Monday, October 4, 2010

Our Family Vacation

This weekend we went on an impromptu trip to Branson. Family vacations are rare for us, but it happened to be Shawn's birthday as well as Homeschoolers' Weekend at Silver Dollar City so we decided to have a getaway.

I am so grateful that Shawn stumbled across a website while searching for lodging. He found condos for rent at http://www.bransonweekend.com/
The owners own several condos and they rent them out to families. I cannot recommend these condos enough. They were perfect for our family. Each of the condos is decorated with individual themes. We stayed in The Ranch House and the kids just absolutely loved that they got to stay in a house that cowboys lived in! The condo was a 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit with a full kitchen, dining/living room, covered deck, and laundry. I thought that getting all this for $100 a night was a great deal. Anyone that has ever tried to put three small children in a small motel room will understand how GREAT a blessing this was for us! The kids were actually able to MOVE here! We had space! Also, with our food issues, having the kitchen was a must. I was surprised to see that the condo included everything that we could possibly need: laundry detergent, flyswatter, Ziploc bags, books, movies, magazines, light bulbs, a stepstool for the kids' bathroom..you name it, it was there. It didn't feel like we were staying in a rented room. It really felt like we were invited into someone's home. It was nice and cozy..nothing was lacking.

First thing the kids did was discover the toys that were in the condo. Yes, the owners even have toys there for the kids! They loved that big stuffed horse, which also means they fought over it..constantly.


By having the kitchen there, we were able to spend absolutely nothing on food during our entire trip.



The kids had their own cowboy bedroom. Boy, did we have trouble getting them to go to sleep Friday night. They were SO excited!


We spent Saturday at Silver Dollar City. The kids were fearless and inexhaustible.










Needless to say, we may have had trouble getting the kids to bed Friday night, but Saturday night we didn't hear a peep out of them. We left the park and went back to the condo. I had put a chicken and some vegetables in the crockpot before we left that morning. So we got back and ate a quick supper of crockpot chicken and salad.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the inside of the condo. It was decorated so nicely on the inside and the view from the deck was beautiful. If you go to their website you can see more of the condo that I didn't get around to photographing. I can't wait to go back. We've now found a favorite place to stay. I foresee us getting the season pass for Silver Dollar City in the next couple years. Going there is a great getaway for our family.

4 comments:

  1. On the last photo, where your DH and children are in jail, the caption should read "This is how our vacation ended when the state discovered we homeschool."

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  2. Anonymous, I did literally laugh out loud at your comment. Unfortunately, I'm not creative enough to come up with something so witty.

    It was nice to be among "our kind" on Saturday. Shawn's students were joking on Friday that they felt sorry for any important officials that might try causing trouble for a large group of homeschooling families.

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  3. The jail picture looks really familiar from when we were kids :)

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  4. Yeah Angie, when we walked past the jail I told Shawn that we HAD TO take a picture in it because I remembered us getting our picture taken there as kids. It's neat to be taking our children places that I remember enjoying as a kid.

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