Silver Dollar City

After a not so peaceful night of sleep, with one kid getting up with upset stomach from eating too many ribs at the Rib Crib, several gun shots heard outside a little while later, and then a pretty loud thunderstorm all before an early morning wakeup, we had a little trouble keeping our early morning plans to meet at the Worldmark at 7:30 for a biscuits and gravy breakfast. We ended up texting the crew a message to go ahead and eat without us and we would get there as early as we could. We ended up getting to the condo about 8:15, hoping we could help everyone with their cleaning and packing up checkout procedures.

Some of the sites on the strip in downtown Branson.

Another Titanic museum. Clever idea to put spray at the front and make it
seem as if it's moving.

Silver Dollar City opens at 9:30, but since Tim and Gwen are season ticket holders, we could all get in a little early. Tim and Gwen also get a couple of guest passes at intervals throughout the year and since they had gotten some just in time for this weekend, they treated two of our family to free admission! The whole group got to get $5 off our ticket price too.

We were all filled with anticipation for what the day would hold. I think I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Our crew who was brave enough to take the American Plunge, a log flume ride: (Front to back) Sarah, Greg, Joe, Brighton, Skylar, and Brock.

The wet daredevils after the log ride.

Brock, Greg and Sarah were the ones to go on Wildfire (5th row from the front)

The kids were so happy to see Brock when he got off.

Ride statistics. Little Joe was so sad because he was about a half inch
too short and couldn't go on the ride. I was amazed at his level of courage.
He wasn't afraid of any ride and so we all headed to Outlaw Run.

Greg, Sarah, Brock, Joe and Brighton rode Outlaw Run. The world's most daring wooden rollercoaster. The first wooden coaster to go upside down multiple times and it features a 162-foot drop at an 81 degree angle and reaches speeds up to 68 miles per hour. Some of these crazy people rode it twice in one day!

What goes up...must go down!!

All the kids and I went on the kiddie coaster. Bryn said it was just her speed. It was actually pretty fast, just small and low, but I saw several little kids leave in tears. Our whole group left smiling thankfully. :O)

Kiddie Coaster

You look in the hole and the boat people use your face as a target for their water cannons.

After Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn got through with us. It was actually the observers who could shoot us with water cannons that got us sooo wet.

After the Fire in the Hole ride. We all went on it, learning about Baldknobbers.

Brock drank some "filtered" water.

This one looked worse than tea cups to me.

My hunky husband, riding a "scary" ride.

Sky was stoked that he was tall enough to ride alone.

These brawny guys stopped the earth from turning and then started it the other way.

There was actually more than I can picture including a very wet raft ride and some classic style swings.

When the park closed and we all headed to the parking lot at 6 pm, it was a terrible bottleneck of people trying to get out. The park requires the traffic to go through the gift store and then through narrow exitways to wait in line for a bus or tram to take you to the parking lot. We decided to walk and actually beat the half that rode to the car. It was time to say goodbye to everyone since they were all returning to Springfield. Their plan was to hit Lambert's Cafe in Ozark, Missouri on the way home. Our family decided to postpone the goodbyes and drive back 40 minutes (almost to Springfield) to join them. We caught some of the delicious, hot, throwed rolls and our dinner was actually really good much better than what we ate at the Alabama location. I think everyone enjoyed their food and we all enjoyed laughter and the blessing of being together. We're not sure why God brought us all together, but we're so glad He did. Our family is thankful for this respite of a weekend and for the encouragement of being with friends.