Branson Day 3

We got up this morning (very early, thanks to Kasey!) and Mark and I decided we would take Kasey on our own so we could each have some time to ourselves.  So Kasey and I started out first, but then somehow, Mark didn’t really end up taking Kasey for the afternoon like we had planned. 

Kasey and I headed out to Branson landing and went to Ride the Ducks.  Mark had done that before and he didn’t really want to go. I really had a good time.  We left the Branson landing and rode to College of the Ozarks, where I went to school the summer of 1984 and Mark graduated in May 1984.  The campus is really pretty.  Here’s a picture of the lake at the college.

Kasey on the boat and Kasey and I at the Captain’s Chair of the boat.  Kasey got a little certificate that he drove the boat.  But he wouldn’t sit in the seat until I sat with him.

 

They offered a picture at the end of the trip, along with a picture of the duck out in the water.  I had to pay $20 for that, but I couldn’t turn it down!  Kasey had a big duck call in his mouth it was really cute.  They gave everyone these duck cluckers that were really annoying, but cute too.

After we got off the duck, we got an Auntie Annie’s Pretzel and Hot Dog.  Kasey dropped the hot dog on the ground and right after I took the picture of him drinking my LARGE soda, he spilled it all over the ground!  

 

Here is Kasey sacked out in the car seat.  He woke up crying, which is how I would wake up if I slept like that too!

We came back to the campground and Mark wanted to go swimming in the pool.  So we did that in the afternoon until about 4:30.  There was a little girl in the pool that was playing with Kasey.  They played after they got out of the pool too, she rode Kasey’s trike around.  The family was really sad that we weren’t staying for the whole week.  They just showed up today from Kansas City.  The little girl said Kasey was her best friend.

After swimming, we decided to go back into Branson.  We rode go carts and rode the bumper cars.  Then had some Andy’s Frozen Custard.  I usually get my favorite, Caramel Pretzel Crunch, but they had Key Lime Pie on the board and that sounded good.  After I got it, I wished I had gotten my favorite instead.  You should always stick with what you like at a place like that! 

 

So that was how I didn’t get my time alone, I went swimming, when I could have stayed in the cabin and read my book.  Then I went into Branson to ride go carts instead of staying in the cabin.  But I had a good time so that’s all that matters.  Plus I can read on my book on the way home.

We are going to head back home tomorrow sometime.  Vacations make me tired. 

So if anyone is reading this, and you read all the way through, post a comment for me! 

Branson Day 2

It was raining when we got up this morning and rained off and on during the day.  But it didn’t damper our day any.  First we ate breakfast at McDonald’s in Forsyth.  Kasey said they had the biggest play place he had ever seen.  It was a really nice clean McDonald’s.

So then we drove through Branson.  Traffic was pretty bad, slow going most of the way.  Here’s the Titanic Museum.  We didn’t go, but I really like the building.

 

Since it was raining we decided to go to the Butterfly Palace. We weren’t really sure what to expect with it.

We watched a 3D movie first about caterpillars and butterflies.  I wore the 3D glasses the whole time, but Kasey and Mark didn’t.  It looked like the butterflies were flying right out into the audience.

Kasey touched this butterfly, he wasn’t supposed to and I think it went into shock. 

This is inside the butterfly area.  There were a lot of butterflies flying around, but it really wasn’t what I thought it would be. 

 

This was a water feature they had inside the butterfly area, people put money in here, Kasey wanted to get it out.  Can’t say I blame him, there was quite a bit in there.

This was leaving the area going back down into the foyer.  Here’s Kasey running down the ramp.  He’s right by the window running.  I can’t figure out how to draw an arrow to him.

Then we went through the mirror maze.  That was really cool.  They had columns setup and mirrors and the carpet was all the same.  So it was hard to tell when you turned a corner which way you were to go.  If you saw yourself, that was the mirror, of course.  It was a lot of fun. 

 

Can you guess what he did here?  He ran right into a mirror and came out crying.  Wheh! 

  Then we went to eat at Lone Star Steakhouse.  We went to Branson Landing as our last part of the day.  Kasey played in a play area for a while and we watched the fountains. 

We were looking at the Branson map in the car, Kasey would keep asking, “can I see the map”, “can I see the map”, until we finally gave it to him.  He was pretty serious about figuring out where we were at.  I thought this was a cute picture.

Kasey and Daddy played with the ball around the park and we went swimming.  No pictures of that, but the water was pretty cold.  They had a hot tub, Kasey and I would alternate between the hot tub and the pool. Mark stay in the hot tub, the water was too cold for him.

 

I went to a Quilt Store too in Branson, called Quilts and Quilts!   I found 3 more quilt candy fabrics.  I’m making a Christmas Candy Jar quilt with my friend Nita.  We have been collecting Christmas fabric for a while.  I’ll post more on that later.  But I did buy this jelly roll, Frosted Memories.  I really liked it.  Even though it’s Holiday, I thought it was a subtle Christmas fabric.  I put a copy of all the fabrics that  in the line.  I am going to make this pattern with it.  My other quilting friend, Barbara already made this one and my mother-in-law has a quilt like it that her mother made. 

So that is the end of Day 2 of our Branson trip.

Branson Trip

We are on another trip. This time we decided to head to Branson, MO. We rented a cabin in a campground in Forsythe. It’s the Shoal’s Bend Resort.

Here’s our little cabin. It’s got 2 rooms, a room with bunk beds and a queen bed, then a little kitchen area and a connecting bathroom. I’ll take pictures of that later, after I clean it up. It looks like a wreck this morning!

When we first got here, Kasey was climbing all over everything. He was up on the top bunk. As soon as I got the camera out, he was trying to hide. Climbed down the ladder.

Almost didn’t make it, here he’s trying to hold on.

Made it to the bed and now trying to hide. Go away Momma, put that camera up!!!

He thinks he’s hiding. Silly boy!

We don’t know what we are going to do today. Probably head into Branson, look around, ride go carts, play some put-put golf, go to a quilt store! Post more tonight.

Mom and Dad: there is a spot right next to us, you could just pull the RV in there and camp with us.

It’s Snowing! Quilt

I started this quilt last night and got it finished today.  I bought 3 sets of charm packs quite a while ago and found this pattern on the Moda Bake Shop site, so thought it would be a good quilt for these charm packs.  I really like how it turned out.  

Do you think I should put an extra set of borders on this?  I could put the green, the blue or the red around it?  Course I would have to find some more fabric, but I think I can get more just by the quick search I did on the Internet.

 

Addendum to Strawberry Shortcake Cake!!!

Oh my, was that cake ever good!  It is definitely a “do again” recipe.  Mmmm….

Everyone was happy with it at work.  The only problem was that I didn’t get enough of it.

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Tomorrow is my co-worker’s birthday and I decided to make him a cake. It seems that we have some rule at work as to who brings in the birthday cake for the person’s birthday, but no one ever tells me or writes it down, so I tend not to volunteer. Although not because I’m not being a good contributor, it just seems like it works that way. It would be so much easier if they would say, “Kelly brings in the birthday dessert for Joni on March 15th and then Joni brings in Kelly’s birthday cake in December.” But no one does, so we just tend to bring in when we think about it. So on Mike’s birthday, July 7th, he’s the only guy in a department of 9 women and he tends to bring in his own birthday stuff. We’re all happy about that because he buys these wonderful tart things from a bakery somewhere. They are so good.

But this year I decided to make something, I saw Pioneer Woman’s Strawberry Shortcake Cake recipe and had to make it. If you’ve never read her blog, I highly recommend it. Most of the recipes are just wonderful and she always gives step-by-step pictures of the recipe. She’s so entertaining.

I made the cake part last night, but the recipe said to immediately take the cake out of the pan from the oven. That didn’t work well and it fell apart! I was so disappointed. I remade the cake tonight and put parchment paper in the bottom of the pan and it worked PERFECT! I was so happy.

I hope it tastes as good as it looks. When you make an icing with cream cheese, you can’t hardly go wrong!

Travel Back in Time

Mark decided he wanted to travel back in time and see a couple of places he lived when he was a child.  So we headed out first for Miami, OK.  The only thing about Miami was that Mark couldn’t find anywhere that he used to live and nothing looked the same.  The town seemed to be a very sad area.  It just wasn’t like home at all.  The city streets weren’t nearly as nice as ours and everything seemed dirty.  (Hope no one is reading this that lives there.. but, oh, well, sorry about that).

So we spent the night there and headed out the next morning to Chanute, Kansas.  Here’s Mark and Kasey carrying their suitcases to the car.  I thought they were so cute, I had to take this picture.

 

We went through a town on the way to Chanute, called Picher, OK.  It was totally deserted, apparently it’s a toxic waste dump site.  I found this information on the town when I got back.  So very sad.   More here.  We had a town in Missouri that has been closed down, Times Beach – not far from St. Louis, this article is interesting.

Once we got into Chanute, we found a fairly big park centered around a lake.  It was really nice but had no bathrooms?  Can you imagine a city park with no bathrooms?  They may have been over at the ball fields, but we decided to head to Wal-Mart for a bathroom break and buy stuff for a picnic lunch.

We went down this little stairs…

 

 

to head toward the bridge…

 

I loved the rocks here…

As we crossed the bridge and Kasey looked down, he spotted this snake.  He’s got really good vision! 

 

Here’s the Santa Fe Train.  It was really neat.

Kasey liked it.  So did Daddy.

Kasey is holding his arm up and yelling “cho cho daddy!”

These were really big wheels.

This may have been Kasey’s first Merry Go Round.  He liked it.

This was an old waste water treatment plant that Mark and his family lived next to when he was little.  His dad had a mop factory in this building 40 years ago or so. 

This was the little school he went to.

This was one of the streets in Chanute.  I really liked the brick streets, there were a lot of them left in town.

So then we headed home.  Stopped at Fort Scott, Kansas.  This was pretty neat.  Most of the buildings are reconstructed. 

 

Cannons. 

Kasey said, ‘I’m hot, let’s go home!’  I agreed.  It was so nice to get home.  There is really no place like home.