Trip report: Final day

Woo Hoo! Finally slept late!

I woke up at bit after 7 am, with Dunkin Donuts on my mind.

Such a nice way to wake up.

Threw a t-shirt over my pajama tank (cuz walking into DD in my tank might get my double D's arrested), bought a dozen, plus a couple of milks for the kids, and was home by 8.

Just about the time the kids woke up.

We had no plans for the day, except a show at 5 pm.

Oh, the children moaned. And whined. And moaned some more. Nevermind that if we were at home, the kids wouldn't be doing much of anything either. We're in Branson, and they wanted to ride go-karts, or play mini-golf or go to Silver Dollar City.

None of which were a part of my budget or interests. I was pretty darn happy to plant my butt on the sofa and read my book.

However, around 10:30, I let the whining get the best of me and we went to the Landing to look at shoes.

I've been debating appropriate shoes to take on our big Disney trip. I wanted to wear Crocs 24/7, but I brought Crocs for this trip, and by Friday, my feet were aching.

I decided Dan was probably right -- although I did not admit that -- and that I needed some real running shoes. Not the cheapos I usually get at Wal-mart, but real shoes. With a brand name and everything.

We stopped at Rack Room Shoes, which is the first shoe store past the parking lot. Yeah, I was on a mission.

Except the New Balance didn't feel right.

Nike's didn't feel right.

The very nice saleslady said she knew just the thing.

Ryka. That's the brand. And they're awesome. Saleslady was right. Now, they are white and powder blue, which isn't exactly my favorite color combo, but they fit like a dream.

Then the silly place has a buy one, get one half off sale.

So the kids all got shoes, too. Brady wears men's sizes now, and Dan (the former shoe salesman) decided he needed New Balance. The girls got Nikes.

It was a lot of money. But it's the first time in a couple of years that we haven't gotten our shoes at Wal-mart or Target. So a nice splurge. And I'll probably wear mine until they fall apart.

The kids will probably wear theirs until their next growth spurt.

Have I mentioned that my son is already as tall as my mom (his grandma) and almost as tall as me? We wear the same shoe size. So I guess I have a pair of New Balance's at my disposal, too.

Next item on the agenda was lunch, but nothing really sounded good. We stopped and filled up the van, bought some more pop (cuz we already drank an entire 12 pack), and then went to Pizza World, where we ordered a medium and large to go.

Then came home and ate it all up. Good pizza.

Hung out for a few hours. With more moaning and whining from the kids.

Except when I popped in the DVD I bought the other night at The Haygoods. Everyone shut up and watched that. Which I think is a nice comment about how much my family liked the show... usually I put that thing in and get "Oh mom, the Haygoods again?" This time, everyone sat and watched. And even now, hours after we watched the DVD, Brady is singing the songs. It's cracking me up.

We left the condo about 3 because Dan and I had reached our moaning tolerance level. Went to the Amish Store, where I bought a soup mix. That's what I always buy there.

Stopped at the Outlet Mall (not the same one as Thursday) and walked around the VF store and the pet store. And walked through a couple of craft malls, where we bought nothing because it's all the same stuff that was there last year at this time.

Our show for this evening was Bart Rockett.

On the way to the show, Brady commented that he was not only a magician, he was also a ventriloquist. Then he said, "Ventriloquists are supposed to be funny."

Mykiah says, "And if they're not, they're just scary."

Which cracked me up.

Then we saw the Bart Rockett show. It wasn't an awful show. It was OK. I've seen worse. But I really hated that he made ongoing, frequent jokes about the size of the audience. I was sorely tempted to reduce the audience size by one, but I wouldn't embarrass my husband that way. The way to get someone to enjoy your show is not to make fun of your audience for coming. Just really turned me off the show from the start. Ches did love the ventriloquism part. She laughed her fool head off, which made Dan and I laugh. But it was really just OK. Decent for the price, but the price wasn't much, so take that into account.

My advice? Spend another $20-$30 and go see Darren Romeo. If you're looking for a magic show in Branson, his is my favorite. Darren entertains on so many levels (and I'm not just saying that because he added me to his friend list on MySpace). I have now officially seen all the major magic shows in Branson. See, I had to go see Bart just so I could make that statement when I recommend Darren.

Best part about the show? It was at 5 pm, so we got out in time to get to IHOP just as the dinner crowd was leaving. Had a nice little dinner and satisfied my pancake craving. And yes, there's an IHOP 15 minutes from my house. So what?

Went back to the condo and went swimming for a bit. Came home, ran a hot, hot bath and then sat down to write this trip report.

I didn't take any photos today. Nothing to take photos of at the condo, and Bart Rockett doesn't allow photos. And trust me, he made sure you knew it.

So this brings our trip to an end. I'm typing as we're all sitting here in our PJ's, lounging and laughing and contemplating whether we really want to stay in one hotel room ever again.

Tomorrow we start home, and Monday I'll start posting this. I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip. If not, sorry. I had a ball.

Comments

[Kellie (joelsgirl)]

Glad you had a good time!