A Last Minute Vacation!

Every time I am pregnant, we start thinking about what things we should do before the baby comes because after the baby comes, the chaos increases greatly for quite a while. One day not long ago Dan emailed me from work and his message said, hey, do you want to go on a vacation to Branson? I was surprised to say the least. So we checked into it and the Tuesday before Labor Day Weekend we made the decision to go, since I had just started feeling a bit better with the morning sickness and fatigue. We hadn't been anywhere other than to visit family since Catherine was a baby!

We left the Friday of Labor Day Weekend and the drive there wasn't bad except for the torrential rain during a big chunk of it. The kids really did pretty well, for which we were very grateful. The hotel we chose had an indoor pool and the kids were delighted to go swimming.
You can imagine how it is difficult for us to go swimming with so many little ones. Catherine quickly learned how to swim while wearing her life jacket. Anne and Dominic were a lot more hesitant, but Anne finally gained enough confidence after a couple times in the pool that she was soon able to paddle around. Dominic was more scared of the water, but that Joseph was the fearless one. We had to watch him like a hawk, meaning one parent had their eyes on him at all times. He kept wanting out of his floater and then he would jump into the pool, and he didn't want anyone to catch him. He had no problem going under water and holding his breath. I was amazed. And yes, I managed to squeeze into my swimsuit (a mommy kind with a skirt on it) and got wet in the pool. Another couple weeks and it wouldn't have fit. Notice though that there are no pictures of me!

Our hotel room was actually a suite with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and a little dining area. It was worth every penny. We ate some of our meals right there, which was nice. The first night, after the kids finally settled down, they ALL slept all night! Oh yeah! Here are the girls in their room:

The boys got the hide-a-bed in the living room. We wanted them a little closer to us because they are usually the night-wakers.

We visited a cave our first morning there. We didn't realize until we got there that there would be a lot of stairs. Wet, slippery stairs.

Dan got quite a workout. He carried Joseph most of the way down (and back up) those 216 stairs.

The kids thought it was pretty neat, except for the part when you are at the bottom and they turn all the lights off.

After the cave tour:

Joseph is the only one who looks happy in that picture.


Oh, maybe they are hungry. Time for a snack!

To be continued...