Silver Dollar City, Celebrity Cars, and Senior Pictures

One of the reasons we extended our vacation plan was so we could visit Silver Dollar City. This old timey, gospel-centered theme park is a favorite destination of our NGFs' family, but we had never been. Kind of like I tell everyone, "We're more of a museum family than an amusement park family." At least half of us are :) We learned the park was ONLY open on Labor Day (random) and the half price Thursday we were hoping for wasn't an option. So, we filled a wagon with snacks (yay for a park that lets you bring in outside food!) and headed straight to the rollercoasters. That is . . . everyone but my NGF and I and the littlest not quite tall enough to ride. I was perfectly content to sit and wait. I've had a bum shoulder for six weeks now and I had no desire to shake that thing up on a ride :) After their first loop-de-loop (on what we were later told is the most challenging rollercoaster in the park) Buck and Graysen were done. Done, done, done. So, the teenagers headed off to explore the park on their own while those 12 and under (and 30 and over) headed to the tamer rides.

We reconnected with the six teens at lunchtime; they like free sandwiches :) They were having a great time, so off they went again until we planned to meet around three.

When three o'clock rolled around, we adults decided we'd like to spend some time looking through the shops--pottery, leather, knives, woodworking--not your normal amusement park fare! Plus all the employees were dressed in prairie-time clothes and many of them looked like they may have been around back then. A very immersive experience ;) So, we invited the teens to ride all the tamer rides with the younger crowd (which Graysen had already been doing and enjoying doing most of the morning :) The weather was HOT and there were loads of hills, so I was glad for my brand new, much-needed tennis shoes that Brennen bought me the day before in exchange for an upcoming trip to the homeschool homecoming dance. If you followed that line of thought, congratulations! :)

It just so happened that while we were gone, the kids had their first experience getting stuck on a broken ride. I guess they swirled forwards and backwards on this spinning top for a good 20 minutes before they were rescued. Exciting times!

Below is a very pretty practice picture I took while waiting for the kids to come down the log ride . . . waiting . . . waiting . . . well, what I didn't know was that the line to the log ride split off to another section of the park Buck and I hadn't explored yet due to our day with the younger crowd. We decided to follow the teens at the end of the day, so we could see what rides they were riding and what fun they were having. Apparently not the log ride fun, lol!

The park was very not crowded, so the teens rode all the rollercoasters several times with very short waits (mostly for sanitation because of Covid). We got to see them do the loop-de-doo with some pretty stunning scenery in the background! And that was basically the last we saw of them, because even with running all over the park for like 10 hours they still had loads of energy. Loads! Buck and I were panting through our masks trying to keep up with them at the end of the day. I mean, seriously!

Somehow they even had enough energy left over to head to the resort swimming pool until it closed at 10. I will say, the pool smell, the water fountain raining down in the kiddie pool, and the sounds from the restaurant/bar were very lulling. I found poolside time very relaxing! My NGF edited photos, we told jokes around the table, it was fun to just sit.

And relax was the plan for the next day, too! Mr. NGF and I took the kids to the waterpark part of the resort, while Buck went for groceries, and Mrs. NGF worked on photos, and then ended up going for groceries, too--sixteen people require a lot of groceries! Neither of us adults at the pool had a key to get back in the house, but when the teens decided they wanted back in, the monkey boys scaled to the second story and went in through the unlocked balcony door. I mean, whatever works!

While I worked on getting the washing machine and dryer to cooperate with the loads and loads of clothes all we humans make dirty on a daily basis, Buck took all but Caelan to a sweet Celebrity Car Museum in Branson. They have hundreds of famous cars from movies and television. It sounds like they had a great time, and they happened to be very near the parking lot of the donut shop, so . . . :)

Later that evening, we decided this was our best chance to get Caelan's senior pictures taken. I'd spent a couple of hours prepping dinner while Buck was at the museum, so that was easy for him to throw in the over (since it was our turn to cook). With a free evening on our hands and a sunset to chase, Gabby (the wardrobe assistant), my NGF (the professional photographer who offered to do this as a gift!), and myself (the background photographer and style consultant), set out to find a few of the pre-determined pretty spots in and around Branson. First was the Waterfall Trail (which ended up being in the backyard of a different resort). At one point an Australian Shepherd dog ran through Caelan's photo shoot, which was pretty funny considering that's her current fav four-legged fluff ball :)

Gabby captured some pretty shots of the water and sunset as we made our way to Table Rock Lake for the the final set of photos. I say final, but Caelan has big ideas for an additional spring photo shoot . . . let's just say it involves moving a piano and releasing butterflies, wowza! We are super excited to see how the photos turn out--there should be plenty, Mrs. NGF snapped 1,095!!!! That's like wedding reception numbers, whew! I think they both had fun though. I had a lot of fun, until people started mentioning that "lots of snakes and scorpions" live on the rock beach where we were doing photos. Wha??? The south is not for me, ha!