Weekend in Branson

A few months back the Aswegan Family (my bestie from junior high, Jennifer, who is married to one of Graden's long time friends/fishing partner, Chris) planned a weekend family trip to Branson for the last weekend in March and invited us to stay with them!  This made for a great opportunity for the boys to get some fishin' done and the girls (and baby John!) to get some bonding in!

The Aswegans arrived at our house on Thursday evening about 10:30pm (otherwise it'd be a 9+ hour drive from their house in Iowa to Branson -- very hard to do with a little one!).  After their arrival, we visited for a while and then turned in for the evening since we had to work the next day and their alarm (John) goes off pretty early!

Only the finest hotel stemware for our wine!

They left Friday morning and we followed behind Friday after we got off work - getting to Branson around 9:30pm.  As soon as we arrived, we uncorked the wine and popped the tabs on a few Busch Light beers!  (vino for the ladies, beer for the boys!)

The next morning they had to attend a time share presentation so Graden and I had the honor of keeping an eye on John.  Of course, that largely meant *I* would keep an eye on John, but he was a doll!  He played a bit with his toys, then had some breakfast and took a goooood morning nap to make sure he was well rested for the day of shopping at Branson Landing with the girls!  The Aswegans got back from their presentation about noon so the boys went out to the lake to fish and the girls headed for lunch and shopping!

Our freshly-made-at-the-table guac!  Mmm, delicious!

Jennifer and John @ Branson Landing

The boys fished until dusk, then got back to the hotel in time to clean up and join us at the Shogun Japanese steak house - a first for Chris and John! They were both impressed!  One classic moment of the night was when the chef was flipping the egg around with his cooking utensils and flipped the egg high in the air and caught it in his tall chef hat.  In a just-as-serious-as-can-be tone, Chris says, "Where'd it go?"

The Aswegan Family

The Old Couple

After a wonderful dinner of sushi, Japanese beer, fresh veggies, shrimp, chicken and scallops ... we headed back to the room for some R&R!

 The boys had big plans of getting up early to get some extra fishing in before the journey home!  It worked out perfect ... they left about 6:30am for fishing until about noon, then head to Lee's Summit to break up the long drive for John.  Jen and I stayed behind while the boys fished and had breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Lee's Summit a little after 8am ... arriving in time for lunch at Five Guys Burgers (one of the best homemade burger and fries known to man as Jennifer can now attest to!).  This arrangement gave us more girl time and the boys more boy time.  Win-Win!

Jen gave Hunter this very blanket when he was born.

You can almost hear his smile in this picture!!

The Aswegans headed back for home (Lisbon, Iowa) a little after 4.  It was great spending time with them and getting to see John.  It is next to impossible to think he is almost a year old already!

Since it was just the two of us who traveled to Branson for the weekend, the kids had their own fun while we were away!

Dayne with her Lake Winnebago Crew!

Dayne spent the weekend at her friends house (who live on a lake) so she went tubing for two days in a row!  We have taken full advantage of the 80 degree March days!  She also suckered one of the mom's into going to see The Hunger Games movie with them.  Not too shabby of a weekend for a 12 year old!

Hunter spent time with his friends & their girlfriends ... having a "couples night" (they sound old!) ... and working and attending an event at Avila (where he will be going to college this Fall).

All in all ... a pretty fun weekend.  Bring on the Funday Monday, right!?