I thought I would share the highlights of our trip to Branson. Since Tom is in Guatemala, Claudia, Tom's mom, and I decided to head to Silver Dollar City for a few days with the kids. Kelly kept Caleb, as he is too little for the rides there, and off we went. We spent all of Thursday at SDC, and spent all of Friday at the outlet stores. I am just going to list some of the highlights:

Me almost throwing up on the big boat ride that just swings you back and forth and back and forth. Oh my! You should NEVER ride that just after riding the "ride around the boats super fast in a circle ride" twice, and after just eating a hamburger! The kids stomachs were fine, but they just had cotton candy!

Getting tapped on the shoulder while I was ordering a skillet meal. The man said, "Are you missing a kid?" I looked and said, "yeah" because Ezra was missing! He took me down the path about 10 yards and there was Ezra surrounded by a group of grandma's watching out for the little lost boy! He had apparently been walking alone and away from us looking confused! The man knew he was mine, because thankfully, I had dressed Ezra and Micah in the same bright yellow racing shirts that Papa Graney had sent!

Asking the kids what their favorite part of all Silver Dollar City was, the many rides, the shows, etc. Micah's answer, "The upside down house" Anna's answer, "The upside down house" Ezra's answer, "The thing that goes round and round" (we think the swings is what he meant) and Abigail's answer, "Well, probably the upside down house, if I had gotten to go in it!"

My favorite part of the trip: finding a pair of jeans for $8.99 a the Gap Outlet!

When my daughter Anna was born, I had a great idea. I would buy a journal for each of the kids to write letters and prayers for them in that I would one day give them as a keepsake when they turned 18 or 21, or got married. You get the idea. I began writing in Anna's right away. I wrote down her first smiles, first words, first steps, etc. I filled it with letters and prayers. It has about 50 pages written in it. When Abigail came along, I began writing in one for her. It has about 25 pages in it. Then came Micah, and his has about 9 pages written in so far. Last year, I managed to finally buy journals for Caleb and Ezra, and I don't think I've written anything in them! They are cool looking journals. I have to say that. And one of them has their birth story written on a napkin stuck inside. I imagined the other day that the Lord decided to take me home, and my kids were left with their memories of me and their journals. So...though I am going get around to writing in the journals...one of these days. At least I can document some of our stories on this blog. Perhaps I will one day get it published into a book, like Kelly did. And they they will have a great record of their growing up years.