First Day of School

It wouldn't be the first day of school without "the picture". New clothes, new shoes, new socks, new haircuts, they were ready for the day!

Corey is going into 5th grade. He said he hoped to make good grades.

Tanner is going into the 1st grade. He said that he hoped he would make a new friend.

Kannon wanted his picture taken too. You can see that I didn't spend much time getting him ready for school today. He starts Preschool after Labor Day. Then he will get to wear his new stuff.

Dustin starts high school at Valley View this year. He was not real thrilled having to change schools but I think that he will like it. He went to school with Barry at 6:30 a.m. so I didn't get his picture. He is going into 10th grade. He had on some new things today too. He looked nice.

I am excited for my boys to have another great school year!

Branson Weekend

Barry's mom and dad are celebrating their 50th anniversary in November this year. The only thing that they wanted was the whole family to go to Branson together. With work, school and ballgames, the only time everyone could go was August. So a few weeks ago we all went to Branson. Barry's brother manages a radio station in Missouri so he was able to get free show tickets and free hotel rooms for all of us. That made the vacation that much nicer! Dustin did end up having ballgames that weekend because he was asked to play baseball with the AAA Legion team after he finished with his season. Luckily the tournament was in Mountain Home which is on the way to Branson. Dustin played Friday morning so Barry stayed and watched the game and then the two of them rode up to Branson with his mom and dad who also went to the game. I decided to take Corey, Tanner and Kannon up to Branson on Friday morning and go to White Water for the day. Tanner and Kannon both had not been to a water park before or at least one they could remember. We had a great time!

We spent a lot of time in the wave pool. The boys loved jumping the waves and riding on the inner tube. It made me want to go to the beach.

At White Water there are two huge kid areas with buckets, spraying water, slides, water guns, and lots of splashing water. I could barely keep up with the boys they were having so much fun.

Kannon came shooting out of every slide that he could find. He wasn't afraid to try anything.

Papa had given Corey a Missouri lottery ticket for his birthday that we sent in and on the day before we left on our trip, Corey got a check for $12.00 in the mail. I told him he could use it to buy treats at the Water Park. He was in heaven. He bought tropical snows for everyone and two for himself.

Finally it was time to leave. The kids didn't want to go. I finally got everyone out of the water and ready to head to the hotel to meet Barry and Dustin.

We grabbed dinner and then went to The Chinese Acrobats show. Interesting! The boys thought it was great.

We even found time for the boys to swim in the hotel pool. My boys love staying in hotels. It doesn't matter what city we are in or what we do while we are there.

Saturday, we had a big breakfast at our hotel and then went shopping at one of the Outlet malls. The whole family then met to go to the Dixie Stampede Dinner and Show. The show is in a big arena and they bring you dinner while the show goes on down in front. They had cowboys, indians, horses, buffalos, dancers, and singers. Tanner loved the show, Corey loved the food, and I loved the fact that we had free tickets!

Later that night, we went to a Magic Show. Once again the boys thought it was so cool and I once again thought I am sure glad I didn't pay for this. Sunday morning we had to get up and leave early to get Dustin back to Mountain Home for another ballgame. It was nice to have Barry's whole family together. We really had a fun weekend.