Silver Dollar City

We have had tickets to go to Silver Dollar City for months, but we have held off so we could see it all set up for Christmas. On Sunday we packed up the kids and drove up to Branson for the day to use the tickets and enjoy the day together. This is going to go down as one of my favorite family memories... ever. In fact, I have been invited to an all-night crop this weekend, and after not paper scrapping for over a year I am going to break out the scrap crap and make an album with the best of the nearly 300 pictures I took.

Matt was wingman for the younger boys when they wanted to ride the scarier rides. It was awesome to watch them just having so much fun together. Kyle wouldn't ride the swing ride (although Todd couldn't wait to get on it),
but for some reason this behemoth appealed to him. And for me, the expression on his face makes this the best carnival ride photo.... ever. He did this the whole time, while Todd would occasionally open his eyes as he swirled by and smile at us, then promptly shut them again.
I love the interaction in this shot as Matt was telling Todd how well he had done as the ride finally came to a halt. After all those I-want-to-puke expressions throughout the ride, Kyle was all smiles when it ended.
As Chet and Matt rode a big roller coaster, these guys were planning which rides they wanted to hit. In the end they rode every single one in the kid area.
My baby is tall enough to ride the rides alone? Are you sure?
Maybe she is, but that doesn't mean she would! Faith was her buddy on all her rides, and when Beth didn't want her elephant to fly Faith just put her arm around her and they circled around at ground level.
Kyle was on the front of his roller coaster ride, and here he is telling us "No!" when we told him to put his arms in the air "like you just don't care" (Todd called up that last bit to him.)
For Beth, the very best part was the frog ride. They all hop in a circle ribbiting and bouncing. She wanted to bring it home and keep it in the backyard. The property is big enough, the truck isn't.
In the end, we watched the lighting of the tree, saw the parade of lights, ate a funnel cake, and then left the park to take the kids to dinner.
It was about as close to a perfect family day as we have ever had, and a fantastic memory to end the year on.