Day Trip

Today we took the kids to Branson. We spent most of the day at Silver Dollar City and then finished the day out with a round of minature golf. It was a gorgeous day. The weather could not possibly have been more perfect.

The kids, all three, are crazy over roller coasters. We always have to go on Thunderation first thing when we hit the park. (That has been Rayna's favorite ride since she was just barely tall enough to ride.) Doug didn't start out quite LOVING Thunderation...but, he has insisted on riding it, anyway, year after year. After nearly four years, he has grown to truly ENJOY the experience to the hilt. Still, I was hesitant when he insisted today that he wanted to go on the electrospin. I won't even go on the electrospin. And, the ONE time that DARCY went on the electrospin (a year ago), she was SCREAMING so loud that I could hear her from the other side of that particular area of the park. I didn't SEE that she had gotten onto that ride (with my friend Susan), but I HEARD her screams and followed them to the source...sure enough, there was MY daughter screaming her little head off...and loving it. Today, I really didn't think DOUG would truly WANT to be on that ride, ONCE IT STARTED. But, he was insistant. So, off he and Darcy went. Meanwhile, poor little Rayna was heartbroken. She is still too short to ride this ride. SHE begged to ride it three years ago, a full year before Darcy even got up the nerve to ride it...and wound up in tears, then, too, because she was too short.

Well, I was wrong...Doug LIKED the ride. Next, he begged to go on Wildfire (for the first time). Unfortunately, HE was still an inch too short. So, Darcy and I went on that roller coaster, alone. I am confident that next year he will be tall enough for Wildfire and Rayna will finally be tall enough for the Electrospin. Hopefully! Poor, Grant, is NOT much of one for rides...but, he did go on the Great American Shootout with us.

Twice, while we were traveling in the car, today, Rayna had us biting the insides of our cheeks to keep from cracking up. She started out telling us about a dream she had had last night..."I dreamed I had a cat and she passed a baby!" Rayna continued telling us all about this kitten that the cat had "passed". ...Oh that birthing was that simple! Later, I noticed a billboard of some singing family and commented to Grant, "They MUST have touched up the teeth in THAT picture." (All four of the fellows had unnaturally brilliant white teeth.) Grant agreed and then commented to Darcy, "Do you remember how I showed you how to whiten teeth in Photoshop?" Darcy remarked that she did remember. Then Grant asked, "Do you know how to take pimples out?" Darcy, said, "No..." at which point, Rayna excitedly piped up from the back seat, "I know how to take pimples out! You poke them. Then you dig them in and RIP them!" ...Yes, she is a very observant child!

The Flooded Mine(I guess it USED to be called The Great American Shoot-Out)...




The bitter disappointment of being too short for the Electrospin for the THIRD year in a row...




While older brother and sister arced and spun at enviable speeds, Rayna resorted to looking on the map to figure out what ride, she COULD ride...
It is SO RAYNA, to go from the utter depths of despair to unimaginabale heights of joy in about a nano-second!



(THE AMAZING ELECTROSPIN)




Of course, it is extremely important to refer back to the park map FREQUENTLY in order to chart a course that will eventually lead to each of your favorite rides!

All three kids studied the map THOROUGHLY whenever we paused anywhere along the way!




Next, it was Doug who experienced the bitter disappointment of discovering HE was too short. Doug will have to wait until next year for Wildfire.



So, only Darcy and I rode on Wildfire...

Grant, *selflessly* volunteered to stay behind with the "still too short" crowd! (And he SO WANTED to drop perpendicularly down, face first, 15 stories at 65 mph and then do three loop-de-loops, flipping upside down.)








Then it was on to minature golf. (We had had a debate between whether to go minature golfing or watch the dinosaur movie at the IMAX. Doug voted for the dinosaur movie. Rayna and Darcy both voted for minature golf. We had originally planned on going to Pirate's Cove to minature golf, but, after Doug lost the vote, diplomatic Darcy pointed out that there was a DINOSAUR golfing place in Branson, too. So, everyone wound up a happy camper as we combined dinosaurs AND minature golf. Well, maybe RAYNA wasn't a "happy camper"...but then she is always a rather volatile mix of extreme emotions. I have no idea WHAT we will do when she hits her teen years and it's requisite moodiness.