

That night, we did go-karts and dinner!

We had to leave at 5:30 AM the next morning to head to St. Louis, so our time in Branson had come to an end.  I have a feeling this won't be the last time we visit!