Vacation in August 2004

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Vacation in August 2004 Let’s start with my weekend before our vacation. I got an e-mail from my sister on Friday telling me that Mom had to have emergency surgery. They did a colostomy on her. Her surgeon said she did well with the surgery but they were waiting for her to wake up. Her heart handled it well but they still needed to see how her kidneys were handling the surgery. Mom is currently 70 years old, and has been getting progressively worse since she was diagnosed with diabetes 13 years ago. She has lost most of her eye sight and is on oxygen all the time now. She also has been having heart attacks and kidney failure on and off for the last two years and is in the hospital at least every other month for one of the two problems. So I was a little concerned that this might be “It”. On Sunday My sister sent me another e-mail telling me mom was doing real well and if things go well she should be home in about a week. Things were looking up, Mom is doing great, Kids are going back to school in two weeks, we actually had money in the savings and all the bills were caught up. Monday, Tim sends me an e-mail to tell me the military is giving him 3 days off this week and wanted to know when I wanted him to take them and what I wanted to do with them. I thought about it and looked at our schedule. I decided, since the Military was having a base wide picnic on Friday he should take Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off so he could come to the picnic with the boys and me. He said, How about Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and we could go to Silver Dollar City in Branson MO. I countered with How about Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and we make it a 5 day weekend at Branson. Again he countered and said he had a half day of work only on Friday cause of the picnic and he wanted to take Tuesday………. Now WHY did he ask me what days I wanted him to take when he already knew what days he planned on taking? <S> SO I called him and told him to do what he wanted to do. He then drove home to discuss it in person and have lunch. While he was here for lunch I started packing for the trip. 4 people 3 days. No problem, stuffed everything into one big duffle bag on wheels. Finished up the dishes, and called a friend to have her come by to feed the critters while we were gone, made reservation for a Motel so we would have a place to sleep. He went back to the base and bought the tickets to Silver Dollar City (great discounts on base, $40 each and kids free for two days) and filled up the gas on the car. At 3:30 he came home, an hour early from work and wanted to know WHY I wasn’t ready to leave yet. <S> So I dug up socks for the boys and myself, Printed out a map to get us there and made sure both the cats were still in the house. Then we went to my friend’s house and dropped off the house keys and were on the road by 4:30 . At 5:30 the boys were starting to get fussy cause they were hungry and wanted dinner, but Tim didn’t want to stop. It took me only 30 min to convince him to stop and feed the family, and that NO we could NOT drive the 4 ½ hours to Branson before we stopped for dinner. <S> so we stopped a t a little dinner on the side of the road. This is when I find out HE only got $20 in cash for the entire trip. LMBO!!! So I paid for the diner with my visa, including the tip, Then he went ahead a filled up the car again just for fun and off we went again. About an hour later, Of Course the kids are gonna have to go to the bathroom. Hahahahahaha. He complained a bit but went ahead and stopped so we could have a little bathroom break. Then back on the road we went. Now the map I had didn’t actually give exact directions to the motel, just general ones, but the reservation confirmation I got had directions so we were following those when we got close. My instructions had miles and time to travel but the ones from the motel didn’t. The roads we were driving on looked like backwoods country roads even though they were listed as Highways. Tim was panicking because he thought we were lost. <lol> about 9pm we pulled into the motel and I got the keys while Tim stayed in the car with the boys. Of course the first thing the boys notice about the place is the pool and the first thing I think was “Darn, I forgot to pack swimsuits”. <G> We were on the second floor, so I dragged my butt up the steps and Tim dragged the duffle bag up. We had the boys take a bath and off to bed everyone went. At 6am I woke up and decided to go ahead and get up and dressed, so Tim decided he should get up also. After we were up we woke up the kids and went down for the “complimentary breakfast”, 8 types of cereal only one Andrew can eat, Donuts, Bagels, coffee and Orange Juice. Not the most conducive for my diet. I figure I might as well have bagel for breakfast since I will probably work off all the calories anyway with all the walking I am gonna be doing. The boys both decided to have Donuts for breakfast (go figure) and Tim had cereal. The park opened at 9:30 so we had time to kill, but decided to go ahead and go and see the shops at the entrance to the park. When we got there we found out they had this tour of the “ Marvel Caves ” under the park open, SO we figured Why not. We saw it took and hour for the tour and that would take up most of the time before the park opened, so we got in line. At the beginning of the tour the guide told us the tour was 60-90 min long and that there were over 600 steps that we had use, Also that there were no bathrooms and to NOT drop anything, no gum, not wrappers, nothing. I was still thinking about those 600+ steps I had to go down and up………… we started down. After the first 20 steps there was a gathering area, and the guide told us again to put all gum in the trash can, and that the first 20 steps we just walked down do not count in the 600. She opened a door and in we went. We walked down about 5 flights of stairs and then 4 ramps with stairs in between them. About half way down I am noticing my legs are beginning to shake a little with each step down. About ¾ of the way down I am holding on to the hand rails because I am afraid of slipping. Everything is damp and slick. When we got all the way down, there was this landing where they took a picture of each family group, so we would have proof we made it all the way down <S> (yes, I will post pictures of the caves) after the pictures we walked through some winding paths where I even had to duck low to get through, stopping every once in a while for the guide to explain a little bit more about the cave. At the end of the caves there were again steps. This time only 3 flights<s>. We walked up those and through a door to a small tram that we got to ride back to the entrance of the cave. I just sat there thinking my legs will never be the same again. When we finished the tour the park was open. So in we went. We rode this ride and that ride. Well actually we rode EVERY ride in the park. There was only one that Andrew was not tall enough to ride. We were telling the kids to wait for us in this area where they could watch the ride while we went on it and this very nice woman agreed to watch the boys while we rode Wildfire. I laughed and laughed while we rode it. I would have gone again but since the boys couldn’t ride it, I didn’t. We stayed at the park till about 5pm then we went out for dinner. On the way home Tim and I were talking about how I forgot the swimsuits so we stopped at a Wal-Mart and picked up swimsuits for everyone at the discount counter, then we went back to the motel and the kids got to swim till about 9pm when we went up to go to bed. The hardest thing for me to do was Walk up those steps to the second floor to get to our room. I took it one step at a time with a pause in between each step. <LOL> The next morning again I woke up at 6. I took a hot bath to soak out my muscles because my legs hurt so much just touching them hurt. Then we went down (sob!) the stairs to get breakfast. Then BACK up the darn stairs to discuss what our plans for the day would be. We decided to go to Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, then to have a Tour of Branson in the “Ride the Duck” tours. Ripley’s was pretty cool except it was full of ramps and stairs <S>. After that we went to the Duck. It is a tour of Branson on an amphibious Vehicle. We were each given a duck bill to blow for various reasons and we got on the Duck. The drive/tour guide talked the entire trip. He told bad jokes and told us good places to eat and sites to see. He told us the history of the Ducks. It was an old army vehicle that was made in 1954, if I remember correctly. It had been refurbished for the tours. After the tour of town he took us to a hill over looking the area and then down into the lake. Then all the kids in the Duck got to “drive” it in the lake. After the tour the boys got certificates saying they were honorary pilots <s>. By now our morning was pretty much done so we went out for lunch. Then we went back to Silver Dollar City and rode all the rides the boys liked best. We rode one rollercoaster 3 times in a row. <LOL> you could ride it backwards or forwards and they bath had to do it both ways. And they both had to sit with me while they did it. Again about 6pm we left and went to get some dinner. Then back to the motel. By now my legs were really beginning to hurt, but the boys wanted to go swimming again. I decided to just sit pool side and watch them swim. I sat out there till 9pm then made the trek back up the steps to the second floor. We dropped off our room key and left Branson Thursday morning about 5:30 and stopped for breakfast about 8am . And we got home about 11:30 . When we got home I notice this very furry black cat in our house. I was trying to place it since I knew it wasn’t one of my cats. Then I realized it was my friend’s mother’s cat. I called her up to let her know we were back and to ask her why her mom’s cat was in out house. She started laughing and said, that explains why she couldn’t find it last night when she was looking for it. It must have followed her to my house and got locked in when she left. So I tossed the cat out, Cleaned the litter box, fed the cats, and started laundry. Then I sat down. If I would have sat down first I would not have got up. <S> While I was sitting here reading my e-mail, the neighbor kid, Stacy, opened the door and said Bear (my black cat) was outside and she tossed it back in the house. So I pried my self up and caught my friend’s mom’s cat again and tossed it out the door again. I sat down and started reading my e-mail again…….. Then my neighbor’s other Daughter, Alyssa, opened the door and said Bear was outside and tossed her back in the house. Again, I pried myself out of my chair and caught my friend’s mom’s cat and tossed it out………about a min later while I was still trying to read my e-mail, the door opens again, and before they can say anything, I told them, that CAT is NOT Bear and I do not want it in the house. They closed the door and didn’t say anything<S> That evening, Andrew came over and sat on my lap, I cried out in pain. Tim Jumped up to spank Andrew for hurting me but I stopped him. I told him all he did was sit on my lap but my thighs hurt so bad it felt like some one had stabbed me. I took another hot bath and went to bed a little early ( 10pm ). The following morning I got up about 8:30 . It was so nice to sleep in my own bed. I truly hate hotel beds. They are so small. I am used to a California King bed and Hotel beds are little doubles. At 10:30 Tim came home to get us and take us to the picnic on the base. If I had not already told the kids all about it, I would have suggested we not go because I just wanted to sit around and do nothing. Instead we went to the base and walked around the park for three hours. Then back home. I got another e-mail from my sister telling me mom is doing great and her colostomy will probably be reversed in six months. Today is Sunday and I can finally walk across the room with out wincing with each step. I had a great time and would do it again in a heart beat, even with the killer stairs <S>. Tim is already planning out next trip, either Celebration City in Branson or Worlds of Fun in Kansas City , of six flags over Chicago . He figures he can get a long weekend in October. I told him we should wait till Easter break. We shall see. Aren’t spur of the moment vacations the best!!