Can't believe we have been back from vacation for over a week, and I'm just now getting some time to upload pictures.  Thought I would at least continue on with the recap of our journey....

DAY 10:  On our first full day in Branson, we headed to Silver Dollar City Amusement Park.  The kids loved all of the water rides.  Even Austin, whose sensory disorder makes amusement rides not a favorite, found several rides he was happy to go on over and over.  Unfortunately, our day ended with one of the worst rainstorms we have been in for a long, long time.  We bought ponchos and carried on with as much fun as we could have with most of the rides closed down.  It gave us time to take in some of the live shows going on at the park.    Later that night we went to the Titanic Museum, which is really amazing!







DAY 11:  We went back to Silver Dollar City for awhile the next day.  There were some areas of the park we had not yet hit.  It was a terribly humid day so we didn't end up staying as long as we wanted to.  We also had reservations for a riverboat dinner cruise that evening so we had to get ready for that. 







DAY 12:  We sadly said good-bye to Branson and headed to Kansas City.  The boys have wanted to go to a Build-a-Dino/ T-REX Cafe and KC is the closest to us.  Seemed a perfect stopover, plus we got to visit with some friends we hadn't seen in many years which was very fun.  Lexi and the boys made a couple of new stuffed dinosaur friends to bring home, then we had lunch in the Triceratops table.    We made it part of the way home, then finished the trip on Day 13 (nothing too exciting to report that day, thus no photos).





That's it!  13 days, 3500 miles.....and we all not only survived but had a wonderful time!!  

Then we were home and it was back to business as usual!  This past weekend the boys had their End of Year Party/ Awards Ceremony for their bowling league.  Austin got his Weekly Winner Award and his team came in first for his division so he got a trophy for that.  Later that day, Andrew and Austin bowled in the Tournament of Champions.  Both made the semifinals (which made for a very long day at the bowling alley!).  Andrew made it to the finals which were held the next day.  He ended up in Fifth place, which was great.  We also got the results from the State Championships;  Andrew placed 5th in his division's overall standings and 2nd in his division's individual standings.  He will also receive an award for having a 277 game.  Austin did super too!




Rob and I received a nice surprise on our day at the bowling alley:  a damaged car.  A young man clipped the van as he parked next to us.  Luckily, he was insured and his company is taking care of everything but it is definitely a hassle we did not expect to deal with.  I am just very thankful that no one was hurt;  Rob and the boys were standing behind the car preparing to get bowling equipment out when the car was hit.  They were just inches away, so I think we were so lucky that they were not hit.