Branson Vacation

We spent one week in July with my parents, my 3 siblings, their spouses, their kids, one cousin of my sister-in-law, and one sister's mother-in-law, for a total of 20 PEOPLE!
Yes, we went on a 20-person family vacation to Branson, MO!

There were high points: taking the kids on "Ride the Ducks," and roller coasters at Silver Dollar City.  There were low points: scrubbing barf stains out of the van carpet, passing what we thought was carsickness onto the cousins (guess it wasn't...sorry).

C was a good rider (translation: non-puker)

What was the most fun, though, was hanging out with my siblings (who live in TX and MO) and watching my kids have fun playing with their cousins.  One morning I woke up to hear one niece directing the other niece in what can only be a "Frozen" re-creation : "You are Chris, and I am Elsa (or the other one?) and you skate across the ice, like this..."  My boys didn't really get into Frozen, though: they were too busy building stuff with the landscaping rocks found under the rental house's deck.

One of the hotter than blazes days down there, we rented a pontoon for 4 hours and took a bunch tubing!

S and E, Michigan-turned-TX nephews

relaxing on the bow

Captain Hubs and his first mate, C

My two crazy sisters took the first spin!!

My sister in law, R, was our photographer, so she got most of the good shots after the tubing event, and I didn't take my camera into the amusement park, so most of the rest of my pics are from our two go-carting outings.  Big and small kids had a fun time doing them, and the rest of the week was very comfortable weather - an added bonus.

Oh, we went to Moonshine Beach, too, which was fun!  Here's niece L and C playing together in the sand.

 My 3 nieces, one nephew, and M on a ride at kiddie land at the go-carts.  L (second from L) made scaredy faces on every ride she took that week, but afterward, she wanted to go again!

 A few more pics of the go karts: Sister in law R takes N for a spin, above.  The littles all got to drive their own karts on the kids course.  This was their favorite of all!

 Above, M and I on the "woody" track, and below, Hubs rides the baby teacups with C because he can't go alone!

 There was only ONE ride C could go alone on: the baby ferris wheel.  L is with him in the cage.

 I guess I took a lot of pics of C on his rides because they were slow enough to focus?  Here's my dad feeding quarters into the Jeep ride.

 My sister P organized a pinata for the kids and here's M taking a whack.  I also thought it was a good shot of the landscaping rocks they loved so much.  Below, me and two of my boys on the "Ride the Ducks." DUKW's are retired amphibious military vehicles which were a lot of fun - the took you around town then for a ride in the lake!  It was very windy in the back where we were!

We had so much fun hanging out with everyone!  We love you all!