Branson Vacation Day 2

Tuesday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed to the pool again. Did I mention that swimming was the most looked forward to activity of the Babione children?

Well, it was.

After spending our morning swimming we ate some pizza for lunch. The kiddos ate on the balcony. Then everyone took showers and got all gussied up because we were scheduled to have family pictures taken that afternoon. However, a thunderstorm rolled in so our pictures got rescheduled. We had to find something to fill our time. So the girls took pictures of themselves.

Surprise, surprise.(This is only one of MANY, but I don't want to bore you with tons of silly pictures of us. And, yes, we are standing in front of the bathroom mirror and I'm holding the camera out to the side and hoping for the best.)

Then AJ swiped my camera and had some fun herself.

Silly girl. But don't her nails look fabulous?

Then we watched some t.v. with Dad, but that wasn't really holding our attention so we decided to take some more pictures.

Imagine that. Yes, those are my toes and AJ's toes. Seriously, there are only so many pictures you can take of your smiling mug. And as a side note, I used to be terribly self conscious about my toes. I wouldn't wear open-toed sandals for anything. My uncle made fun of how long they were once and I was convinced that everyone thought my toes were ridiculous.

However, I'm over that now. As proven by my ability to post a picture of my toes on the WORLD WIDE WEB.

WORLD WIDE, people.

Anywho. We grew tired of that so I started taking pictures of other people. Starting with my Dad. And that's what he thought of me taking his picture. I love you, too, Dad. Then I bothered Husband in our room which had a sleeper sofa (along with a kind sized bed and small kitchenette ) and it's own t.v. And, believe it or not, all the other pictures I took of us two were actually worse than this one.

Yes, it's possible. Even with my fancy camera.

The two little ones were hanging out on the balcony with KK watching the clouds. My lands this one is cute. There was a balcony off the living room and off our bedroom. There was a divider between the two that you could fit around if you squeezed. The kids loved going back and forth. Apparently, I said something hilarious. I'm sure it was me who said it and not someone else because everyone tells me I'm the funny one in the family.

Everyone. Even in Branson we pull out the 'Go Pokes!' It really is universal! My beautiful mother. I love you, mom!

When it was time, we headed to Fudrucker's for dinner. And I bet you can never guess what we did while we waited for our food.

Can't guess?

I knew you wouldn't figure it out.

We took more pictures, of course!!!

See, I knew you would know it once I told you. But then a terrible thing happened. My sister, KK, (the blonde one above) stole my camera and started snapping away.

It is one thing to have to see your face when you are sitting up straight, sucking in, have brushed down your hair, and are smiling pretty. But did she allow me to do all those things?

No! Of course not. Because she is mean and hateful and doesn't love me. And this is what I see when I download my pictures from my camera. Heaven's people!!! Is this what I really look like?

Bless my husband's heart!

And anyone else who has to sit through one of my stories! Oh dear...

It's the ugly laugh.

I'm so very sorry, world. Really, I am!

OK, I've come up with a solution...whenever I am so inclined to tell a story I will forewarn everyone and therefore you all can either close your eyes or look away.

Whew. Problem solved. Now see, this is what I'm talking about. Hair in place, sucking gut in, sticking lower jaw out just enough to not be noticeable, but enough to lessen double chin and smiling.

I should have my facial muscles glued in this position. As we were leaving I snapped this pic of KK. Unfortunately, even when she looks goofy she's cute so I will never ever be able to get her back. Argh. And Husband wants everyone to know that he is reserved for to go orders.

I have no idea what that means.

After Fudrucker's we headed to the outlet mall. Every year my dad buys my mom some new running shoes.

And while they were in the Reebok store Husband, Princess, and Popeye and I went looking for some sunglasses. And we found some.

Then we were off to the main attraction of the night. The Haygood's Show. Husband was very excited. Mom counted the tickets. (She's a math teacher. It's what they do.)

And I kept snapping away. Popeye decided to sit on my lap for most of the show. After the show, we purchased the DVD of the show and waited for the Haygoods to come out to the lobby to sign the case. The two biggest brothers didn't sign autographs in the line, but the other six did. Princess didn't want to shake any hands, but she was happy. It was another wonderful day of vacation.

This last picture is of our lodge sign when we got home from the show. Not really necessary, but I thought it was cool. Bridget

Branson Vacation Day 1

As I mentioned in my last post, we went on vacation to Branson, MO with my parents and my sisters. This is the third year in a row we have done this. It is quite the treat!!! We arrived in Chicken Town Sunday evening and spent the night. Then Monday morning we all got around and headed to Branson. Luckily, it's only a 6 hour drive.

When we got there we inspected our condo. It was fabulous, as was the view from the balcony...

...but unfortunately housekeeping hadn't made it by yet. So we decided to go for a walk while they cleaned.

When you're moving in a group of 9, things happen a bit more slowly than usual. So we waited for our whole crew to assemble.

And off we went! We decided to head down to the club house and check out the pools. Seeing as how swimming was the single most looked forward to activity of the Babione children. I guess I should tell you that we stayed at Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake. It is absolutely gorgeous. They have a Lazy River. The kids were ready to jump in with their clothes on! We waited for Grandpa to take care of some things. And Aunt AJ helped keep little ones entertained. Then she gave Popeye a piggy back ride on our way back to the condo. So Daddy gave Princess one. We literally went back, put on our swimsuits and headed right back to the club house again. I didn't take my camera to the pool once, though. So no swimming pics. =( We spent the evening swimming while TamTam and Grandpa went to the grocery store. They came home with lots of good things to eat, including hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. Grandpa cooked them on the grill. (Big Cedar has outdoor grills for guests to use)

Then we went to bed happy. It was a wonderful first day of our vacation!

Bridget

Slap a Buffalo

Last Weekend, after our garage sale, we headed to Chicken Town because we were going on vacation to Branson, MO with my parents. Between A-Town and Chicken Town is a Wildlife Refuge. When we aren't under a time crunch we like to drive through it because it is very beautiful and you just might see some wildlife. Imagine that.

About half way through we spotted this guy all by his lonesome. He was very friendly and didn't mind at all that I was taking his picture.

This photo gives you a better idea of how far he was from us. I would estimate about 20 feet or so.

As we drove on we came upon a herd. Now, this wasn't our first time to make friends with a herd of buffalo. And since we know their friends I figured they wouldn't mind us taking their picture either.

And, of course, they didn't. But while I was snapping pictures of friends of our friends, Husband started yelling at me.

I didn't like it.

So to shut him up I looked at what he was freaking out about and, lo and behold...

...I started freaking out to.

Yes, people, that's a buffalo headed straight for that suv.

Now, the people in the suv aren't stupid. They've started inching their way forward out of the path of the buffalo.

And then it all started to become clear. The buffalo has no desire to lick the people in the suv. (cause, you know, buffalos LOVE licking people in suvs.)

He just needed some help...

...from the speed limit sign...

...to reach that spot...

...right behind his shoulder...

...that wouldn't stop itching.

Ahhhh. That's the spot.

But now his friends in the suv are leaving.

Sad.

And he didn't even get to lick them. =(

When we told our friend, Tobias, about being super duper ridiculously close to a buffalo, he said...

Hehe. Should've slapped him.

Right.

Because that's what everyone does when they get close to a huge, wild animal.

SLAP!

Bridget

Garage Sale and a Business Lesson

We had a garage sale a week ago. My friend, Quotesy, and I decided to teach our children a little business lesson while we were at it.

All of our children come to us every now and then with money-making ideas. The problem with their ideas is that they always involve some sort of up front costs. And the problem with that is that our children are clueless about this and think that things just drop out of the sky.

So we, in our parenting wisdom, offered to let our children have a drink stand at said garage sale. They, of course, agreed immediately.

We then told them that they would have to purchase all needed items, including ice and posterboard, themselves. They, still, agreed immediately.

Each child ended up contributing a little over six dollars. Luckily, they made enough for each child to recoup six dollars. We were not at all worried about this. The lesson we wanted to teach wasn't how to make lots of money. We wanted our children to start to understand that it's not easy to make money. Many times we put in alot of effort and receive little in return.

And that's ok.

They also learned about buying something and selling it for a profit, advertising, working harder when things aren't going smoothly (they actually took the drinks door to door after the garage sale) and how hard Dad must work to provide for us.

We were pleased with their effort.

And their willingness to learn.


Bridget