Silver Dollar City

We took a mini family vacation to Silver Dollar City at the end of September.  Steve had never been to Branson...and he still hasn't.  We stayed on Table Rock Lake about 30 minutes away from Branson, and only went as far as Silver Dollar City.  We stayed so far away because we slept in a caboose!  It had two sets of bunk beds (the girls each slept on the bottom) and a queen bed up in the lookout (for us).  It also had a love seat, TV, table, mini kitchen, and very tiny bathroom.  It was also right on the lake and dock with a sun deck, slide, and rope swing.  Steve was even more in love with it than the girls.  He is convinced we should live in a caboose now.  It was pretty tight quarters...and that was with two little ones.  I am not convinced.  It was an awesome place to visit, though, and I would definitely recommend Caboose Junction to others.  However, the owners are going to take a year or so off with no definite plans to reopen. :(  I'm so glad we got our trip in this fall!

 

Hannah LOVED going up the steps to the queen bed

Dinner on our porch looking out to Table Rock Lake

Ahhhhh!  On the sun deck
 

 

  

 

 Funny horrible story.  We packed up the girls and drove the 30 minutes to Silver Dollar City the next morning.  I wanted to be there right when it opened, but we were about 10 minutes late.  "No big deal," I said, "It's not like we are an hour late."  As we see the sign to turn off for Silver Dollar City, we both realize that we thought the other person had grabbed the tickets.  Wonderful.  But of course I was very pleasant about it set a great example for our kids about handling disappointment.  Okay, I pouted.  Sigh.  I'm still working on being a grown-up.  We finally made it....an hour and a half after we started...with Hannah feeling carsick from the hilly roads.  Not a great start to the day.  

This is a bad picture, but it was the only ride that Olive really liked.
 

 Of course there were lots of other things she liked.  Both girls loved this place where you could shoot water and foam balls.

 

 

You could also suck up the balls with these tubes.  Olive and I really liked these.  Steve didn't understand.  He made some jokes about girls liking to vacuum.
 

 

Olive did not enjoy the butterfly ride.  Or the spinning teacups.  And none of us enjoyed the water ride that Steve made us do.  It was like the Fury of the Nile at World's of Fun.  Everyone got soaked and there was a lot of screaming...from all of the girls.

So it ended up Hannah and I riding most of the rides, while Steve and Olive played in the sandboxes, climbed in treehouses, and ate ice cream and kettle corn.
 

Hannah was very proud to be tall enough to ride some rides on her own.  She got in the front car for her first time on a roller coaster.  It was her favorite and she rode it about 10 times.  Steve asked to ride with her.  She said, "Well, you can wait over there and watch me.  Or you could ride in another seat."
 

Hannah and I did REAL roller coasters, too.  My favorite was Powder Keg.  Hannah had no fear waiting in line (as opposed to me worrying about it and almost chickening out when I first rode a roller coaster....at about 14), but she was not too happy when it started.  It was intense and I screamed most of the time.  I asked Hannah what she thought after it was over: "I was too scared to even scream.  We are NOT doing that again."  Then she went back to the little roller coaster for a few more turns.

While in Silver Dollar City, we also went to the girls' first cave: Marvel Cave.  It is one of the largest caves in Missouri and has one of the largest entry rooms in North America.  They flew 5 hot air balloons in there at once!  It also has about 700 stairs on the walking cave tour.  Hannah did them all.  Olive...not so much.  Both girls really loved the cave and didn't complain at all about the one hour walk. 

 

 

 

We visited during the Harvest Festival so there were lots of woodworkers, blacksmiths, glass blowers, etc.  Watching the glass blower was definitely our favorite.  

On the second day of Silver Dollar City, we watched a horse show and stunt show.  I wasn't really planning on the stunt show, Hannah just said she wanted another show after seeing the horses.  So I didn't know one of the stunts was a man catching on fire!  Both girls started screaming and we had to have along talk about stunt people and fire safety.

The girls loved Grandfather's Mansion that was a fun house with crooked rooms and mirrors.  We walked through several times.

Olive loved the petting zoo!

And everyone loves Dippin Dots!

It was our first time skipping naps...and for two days in a row!  There were a few cranky moments, but it was much better than expected.  Lots of good family vacation memories.  It was 4 hours of driving there and back.  The girls slept for some of that time, but when they were awake we tried our best to be annoying parents.  We said things like "Girls, look out that window.  See that big hill over there?  What about that tree?"  We also turned up the music and tried to start a family dance party.  They looked at us like we were crazy.  They preferred lots of games of I'm Thinking of an Animal (Hannah) and I Spy (Olive).  We are already thinking about more trips we can do this fall. 

At the Park

 

Shatto Dairy

One thing that has been on my bucket list for awhile is to visit Shatto Milk Company in Osborne, MO.  Sarah organized a tour for us (they book up months in advance!) and we took the long drive out to the farm.  It was really busy, even on a Thursday.  It was such a great field trip for the girls to see first hand how milk gets from the cow to the store.

First we did a milk tasting.  I'm not a huge milk drinker...but it was DELICIOUS.  My favorite was root beer milk.  It sounds weird, but it tasted like a root beer float.  Runner up for me was strawberry milk.  The girls liked strawberry milk, cotton candy milk, and birthday cake milk (a special one for their 10th anniversary).  They produce, bottle, and ship their milk to grocery stores within a 100 mile radius.  They keep it local so the milk can go from cow to store in as little as 12 hours.  If you are within the area, I highly recommend trying some of their flavored milk.  They also make cheese, butter, and ice cream.  We immediately bought some strawberry milk from our Price Chopper.

Hannah, Norah, Olive, June (Sarah's friends' daughter), and Willa in the back.
 

We also got to peek at how they milk the cows and bottle the milk.  Best of all we got to pet calves that were just a few hours old.
 

And milk a cow.  I think it was my first time.  Which is pretty sad considering my dad grew up on a farm and milked cows daily.  It is definitely harder than it looks.  I was afraid of squeezing too hard, but I wasn't getting anything.  I squeezed tighter and the cow tried to kick me!  Hannah was much better at it than me.  And of course Olive wouldn't go anywhere near the cow.

 

 

 

* All photos are from Sarah since I remembered my camera...but did not have a memory card in it. :(

Zoo with Grandma

Olive was there too....she just wouldn't pose for any pictures.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goings On

What has been going on in the House of Kerrs?

Steve:
* Found his financial soulmate:  Mr. Money Mustache.  It is a deep love.
* Has been biking to work.  Yes, he works downtown.  Yes, it takes an hour.  Yes, he is crazy.
* Just bought a mountain bike today for an adventure race that he decided to do yesterday.  Did I mention crazy?

Megan:
* Finally lost the last of the baby weight....2 1/2 years after having the baby.
* Running again after taking almost a year off.  Plantar fasciitis is no fun.
* Cooking some real meals.  I chop vegetables.  Yeah.  And I tried asparagus for the first time.  What do you think about that, Becky?

Hannah:
* Fell on hardwood floors and went to the ER for splitting open her chin.  No stitches this time.  She is definitely her father's daughter.
* Started playing monopoly with her Dada.  He is in heaven teaching her.  She is in heaven staying up past her bedtime.
* Currently obsessed with all things Halloween.  We have already decorated the house and purchased her costume.

Olive:
* Started asking for a big girl bed, so we said goodbye to the crib.  Sigh.
* Dresses up as a princess every. single. day.
* Finally interested in potty training.  I'm still emotionally scarred from potty training Hannah so I haven't pushed it (and they say girls are easier than boys...ha!).  This time Hannah and M&Ms are the major motivators.  

Chin

Hannah loves to run and climb and jump....and sometimes that leads to some falls.  When she was jumping over a pillow, she tripped and landed face first on our hardwood floors.  Her chin got split open big enough that we thought she might need stitches.  One ER trip later, she proudly displayed her hospital bracelet and bandages.  No stitches this time, just glue.

 

 

Steve's Birthday

Steve hates birthdays, presents, and doing things "because it's his birthday."  But the girls love celebrating birthdays, so Hannah wanted to make him signs and brownies.  Who can turn down a brownie?  Steve's mom was also in town and she took us out to dinner at Freddy's.  We watched it being built this summer and it just recently opened up.

 

 

Meneely Reunion

It's reunion time!!  Here's my grandpa with his 3 kids and their spouses, 6 (out of 7) grandkids and their spouses, and 4 (out of 6) great-grandkids.

  

 And the best part is always the park!  It stopped raining long enough to get a little play time.

 

 

 

Back at my parents' house we had some Meneely Olympics.  It was epic.  We had exciting events like shooting trolls with nerf guns, rock/paper/scissors, and who has the lowest blood pressure.  I rocked that with 88/53.  Yeah, I'm basically in a coma.

It was a pretty even Olympics with everyone winning one event.  And of course 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place got to stand on the podium just like in World Class Track Meet.

Reunions of Yore:  2012, 2011, 2010, 2009

Hannah Stats- 4 1/2 Years

 On September 18th, Hannah turned 4.5 years old.  She is now 42 pounds and 45 inches tall.  Now that Olive is older, they play together a lot.  Hannah is constantly chattering to her and coming up with ideas for games.  Olive think Hannah is hilarious and usually goes along with whatever game is suggested.  They are an awesome pair!  Hannah continues to be a big rule follower.  She is very friendly and always makes a new random friend wherever we go.  She has a long attention span for doing projects.  She likes to "do homework" (workbooks) for fun.  Despite her love of school, she hasn't complained at all about not going to preschool this fall....although she is already excited for kindergarten next year!

For her half birthday she chose going to Little Monkey Bizness and lunch at Fazoli's.  She had her favorite meal: fettuccine alfredo.

Hannah's Favorites at 4 1/2
colors: pink, purple, yellow, blue (she couldn't narrow it down)
animals: flamingo, horse
foods: macaroni, hot dogs, pb&j, raspberries
drinks: grape juice, chocolate milk
restaurants: Fazoli's, Fritz's, Jason's Deli
song: I Like to Move It
books: Berenstain Bear books
TV shows: Dinosaur Train, Bubble Guppies
toys: Pipeworks, iPad, camera
activities: drawing, reading, riding bikes, dress up, snuggling, swimming, climbing, putting on shows
games: Thomas Uno, Monopoly, Elefun