"First" Santa Visit

 Where to start?

1.  I'm crazy

2. Somedays I hide it better than others

Well on this particular day I couldn't hide it, not even a little bit.  There are a lot of things that I've accepted as a part of this pandemic.  But this visit to Santa was not going to make that list, it was in a word "ridiculous".  Hear me out.  The logistics of the visit were fabulous.  You made a reservation, when you arrived they took your temperature and you got in line and there was like 1 other family there.  So that part was fantastic.  But we get up to see Santa and there's a huge piece of plexiglass between Santa and the kids and then on top of it Santa is wearing a plexiglass mask.  So he was EXTRA protected!  Anyway, needless to say there wasn't opportunity for a very good picture and that will never sit well with me.  Now don't get me wrong I never need a perfect Santa picture, I mean we always go to Bass Pro for the free Santa visit but I do want a picture that has a recognizable Santa and I'd really love the opportunity for the kids to actually talk to Santa!  Soooooooo, not to leave too much of a cliffhanger but there may or may not be a second Santa visit in our future.

Pretty Pretty Princess

Well, it's no secret that Everly is the princess of the family so it was about time she had a dress to match the part.  My Mom made this beautiful princess dress for her inclusive of 8lbs of glitter!  The glitter that just keeps on giving :).  It's a good thing she looks so darn cute in it and that it's the perfect twirling dress!!

It's tough being a princess...

Branson Escape

We needed to get away, and we drug the Kirchhoffs with us.  We planned a little trip to Branson for some fun and relaxation.  It happened to also be Halloween weekend, so we also fit in some trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving because we are crazy like that!  The first day we were there it was rainy and gross so we got to check out a place called "Frtiz's" which is basically a safer version of the City Museum and by safer I just mean that there aren't random holes in the middle of the floor and most edges are rounded when you are crawling in the tunnels.  Still PLENTY of ways to hurt yourself I am sure, but we left with no injuries to report!  It's a super fun place for the kids if you're ever in the Branson area.  The next day the weather was much better so we headed over to Silver Dollar City for some amusement park fun.  It was pretty amazing because there were much smaller crowds because of this little thing known as COVID-19 and also the Pumpkin decorations were super fun.  The kids got pretty adventurous with the rides this year, even Everly liked her fair share of thrill!  The next day we spent at Big Cedar, where we explored the grounds in a golf cart, visited the Top of the Rock and also went to Fun Mountain for lunch and arcades.  A little bit of fun for everyone!  And then finally on the last day we made our way to Arkansas for a nice little hike.  We did the Lost Valley trail, however we were a little disappointed that we couldn't go all the way to the end because of COVID...which I still don't really understand, but it was a fun little trail for the family nonetheless and then we capped it off with a dinner at Branson Landing.  Branson, you never disappoint and this time was no exception (even if we did have a hard time finding the "right" beer).