Branson

The reunion was only a couple of hours from Branson, so afterwards we headed there for 2 days.  I am a pa.the.tic. mother and have basically no pictures to show for it.  Not even one fun family vacation photo.  Basically, we did a little shopping, checked out the Titanic Museum, and walked around on the strip.  The second night we were there, there was a fireworks show following a free outdoor concert.  Luke loves fireworks, (so does his mama), so we headed there.  He said his tummy was hurting but was trying to be brave because he really wanted to see the fireworks.  He may or may not have vomited in the street.  You can judge us if you want, but we stayed and watched the fireworks anyway which made everyone happy!  He threw up again the next morning (the day we were supposed to drive home!).  We milked every last moment in our hotel room before having to check out, dreading being in a car with a sick child.  We headed out around 11:30, and within a couple of hours he was good as new!  So...24 hour bug??  Reaction to being in too much heat??  We don't know but were so thankful it didn't last long!  So we took our time driving home trying to stretch out our short vacation, stopping to check out a Bass Pro shop in Columbia, MO, and then a random spontaneous stop at Big Brutus in West Mineral (nowheresville), KS.  What is Big Brutus you might ask?  That would be the largest electric shovel in the world (16 stories tall).  Isn't that exciting??  Well, not to me, but it is to my 3 year old son and my 30 year old husband!  Here are the boys sitting inside the bucket.

 Some size perspective.

 Fortunately, it wore them out, and we had a few hours of peace driving home!

 And, though we didn't plan for it, we drove into our hometown just in time to watch our local 4th of July fireworks only blocks away from our house.  It turned out to be a great day! :)