"the old man's Vegas"

Last week we went on a trip with my family to Branson.  It was a much needed escape from all of Grant's work and studies and we were so grateful for the uninterrupted time we were able to spend together as a family.  When Grant told his co-workers we were going to Branson, they said, "why are you going to the Vegas for old people?"  We thought that was funny, and it's kind of true.  All of their attractions are on a strip and there are lots of things to do and shows to see.  There's just not all of the gambling, drinking, and partying.  Perfect for us!
We were a little bit worried about Emily on the long car ride, but she did great!  She was really such a trooper for the whole trip!  We left Friday morning and stopped in OKC along the way to visit my grandpa (we also stopped at Bucee's, a really fancy gas station, along the way and Grant and Em got their first Bucee's shirts :) ).  It was my grandpa's first time meeting Emily (and her first time meeting a great grandparent!) Thankfully, she was in a pretty good mood even after being stuck in the car all day.  I'm so glad we were able to make the stop to spend some time with them.

We made another long car ride on Saturday to Branson.  We met up with some family that lives in Springfield, MO to have dinner at Lambert's.  It's a really good restaurant that throws rolls at you, brings you pass-around side dishes and really big portion sizes for your meal.  It was a fun place, but it was a little much for Em so my mom and I had to take her out for most of the meal.

Sunday, we were originally planning on boating all day, but we woke up to rain.  It was supposed to rain all day, so we moved our boat reservations back a couple of days and spent the day on the Branson strip. Of course, it ended up being a beautiful day, but we were glad we saved the boating for the hottest days of the week.  In Branson, we went to Steak N' Shake for lunch, then the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum and then several members of the family did some bungee-jump type rides (I was too scared!)  The rest of the family went to the wax museum, but Emily was ready to leave so we took her back to the hotel.  We had a nice dinner for Jeff's birthday that night.

Monday, we went to Silver Dollar City, the amusement park in Branson.  We had an awesome time, but again, Emily got tired so I took her home early to let her get some rest before the night's festivities.  I'm glad Grant got to stay and ride the rest of the coasters :) That night, we went to my favorite part of Branson-- the Dixie Stampede.  It's a dinner show.  They have horse races, trick riders, square dancing, lumberjack competitions, ostrich races, etc. all while feeding you a really yummy dinner.  And it helped that our side ended up winning the competition, too.  Emily really liked the show, but she didn't want to sit down, so Grant and I took turns holding her while the other ate.  At least we didn't have to take her out of the show this time!

We spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday boating.  We went wake boarding, tubing, kneeboarding, and spent some time on wave runners.  We had a blast!  Tuesday night, we went to another dinner theater on a boat (it was called the Showboat).  Wednesday we boated into the evening and then had pizza for dinner and played some games.

Thursday, we went to the Titanic museum.  It's really cool!  The outside looks like the actual ship and the inside has a lot of places replicating the ship (like the big staircase that's in the movie).  Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures inside... there are lots of things I would've loved to have captured!  They give you a boarding pass at the beginning of a person from the actual Titanic and you can look for information about them throughout the museum.  They have lots of artifacts, too, from the real ship.  You find out at the end if your person survived or not.  All 3 of our's did.  Grant and I were both 1st class passengers (even though Grant's was a gambler traveling under an alias) and Emily was a 3rd class passenger.  We learned along the way that only about half of the 3rd class children lived, so we weren't sure if Emily was going to make it.  She did, but unfortunately the real little girl was the second of the survivors to die.  She passed away a few months after the sinking of meningitis :(  It's really amazing how much you can learn about the ship and the passengers from going through that museum!  We loved it!  We then went to a chinese acrobats show that was amazing, but again I had to take Emily out for the whole second half!  Then we went to ride some go-carts and get ice cream.  That evening, most of the family went to a magic show, but it was late so my mom and I stayed home so Emily could go to sleep.

Friday was fairly uneventful, we met up with some of my dad's old friends for lunch and the rest of the family hung out with them and went to some shows for the rest of the day.  Grant and I brought Emily back to the hotel after lunch for the rest of the day to help give her some rest and recover from her sickness.  Saturday, we had some cake for my niece, Rachel's, birthday and then started the trek home.  We stopped just north of Dallas overnight and then finished the trip on Sunday.  Emily was so glad to be home in a familiar place!
Emily started getting sick toward the end of the week.  We weren't sure what was wrong because she had a fever but no other symptoms.  She didn't really want to eat much besides milk and water and she was more tired than usual.  The only upside was that she was more cuddly than usual and just wanted to lay in my arms all the time.  We gave her some acetaminophen and lots of cool baths.  She HATED the medicine so we pretty much had to pin her down and pry open her mouth any time we wanted to give it to her.  It really helped, though, so it was worth it. After a few days, she woke up with some new teeth popping through, so we realized that was the problem.  She's been getting better since we got home, but she's still not sleeping very well.  She woke up a lot during the nights in Branson with a fever or pain from her teeth, and she wouldn't go back to sleep unless she was laying in my arms on my chest.  Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep on the trip.  She's been better about sleeping in her bed since we got back, but she's still up a couple times at night.  Hopefully it doesn't take her too long to get back on schedule!