A "Weild" Ride: Dunweil Branson Trip 2014

Another Branson trip as come and gone. We headed down the same week in August when everyone went back to school and it worked out great again. But was it hot! I knew that I probably wasn't going to have quite the same blast as usual. I'd been so looking forward to it all year, but by the time it arrived I was definitely in a third trimester state. The week or two before I'd begun feeling hormonal, hot, and cranky and I was a little nervous about living with friends in my current state. But I think I was pretty well behaved. I told BJ to give me some sort of signal if I started acting too mean or cranky. :)

The boys did really well on the drive there. This year we were staying at the Branson Yacht Club and Abbey had warned us that it wouldn't be quite as swank as the previous year. But it actually worked out well. The only problem was a not great AC in our room and a super firm bed. But both were remedied by me sleeping on the living room couch and a maintenance guy finally doing something that made a slight difference in our room. It was weird being on vacation with my family but not sleeping with them, but a pregnant woman's gotta do what a pregnant woman's gotta do. I really did think the lame AC for the first 12 hours was going to be a show stopper though. After that was settled it really was a good accommodation. We had a beautiful lake view and the living area turned out to be plenty large enough for all of us. We boated most days and experimented with more local Branson eateries based on more TripAdvisor finds. The first night we tried Arandas Taco Shop which was really good. Not at all Branson-y, but still delicious! This was followed by a flat tire we discovered in the Wal Mart parking lot. We quickly drove to the Super Wal Mart on the other side of town and got it repaired even after they were closed. Phew!

We also tried Mel's Hard Luck Diner with singing waiters. This was not a great night for the Weil family as Pierce woke up from the boys' usual drive to dinner nap saying his stomach hurt and holding on to it. It seemed pretty legit. I ate most of my dinner, but just wanted to get out of there is case he was about to lose it. We walked around the cute little shopping area and he went in and out of pain. Finally we headed back and put him to bed and he was fine. Another crisis averted. I had visions of being stuck in a little condo room with a sick boy and wondering if we'd all go down like flies. I was very relieved we dodged that bullet.

Most of our days were spent on the beautiful lake. It was so hot that we got in every chance we got, but still so fun. The boys did great and are little lake rats. They loved swimming and each tubed once. Alice hung in there the first couple of days, but hit her limit shortly after. Aaaron and BJ took the boat out a couple of afternoons to "trash each other" on the tube and get some good skiing in. We hit downtown Branson (the boys loved the free trolley rides) complete with trips to the candy store and sweet little fudge shop where the boys got to lick a fudge bowl, The Landing, and drove the strip every day. We had lots of fun late night conversations and even came away with a great new "inside prank" involving a creepy bunny craft Ava made and hiding spots in an attempt to scare each other that has continued since we've come home!

The boys had known we were going to "Banson" and were so excited. I think they thought our condo was "Banson" because every time we went into town the first couple of days they whined that they didn't want to leave. :) They also began referring to our home as our "old house" which cracked us up. They weren't excited to come home initially, but once we got there they ran around and commented on all of our "new" things. I guess a week is a long time to be away!