I know I swore I would never do this again after the last weekend trip but when my dad asks me to do something, I do it. Anyone else have this sort of relationship with their dad? I mean, he says, "Let's drive 6 hours across two states and visit with relatives in the cheesy music capital of the midwest!" I say, "When do we leave?"
So we loaded up our 6 suitcases (sounds extreme but the kids each have their own small rolling suitcase which sometimes helps with confusion and fighting over what the kids will wear) and headed to Branson, MO last weekend.
Again, this is a two minivan endeavor. Two kids eating junk and candy and watching movies in my parents' car and two kids listening to The 39 Clues and drinking water bottles with granola bars in my car.
It was a beautiful day. Blue skies like you only see in September in the midwest. Puffy clouds providing a bit of shade. Lots of random crazy places you only find in the midwest to laugh at. My favorite was Arnolds Barbecue restaurant with an attached car wash.
We arrived in Branson pretty early. Said hello to some relatives and headed out to dinner. We ate at Olive Garden. I know this isn't fine dining to many, but my small town does not have an Olive Garden. We have a Fazoli's. So Olive Garden is a pretty big step UP!
I have one son who is very partial to spaghetti so it was like he had arrived in Mecca. My dad also loves spaghetti so it made him happy too. This is a double bonus for our family!
We ate, visited then headed back to the hotel. It was bedtime after a long day. But at about midnight my daughter woke me up and then threw up in the bathroom. Yea! We are off to a great start!
My husband and I talked it over and decided that maybe a bit too much strawberry lemonade at dinner was the culprit. My daughter felt just fine the next morning. Happy, bouncing, eating normally. So we chalked it up to a lesson learned and set out on our next day.
My husband and dad played golf in the morning and my mom and I took my kids shopping. Doesn't that sound like fun? Keeping track and keeping happy four 8-year-olds in an open air shopping mall??? Whooo-hoooo!
This was my attempt at pleasing my mother. She loves to shop. She wanted to buy stuff for my kids. My kids hate shopping, but with the promise of ice cream after lunch they held it together and I only lost two of them for a few minutes. These are the best odds I could hope for.
It went so well my mom started talking about going to another shopping mall. Can you even imagine doing two places with kids and expecting anyone to be happy? I quashed that and mom got mad at me. Figures. It's my fault she has unrealistic expectations about child behavior.
Instead of shopping some more, we went swimming. Good for the kids. Mom actually looked pretty tired so she rested some. That was good for me. I didn't have to dodge thinly veiled insults from the woman who gave birth to me.
Then we were out for dinner again. It was a fish place and the kids all tried fried alligator.
But then that night again I had Ella puking and Jack puked too. Now we are starting to hit a red alert level. One kid puking is able to be handled. Two kids? We have new questions to answer. Is this catching? Will we get sick? Should we leave early? How much whining will the girl do if we leave before visiting the Titanic museum? Can we handle that?
In the end we decided everyone was eating too much junk, should not drink anymore soda, and avoid fried foods. Aaaaaaand visit the Titanic museum just so we don't have to listen to the girl whine about it again.
The day went mostly well. Minimal whining. From my mom. And the kids were pretty good too. Until we went to dinner at Billy Bob's Dairyland. Fried hamburgers, fried pies and ice cream shakes. So much for avoiding junk. Frankly, it is hard to find a meal that ISN'T fried in Branson. And an exact quote from my mom during that dinner was, "Well, we can just share a chocolate fudgey brownie dessert. Right? Share it? That won't make the kids sick."
We avoided the chocolate fudgey brownie, despite my mother's insistence that it would not make anyone sick, and survived the night without puking.
2 nights. 3 pukes. One whiny mother. I don't think we will be doing this again. At least for a month or two.
