Summer Vacation, Part II

In addition to our fun at Silver Dollar City, we did a lot of other things that were great for the kids in Branson. And, of course, we shopped a little bit and ate a lot.

 

More Silver Dollar City photos:

 

 

 

 

I took the girls for a special date night to see the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid--that was my surprise treat for them! We met my cousin Cody and his family at the show and had a great time visiting with them afterwards. While the girls watched the show, the boys played some mini golf. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of either!

 

We spent a small fortune at The Track letting the kids ride go carts for the first time. We also had a big splash in the bumper boats and lots of giggles in the bumper cars.

 

 

 

 

 

Ironically, after all the activities and all the money spent, the kids' most favorite thing to do is just swim in the pool. We could have skipped everything else and they would have been just as happy! Our condo has a great outdoor pool--that we always had to ourselves--and a huge indoor pool/hot tub combo that we visited late one night. Midnight swimming on vacation is the best!

 

 

 

Summer Vacation, Part I

Last month, the Bramells hit the road for a little family togetherness. We decided to keep it close to home and easy on the wallet this year, so we headed to Branson. Surprisingly, we figured out how to pack a whole lot of fun into just a few days.

 

Knowing that we weren't planning an extravagant vacation this year, we bought the kids season passes to Silver Dollar City earlier in the spring. We spent a day and a half there--the second day we stayed from open to close! I'd say we've already got our money's worth. We figured out that our kids looooove to ride the rides. Luckily, since most schools had just let out, it wasn't very crowded and the lines were short.

 

Big Sis has always been a fan of the Thunderation roller coaster, but this year, prepped herself for her first ride on the big daddy Outlaw Run. And once was enough, but she was a trooper! The twins were finally big enough to ride Thunderation with Dad and they both loved it, too. They are pretty adventurous little turkeys, but they each found a ride or two they didn't like.

 

On our first day in the park, we went on the tour of Marvel Cave. Of all the years going to SDC with my family, I don't think I've ever been in the cave. It was fantastic! And it's free (included in the park price, that is). I totally recommend taking the cave tour if you haven't. It lasted about an hour and held the kids' attention really well. Make sure you wear good, sturdy shoes and take a potty break before starting the tour.

 

Here are a few photos of our fun day at SDC. I have lots more to post when I get caught up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I know that this won't be our last trip to The City this year, so we'll definitely get more use out of those season passes. Stay tuned for more posts about our Bramell Family Fun.

Big Sis Likes Ham #sponsored post

#sponsored post. I am a member of Petit Jean Meats Blue Diamond Club. As part of my membership, I am sometimes given products for review and/or giveaway on this blog. All opinions are mine and are a result of products that I've actually tried. 

Last weekend we tried a couple of new things. We went on our very first trip with another family! We invited Big Sis's BFF and her family to join us for a weekend away at Grand Lake in Oklahoma. With both families combined, we had seven kids: six girls plus Boy Twin! We spent some time in the hot tub, watched golfers out our back door and played at a nearby state park.

When it was time to feed our crew, we split the duties. On Bramell night, I was very fortunate to have a brand new Petit Jean product to share with everyone. We got to try the new Petit Jean Spiral Sliced Honey Ham and it was delicious! When the ham arrived in the mail, I asked Big Sis if she would like to help me plan the menu for our trip. I wanted it to be kid friendly and easy for us to make away from home.

Menu Chosen by Big Sis:

Honey Ham

Mashed Potatoes

Green Beans

Mac & Cheese

Rolls

Crunchy Salad from Trisha's Yearwood's cookbook (my choice!)

Since the ham is fully cooked, I followed the heating instructions on the package. It took about an hour to heat, which was enough time to cook all the side dishes.  Big Sis normally is my big helper in the kitchen, but with so many other kids around to play with, I couldn't keep her in the kitchen this time.

However, she was happy to eat the ham. She gave it two thumbs up!  This 7lb ham was more than enough to feed eleven of us, and I was thrilled to have some leftovers-- plus the ham bone to take home for a yummy pot of beans later in the week.

Here's a photo of our crew at the state park. We enjoyed some sunshine, threw rocks in the lake and explored the Nature Center.  What a great looking group of kiddos!

With the holidays coming up, you can score one of these new Honey Hams or any other Petit Jean product by shopping online at Petit Jean Meats. They will even ship your gift purchase right to the recipient for you!

Disney Memories aka Why Our Kids Hate Us

As we traveled to Grand Lake this summer, dear Lee noticed that we were going to be traveling really close to Disney. In fact, close enough that we could take a slight detour on our way back to Arkansas and spend a little time there.  As we packed up to leave the resort, he started to tease the kids about going to Disney on the way home. Now, if you are a parent, you probably spend approximately 70 hours a week listening to your kids talk about Disney: going to Disney, dreaming about going to Disney and begging to go to Disney. Or is that just my kids? Either way, I knew this would not end well.

Here is our family photo from our (very brief) stop in Disney. You can tell by looking who was amused by this little trick. It is not one that will soon be forgotten, thanks to our souvenir photo!

Family Adventures

I have come to realize something after looking through the files on my camera--I'm really bad at putting everything up on the blog. So, with that said, I now bring you memories of our first trip to Grand Lake in Oklahoma. Since we didn't take a big vacation this summer, we decided to take a few long weekends close to home. Our first trip was Memorial Day weekend; Fergie got to go with us, but we boarded her in Grove. The trip is under two hours for us, so I know we'll be going back.

Grand Lake is definitely a summer tourist place, as it was filled with families with boats, skis and flip flops. We went out to the marina and looked around, attempted to go fishing before the rain blew in, and spent lots of time in the resort's pool.  The resort was very nice and the kids wouldn't have cared if we did nothing but swim in the pool and play in the hot tub. In other words, it was perfect!

We did find the Bernice State Park that was near our resort. There were lots of people camping there, but we found a nice playground and walking trail. The kids threw rocks into the lake and we introduced the little ones to honeysuckle. We went into the park's Nature Center to see fun things like a working bee colony, live box turtles and a few snakes in cages. The kids even got to play some games with the park workers.

This is my favorite photo from the whole weekend! Daddy and his baby girl on the walking trail.

We got a little surprise visitor on our 2nd floor balcony one night--a little frog! 

This is the resort where we stayed; Wyndham Grand Lake. We will be going back for another visit soon!

Grand Lake Vacay

As per my current pattern of blogging, this post is long overdue. I suppose there is a silver lining to my tardiness; the fun of the summer will carry on long after it's over as we relive the memories here.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we made a trip to Oklahoma to use our timeshare condo there for the first time. We were at Grand Lake, which is near the town of Grove. It reminded me a lot of the many trips I took to Heber when I was a kid--mostly a "lake town" with not much else to do.  It was heavenly! We visited the State Park nearby, where we walked a trail, played on the playground and hung out in the nature center. It was nothing fancy and kept us entertained for half a day or so.  Most of the weekend was spent in the swimming pool, because that's really all my kids are interested in. We also took them down to the lake, where they "went fishing" for about five minutes.

At the State Park, where we picked up rocks and introduced the kids to honeysuckle.

Love this sweet daddy-daughter moment!

In his happy place.

Checking out the toad that we found on our balcony.

And finally, to cap off our weekend...we took a little side trip to DISNEY! The kids were obviously less than thrilled when they found out it wasn't that Disney.  Yes, it was a mean trick but it was hilarious and a memory that this family will never forget.  I had no idea that we live only about 1.5 hours from the real Disney! Maybe we can go back next year, too.

The Great Outdoors, Part 2

I'm not real sure why it has taken me a month to finish the posts about our camping trip. This summer has been particularly tough for me to keep up with my normal blogging routine, and I'm not sure why. I suppose just having the kiddos off of our normal routine is part of it, and partly because we've been on the go most weekends (which leads to more fun stuff to blog about/get behind on). 

Anyway, back in June we took the kids on their first camping trip. We loaded up most of everything we own and headed to Lake Fort Smith State Park, where we swam in the awesome pool, rode paddle boats, slept in tents, cooked outside and saw lots and lots of deer. We even took Fergie along with us, which was nice, since we usually have to leave her behind on most trips.

Overall we had a good experience for the first time. I learned a few things about a few things, as well. Let me just tell you what I learned about camping with kids.

1) Camping with kids = walking to the bathroom a lot. Seriously, more than a lot.

2) Camping with kids = taking a lot of toys with you. Kinda feels like moving...

3) Camping with kids = finding creative entertainment to keep them busy.

4) Camping with kids = using a whole box of Band-Aids.

5) Camping with kids = being noisy after the posted "quiet hours."

6) Camping with kids = answering a lot of questions.

7) Camping with kids = setting off the car alarm before 8:00am, which woke the whole campground.

8) Camping with kids = eating a lot. (But that part was kinda fun)

9) Camping with kids = making a lot of great memories and seeing the joy in their eyes!

I took the kids on a morning walk and we saw four deer! This was a baby who, seconds later, crossed the street to get to his mom.

Making their own fun at camp.

Curious about the butterfly.

Cruising the lake on a paddle boat. Or do you say "peddle boat?" I have great childhood memories of my parents renting them for us at Village Creek. Of course my kiddos loved it, but the big people did all the work.

Never a dull moment with Boy Twin around.

We had our first watermelon of the season!

I think someone loved camping. They left a note for the next occupants of our campsite to prove it.

Here's another photo of the fantastic pool area at the park. It got so hot on Saturday that it was the perfect relief for us, even if we had to pay to swim! FYI, at Lake Fort Smith there is no swimming allowed in the lake...so the pool was our only option! But nobody complained.

On Sunday, we barely had our things packed and loaded before a serious rain storm moved in. Whew. We made it back home in no time, where I was oh so happy to take a shower. 

Anniversary Celebration

Hubby and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in March with a little adults-only vacay, and it was fantastic! This was our third trip to Las Vegas together and we decided to rent a car and see some sights that we hadn't seen on previous trips.  

Our first day, we drove out to Lake Mead and into Arizona. Lee managed to find a dirt and gravel trail that led us right down to the water. I would have been very okay with this if we hadn't been driving a rented economy car, when signs were posted that recommended four-wheel drive! Luckily, I didn't get carsick and we were rewarded with a beautiful, secluded view of Lake Mead when we finished the trail. In the past, I had only flown over the mountains and I was so surprised to see how pretty they were, even with no greenery and very little vegetation. The red dirt and mountains provided such a spectacular view and we found it hard to leave.

(click on the photos to make them larger)

After our journey down the trail, we back-tracked over to the Hoover Dam. As we crossed over the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, we noticed that there was a walking lane across the bridge. I couldn't believe that people would do that! Then, about two hours later, I let Lee talk me into doing it myself! Shocking, but I'm so glad that I did it. Look at these photos! We didn't take the Dam tour, but spent a couple of hours just walking around, looking and taking photos.

We spent some time in the casinos, eating good food and window shopping. I even scored half a day by myself at the pool! As usual, our resort did not disappoint. Look how pretty it is! We also visited the Las Vegas Welcome Sign, which we hadn't done before either.

Unfortunately, we didn't strike it rich so we had to return home to the real world. We are so thankful that Grammy was able to come stay with the kiddos so we could enjoy some time away. It's hard to believe that we've been married for ten years...wow, look what can happen in ten years!

I also wrote a guest post on the Arkansas Women Bloggers website about our trip. If you want to see more photos, click here to see the post.