1st Stop: Branson, MO

This year we had the opportunity to go on our first family vacation. Just the 4 of us!  The destination:  Branson, MO.  Branson is only about 5 1/2 hours from our home in Kansas, so it was an easy enough drive but far away enough to be a break from home.  Kevin parents let us use their time share and I'd have to say that is the best way to go if you ever have the chance to do it. We had a full kitchen, washer and dryer, all of the dishes, soaps, etc provided for us.  It saved us A LOT of money in the long run.  The weather was decent the first few days and we were able to play outside and go out and about around town with only sweatshirts on.  It was so nice!  The girls LOVED to swim and we took them every single day.  I think Lauren would stay in the water forever if she could.  All Kaelin wanted to do was sit in the hot tub.  My kind of girl :)  
After a few days of beautiful sunshine, we had a few days of rain and then the cold came.  We decided to visit Silver Dollar City and of course it ended up being the coldest day of our trip.  We managed to stay for a few hours before we made the decision to leave because the girls just would not keep their hats and gloves on and with dusk approaching it was just getting too cold for their little heads and hands.
That evening we went to the Festival of Lights. The girls LOVED it. Lauren kept "oooing" and "ahhing" and saying "what's that?" etc at all of the lights. It was absolutely adorable.  Overall we had a nice relaxing time.  We learned some lessons about traveling and "vacationing" with small children..Such as.. museums are a no go unless you bring along some glass cleaner.  Especially museums that don't allow you to bring in food or drink aka my bag of tricks/lifesavers.  We had a pair of screaming/bored kids. We had made the mistake of letting them out of the stroller for a bit only for them to start licking glass cases and want to touch everything in sight.  Lol.  Then they were screaming when it was time to get back into the stroller.  Museums are not for toddlers!   :) 

Here are a few a lot of pictures from the first part of our trip.  Enjoy! 
Ugh- I lied.. there aren't any Branson pictures on my computer.  Kevin must have uploaded them to his.  I will post them later today.  I am going to try really hard to update more and more. I know you are all missing me!!