BRANSON: SILVER DOLLAR CITY

A couple of months ago, my brain hatched a little idea.  At the end of Spring Break, we would sneak away to Branson for a couple of nights and do Silver Dollar City and a couple of other fun things.  I decided to see if any of our friends wanted to join us, and much to my surprise and delight, several families wanted to come!  We ended up finding a cabin where we could all party together for a long weekend full of food, fun with a side of crazy, because we had 15 kiddos in the mix.  14 of them were six or younger.

But - I can confidently say that we had an amazing time!  Were there some harried moments?  Absolutely!  Are we tired?  Most definitely!  Did our kids think this was the best thing we could have ever done?  Without a doubt.

We arrived in Branson late Thursday afternoon and enjoyed checking out our new digs - it had 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms and 3 levels.

We divided up meal prep among the families, so we brought CFA for everyone to enjoy that evening. After getting all the children in bed, we adults LOVED having time where we could hear ourselves talk and think.  We played games every night, which was such a treat!




Only 3 of the 4 families were there on Thursday night, and we all headed to Silver Dollar City on Friday morning.  The weather was a flashback to winter at a brisk 40 degrees with sprinkles and lots of wind.  Our first stop once we got into SDC was to go on the Marvel Cave tour.  Now - I have been to SDC several times in the past 10 years and never once did I realize that there was a MASSIVE cave there.  We knew it would be warmer down there, so we decided to take the plunge.  It really was huge - they said the Statue of Liberty would fit inside the Cathedral Room.

Amazingly enough, we descended and ascended the 30 story climb without much fanfare.  Normally, you get to ride a train out, but because the back half of the cave was flooded, we got to do the extra work.  We parents decided the positive peer pressure helped the littles, and several of us got major workouts while we hauled toddlers down and back.

We emerged from the cave to enjoy the rest of the day riding rides, getting tasty treats, occasionally shivering and observing the stares we got from passing people trying to figure out our group.  It easily could have been a small day care, and because we all pitched in and helped with any child who needed it, no one could tell whose children belonged to whom.

(They are both 4.  She is a bit on the tall side, and he is a bit on the shorter side.)

The flowers were still blooming despite the chill in the air.

At one point, we split up and some of the guys took their older children to ride bigger roller coasters. John ended up with us, because none of our kids wanted to ride big rides.  So, we moms were taking the four year olds on a little roller coaster, and we all needed to ride.  John was left with this group.  Bless his heart.  He took it like a champ and said everyone did great.

We went with the some of the best possible people on this little adventure.  We obviously have children close in age, and everyone has a similar mode of operation and flexibility.  It worked remarkably well to have a group this size, and I would totally do it all over again.  It was so much fun!



Part Two of our Branson Spring Break will post tomorrow!
(Here's Court's post about the day!)