Well it is Summer Vacation time and the Cooper Family couldn't be more ready to leave behind our crazy busy life and spend two weeks of fun together. I know Grant is ready for a break from work; he has been putting in some serious hours at work for the past couple of months. For the past couple of months it has felt that we are constantly going from one thing to the next with no time to breath, and so it will be nice to be able to breath and maybe slow things down a bit.
Day one of the road trip was pretty smooth for a road trip goes. The kids enjoyed their toys and movies that they packed and Grant and I enjoyed the peace and quiet. Actually the car was pretty quiet, no conversations really. Grant and I went to bed around 1:00 in the morning the night ( or morning of) before and got up around 6:00 to get ready to head out by 7:00. We figured why we didn't talk much was that we were too tired to think. We did a lot of munching to stay awake during our trip.
In Springfield we planned on visiting an underground cavern as well as visiting the first Bass Pro Shop; but when we learned that the underground cavern was a driving tour (you sit in a tram and they drive you through) and the big museum at Bass Pro was closed (making just like any other Bass Pro Shop) we were looking for new plans. We grabbed a bunch of phamplets and while doing so realized that Branson was 45 minutes away from Springfield, so why not play around in Branson too.
We toured a self guided tour of a near by Civil War Battlefield. They had 8 points of interest that you could stop at read some plaques about what happened at that point. Luckily this was able to be done all by car. The first point had a little walking tour for you to go on taking you past what use to be someones mill and home. Of course the mill and home are no longer standing but they had plaques marking their location. It was getting pretty hot so for the rest of the trip we just drove to each location and read the brief paragraph for that location and then briefly explained it to our kids. Anthony has a love for the Civil War so he was excited to see the Battlefield. For me it was a neat to reflect that 150 years ago there were thousands of troops marching on those hills and fighting in the valleys and after it the battle was over, the Confederate troops won but not without many casualties on both sides.
After our Civil War Battle tour we hopped in our car and headed for a tour of a nearby cavern. It was a small cavern and not a popular one which can be nice when you are in a tour. In fact we were the only ones, which can be good or bad. Our tour guide was friendly and very knowledgable, in fact at times too knowledgable. At one point during our tour Spencer says nice and loud "Mommy I want to go home." I think Spencer was speaking what was in everyones mind. The kids enjoyed seeing the rock formations and some fossils of long ago ocean life, but when talking to kids think less is always more. After our tour was over it was time to each lunch. At lunch we had to alter our plans alittle due to the fact that it was getting late. I had wanted to do one of those duck tours where you get a car that can drive on land and in water, but time was running out for that. We had also wanted to tour another cave, but decided to do it later on in our trip. Madeline wanted to go to a butterfly museum, the museum was closed but they had a glow in the dark exhibit that was opening up during the evening hours. One we got to Branson we headed off to a local mall for Madeline to fulfill her desire of going to Build a Bear. Madeline didn't understand that souveniors are something that you get that you cannot get from where you live. Madeline had her heart set on a bear of Build a Bear being her souvenior and there was no changing her mind. It was also a good place to burn some time waiting for the Buttterfly night show to open.
The Butterfly night exhibit was really neat. They use black lights so everything glows in the dark. The first activity that we went to was a bunggie cord maze. They put bunggie cords everywhere and you had to work your way through them to get to the other side. We did have help though; we had a nice fairy that would guide us along the way. The kids really enjoyed the maze and after a few times of doing it had the path memorized and did it with ease. There was also a movie that you could watch talking about nocturnal animals with focus on the insects like lightening bugs. This movie proved borning for Spencer; but Madeline who loves butterflies loved the movie. After the movie we went to see if we could find sleeping butterflies using our lanterns. The room was dark with uses of black light sprinkled throughout. We were given some homemade lanterns to help us find our sleeping treasures. When butterflies sleep they are hard to find because they hide or blend in ( a defense mechanism), but we were able to catch a few sleeping butterflies. We had to be really quiet so as to not wake up the sleeping beauties. Our fairy guide showed up during our tour and was able to get the kids to join her in hula hooping. Madeline and Spencer were not interested but Anthony and Grant were game for it. I learned that Anthony can hula and he is pretty good at it. He just kept going and going, he would do small tricks like jumping while still being able to hula. I would say he was able to hula for a good couple of minutes. After our butterfly tour we headed downstairs for the mirror maze. I have never been on one before and at first it was a bit intimidating. I wanted Grant to go first to guide the way. Because of the way they use the mirrors and because it is also in the dark you are not sure which in the correct path and which will lead you smack into a mirror. Anthony took the whole thing like a fish to water. He just crused right through leaving us all in the dust as if the maze was in complete light. Spencer followed him while the rest of us walked the maze with our hands out in front on us and walking at a slow safe speed. It didn't take long for Anthony to figure out the pattern and off he went with no problems, I think he even came back for us. Grant figure it out pretty fast but was staying back with Madeline helping her through.
After our trip to the butterfly museum it was time for some minature golf. This was Anthony choice of activity. The minature golf place was called Pirates Cove so it was set up in a Pirates decor; other than that it was like any other minature golf. Spencer had a blast and as usual it is always entertaining to watch him try to get the golf ball down the course and into the hole. A lot of times he would just pick the ball up and walk in down and sit it next to the hole and with the club knock it in. Spencer also would get excited when any of us would get the ball into the hole and would always cheer for each of us. Some of the course was under a cave and some were next to running streams of water, and some just had challenging hills to get over. The kids had fun and it was a fun activity to share as a family. Of course when we play minature golf we never keep score, this helps with us trying to teach our kids that it doesn't matter what order you came in just that you finished and had fun. We ended the might with a blizzard/milk shake treat and then headed back for the hotel. We were gone from 9:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night. It was a day packed full of fun and the kids had no problem going to bed that night and neither did Grant and I. The next day we were off to Nauvoo, but that is another post.
No comments:
Post a Comment