I'm trying to make this the last post of Summer Vacation so hopefully it won't be too long. And now the details are getting fuzzy so maybe that will limit my wordiness.
So after the Butterfly Palace, I think ,the next day was Sunday. We got up bright and early to head off to Church. We decided on the 11:00am ward just because that was what we'd be doing if we were at home. I was just expecting a regular old ward but it was totally NOT what I expected. First, we walked in to find Tom Brett sitting up on the stand. Josh's family was in the old McKinney Ward (a looooong time ago) with the Brett family. We knew they were up in Branson but we had no idea we were going to their ward. So that was a fun surprise. Second, it was a good sized ward, maybe on the small side, but when everyone started singing the opening hymn Josh and I looked at each other and our jaws dropped! We found out later that several families in that ward are part of shows there in Branson. It was so awesome.
Josh went to say hello Tom Brett after Sacrament Meeting and he ended up giving us some tickets to their show the next day (front row even!) We hadn't planned on seeing them (we didn't plan on seeing any shows really because we didn't think the kids would sit through one) but I'm so glad we did. It was a great show! And the kids loved it too. Highly recommended!
While we were there we noticed some people we had seen at church on Sunday. During the intermission we talked to Brydon, the Brett's oldest son (he is a major reason to go and see this show - he was so hilarious!), and he told us they were part of a show, "It." He said it was great. On the last night we were in Branson we decided to go see "It." Totally awesome show too. Five brothers, their wives and all their children including several adopted siblings to the five brothers and parents of the brothers and some of the wives as well were all part of the show. It was amazing!
At some point in the trip we also saw a show with several animals. Not my favorite but the kids enjoyed it.
Anyway, back to Sunday. After church we went home and just hung out. Free Sunday afternoons may have been my favorite thing about the whole vacation!! I think I even got another nap.
We watched some movies and played. 
Most of the storms were finally passed so the next day was looking good for some boating and swimming pool time. The sunsets from our back porch were lovely!
The kids were dying to go to the pool so Daddy took them over while Mommy did laundry. Totally fair, right? I did come over later to take some pictures.
Maddie and Ryley were having a blast jumping in. They must have asked me to take their picture while jumping in every time because I have about a bajillion of those.
I don't know how, but Josh convinced Cash to try jumping in from the side of the pool. We've been trying to get him to try this all summer and for whatever reason today was the day he would try - yay! It took a lot of jumping to Daddy first but eventually he would jump in all on his own and go under the water.
He was quite proud of himself. I was mighty impressed too.
They can finally all jump in together!
Sawyer had lots of fun in the pool too. 
He had to have his turns jumping in to Daddy too.
As Cash got braver so did Sawyer. This kid mimics EVERYTHING the other kids do. Heaven help me! This little pose at the edge of the pool could possibly be the cutest thing ever! He would stand like this at the edge of the pool just waiting for Josh to get over to him. Don't worry - I was right behind him the whole time so he wasn't standing on the edge of the pool all alone or anything. 
The water was a little chilly for me so I just enjoyed watching the kids and taking the pictures. 
A few other things to remember about Branson:
- The wifi did NOT work. Josh and I had planned on watching movies on Netflix after the kids were in bed but that plan got thrown out when we had no wifi. We ended up finding a Blockbuster about 10 minutes away and made several visits there. There are not many watchable movies out there for rent!
- Sawyer ended up getting sick while we were there and was up all night for several nights. Not fun for anyone! He spent one entire night between Josh and I in bed watching videos on Josh's phone. He would watch one and then cry when it was over, about two minutes later. Josh would wake up and push play again. Very miserable night.
- One day, we were watching TV and Cash was sitting on the floor. All of a sudden he started screaming and I looked down at him just in time to see this teeny, tiny little scorpion scurrying away. We captured the scorpion really quick and looked at Cash's arm. Sure enough, he had been stung twice! We were frantic thinking that baby scorpions are more poisonous than the big ones and because Cash is our kid that has crazy reactions to things. The kid blows up with a mosquito bite so what's going to happen with a scorpion? We started to head off to the hospital but it was about 30 minutes away and he felt better by the time we got there so we went out to eat instead. :) We did some research online on the way and found out that this particular scorpion is very low on the venomous scale so we figured he'd live. Everyone was terrified of getting stung by another scorpion after that and I was constantly searching the floor for them. I ended up finding another BIG DADDY one a day or two later. I was SO ready to leave by that point!
On the last night we were there I had Josh stop at the top of the big hill (our condo was at the bottom of it) so I could take a picture of the sunset. So much better in person!
It was a good trip but I don't think we're in any hurry to go back.
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