" {Mz}Cellaneous - Maryville Missouri Photographer": One gigantic Branson update

I've been putting off this post. Not because I didn't have fun, or because I don't like ya, because dammit, you're awesome. (I just think someone should have told you that much sooner!). Nope, it's because I had 203 photos from our trip, which frankly wasn't a lot in my opinion, but I still didn't want to sort, and pull out my favorites, because lets face it, I could easily put 203 photos here.

No really.

I narrowed it to 35.

So we get their Thursday, and I updated you with what we did that day like 2 weeks ago. On Friday, we got up bright and early with absolutely no plan in mind.

We were quite sceptical.

Remember how I used to be this big giant fan of Michael Jackson? Like, when I was 14 he was my moon and my stars? No really. I had a beat it jacket and everything!

Well with mom... that guy is Roy Rogers.
(don't forget Dale Evans and Trigger too!)

Yeah I don't get it either.

Anyway, there's a RR museum in Branson, and that's the one place mom really wanted to go. Not even to the museum or music show (she'd already done that!) She just wanted to hit the gift shop.

Which suprisingly, was more fun then I expected it to be.

Amber was on a budget, but she found some awesome antiques. Unfortunately, about 3/4 of the items were not marked, so she had to continuously go up front and ask a price. By the time I went up on something, I think the lady was annoyed and told me a REALLY HIGH price to get me to go away.

Funny, it worked!

See this tree? It's kinda cool.
Guess how much it cost.
Take a wild guess! I'll tell you at the end.

We should all live by those rules really.

'Cept "Obey your parents". Screw that. Well, unless you're my kid, then dammit do what I say!

It must have been good, mom smiled for a picture. She never does that. I think mom found her "happy place".

Happy Trails Roy, Dale and Trigger!

BTW, the tree, made of horse shoes?
$11,000

CRAZY!

We went down to old Branson, and ate lunch at a really busy diner.

Tayen was happy. Well for the record, she was really good the WHOLE TIME.
I don't care WHAT Aunt Amber says Tayen, you're NOT A BRAT. Really.

(trying to edge up my standing a little bit here).

I had the Aus jus. Mmm... and Amber and I shared some french fried sweet potatoes.

I gave Tayen a sweet potato, and she already had a french fry, one in each hand. She looks at the sweet potato fry, sets it down and says "Bye bye"!

LOL.

We had to hit Stone Hill Winery cuz uh... I'm out of my fav wine. oops. hehe.

Torrie and Amber found one of the same bottles I bought at WALMART for $2 less. *sigh*

Ohhhh... Then ice cream!
It was ok.

After that, we ditched mom and Tayen and all us girls went out and got rowdy and got tattoos. Cuz we're bad asses like that.

Saturday, we got up at the buttcrack of dawn.
so much for restful vacations!

And headed off for Silver Dollar City. This is a place that I have been at least 20 times. We went EVERY YEAR when I was a kid, always during the fall craft festival because it was so pretty, not hot, and my mom's favorite part of SDC.

I really love all the little details around SDC. You will look in the oddest places, and see just little "extras" that add to the feel of the place.

When I was a kid, and we lived in our tiny town (Conway, Iowa), we had a red pump like this right in our front yard.

And we used it!

We were there at the absoute perfect time. The leaves were all changing.

And there's the swinging bridge. No trip is complete without walking the swinging bridge.

With the mill on the other end.

Heck we even found mom a date!

They have the hugest candy store there! This is where I bought Tanner his Taffy, and Gene's black walnut brittle (gross) that he ate in like, an hour.

If you ever hit SDC, you KNOW you have to take the train... even tho the trip has never changed in 30 years. I could probably recite the skit word for word, but you still have to go.

She's never done it tho!

Same characters... different cast.
Every year.

Please SDC, never change this!!

BTW, mom says "Ohh. I *loooove* me some Diet Coke." You know, in SDC where they only sell coke products, and not really any pepsi products. But that doesn't matter cuz mom loves diet coke!