Branson baby - Vacay with BFF's

Vacations with your best friends and their kids is really an underrated adventure. We already knew this BUT this summer's vacation with our BFF's (the Hammer's) proved that our friendship can withhold anything ... even living with 5 young kids and 4 adults in a nice, but small 3 bedroom condo for 5 days.  GRanted we drank a lot (the adults .. not the kids) but every day was packed full of events, including water parks, theme parks, boating, shows, river boat rides, tubing, swimming and lots and lots of eating! Before I forget to mention this, is was 100 plus degrees almost every day!
Our kids adore each other, well all of our girls adore each other. Benny (the only boy) has his moments but his 3 year old personality doesn't always mesh well with the little girls.
The week was a success and we are already looking forward to our next adventure together. I did a terrible job at taking pictures - Paige did a much better job but she does old school pics (still has them developed and doesn't keep anything on digital file) .... so kiddos, if you want more pics of this vacation check with Paigie. I almost forgot about the cheesy tourist pics I purchased out of guilt for not bringing my camera!

First of all ... how can you not love this family! Can you see why they are our best friends?

TABLE ROCK LAKE
We all voted and our favorite day was the day we rented a big ole pontoon boat with a tube and went out on Table Rock lake. It was the Hammer's first tubing experience. Of course I have no pics but it was a fantastic day!



WHITE WATER
Taking 5 kids under 8 years old to a huge water park can be intimidating. But all of our kids did awesome. My kids LOVED LOVED LOVED the water slides ... much to my surprise. They went on every water slide they were tall enough to ride (which was all of them but 2) and begged until the very end to go again and again. Even Quinn!

Ready for our first water park experience!



It was 5,000 degrees this day and we had just tracked across 1/2 mile of black asphalt. But we still managed smiles ... except Benny ... love this face!



Jenna, Hassie Clare and Quinn with us in the wave pool.

SILVER DOLLAR CITY
What a fun day .... but it was smokin' hot outside. This was suppose to be the coolest day of the week (high was only 98) ... but of course it was 98 all day long with sky high humidity. But we managed to keep our kids hydrated, ride lots of rides and tour an awesome cave. In fact ... the highlight of this day was our adventure down in Marvel Cave. Jamie had talked to the girls about it for weeks. Hassie Clare was super excited and Quinn was pessimistically optimistic:) It ended up being a wonderful learning experience and an awesome way to cool off!

Hassie Clare, Quinn, Jenna riding the tea cups.

The kids (minus Morgan) and Dad's riding a kiddie roller coaster.

Jenna and Quinn (kindred souls) riding Aladdin's Carpet ride ... I think.

Mom's and babes.

Dad's and babes .. resting in the shade.

HC was PO'ed that she was not tall enough to ride the big kid rides but some of them she could ride with an adult. Oyiee .... I don't enjoy rides like I use to but I better get use to it! And last but not least ... Quinn's first "real" roller coaster!

Had to buy this pic .. it is Quinn's first "real" roller coater ride. The girls were not big enough to sit in the front or back so I doubt they saw much ... but we got drenched on the log ride!

SHOWBOAT BRANSON BELLE

We took a dinner cruise with live entertainment on the lake. The kids loved the singers, dancers and comedian. Not sure I would do this one again but it was fun to do once!

30 years and counting of being best friends.

My oh my how their friendship has changed throughout the years.

The girls felt so grown up! Morgan got called up to the stage to be the magician's assistant and she did a fabulous job!

The Farkel family:)

Quinn. Morgan and Hassie Clare

Teaching Jenna how to be a sweet southern belle.

**Although we spoiled the heck out of our kids this week, they still managed come up with a way to give back to others. Hassie Clare and Quinn are huge advocates for St. Jude and they have recruited Morgan and Jenna to join them in their love for this amazing children's cancer research hospital that never turns away a child. They all decided, on their own, to have a competition against each other to see who can raise the most money to donate to St. Jude by December - when the Hammer's will come down for the St. Jude Half Marathon. The only rule is that they have to do something to earn the money for it to count. They started by making and decorating paper fans (out of paper plates) while we were in Branson and selling them for $1. HOW COOL ARE OUR KIDS!





We are so lucky to have such a loving family that wants to be a part of our lives. We could not ask for better friends. We love them unconditionally and always will.