2 days in Branson Missouri

Branson Missouri, a welcomed change

After our experience in Kansas City, MO we were excited when we arrived in Branson.

Photo of the Branson Belle Showboat on the lake.

Branson is like the exact opposite of Las Vegas, a clean, family friendly city of shows and excitement. Not to mention, tree lined and beautiful. There were so many awesome shows to see here you'd need to stay for a week. You can 'ride the ducks' which are cars/boats that you can tour the city and the lake in, very cool. You can ride the Branson Belle showboat and have dinner and a show.

There are comedy shows, singers, dancing, amazing animal trick shows, you name it!

We went and saw the Kirby and Bambi Vanburch magic show. Camdyn was jumping up and down in his seat almost the whole show clapping. Kenzi was fascinated! Of course, Dave loved it, he's been a fan of magic since he was a little boy.

Kirby has been on the Jay Leno show, NBC and all over performing magic. The show was fantastic!!! He and his wife did amazing tricks. They sawed to women in half and moved the boxes around, then put the opposite boxed back together and the women were wearing different color bottoms.

He walked through glass, made a helicopter appear on stage. He would get into a box, disappear and a tiger would appear in his place. It was amazing!!

We didn't take any pictures of the kids at the show because cameras were not allowed in the building. They had one of the biggest thunderstorms while we were there, luckily the kids were enthralled with the show and didn't notice the LOUD thunder that shook the building. I think they thought it was part of the show. Thank goodness or Kenzi would have been crying hysterically thinking a tornado would hit.

This is a photo of the lobby in our hotel in Branson. It was called, Chateau on the Lake. It was a beautiful, very fancy hotel. We LOVED it!

The lobby had a beautiful waterfall, birds chirping and patio dining. The hotel also featured a family theater that played family friendly movies at 2 and 7pm. They served the children cookies and milk on Fri. and Sat. evenings before bed.

They had a playground, two pools, playroom indoors and feeding the fish in the lobby at 8am for children among a whole host of family activities planned throughout the day. They also had a marina with very affordable boat rentals, free kayaks, wave runners etc...

We attended Church on Sunday in Branson. We were expecting a small branch gathered in some random building, nope, not so. There was a full size LDS church house and the ward was the same size as any Utah ward, although I'm sure the ward boundaries were much larger.

After church we rented a pontoon and went out for a leisurely ride on the lake. We actually drove down to Arkansas on the boat, the kids loved it.

Kenzi & Cam on the boat with our hotel in the background

The kids enjoyed the boat ride, we only had one mishap. Dave gunned the boat and knocked Cam out of his seat onto the floor of the boat. Cam was not very happy and started to cry. Other than that it was a beautiful, relaxing ride to Arkansas.

Cam took his job as Captain of the boat very seriously. Well, captain for about 10 seconds while daddy took the picture :-)

The kids took turns driving the boat, you can see the beautiful countryside in the background.

We can't leave out a photo of Kenzi as she drives the boat. I must admit, it was quite the interesting ride for me. When the kids were driving the boat would jerk slightly from side to side the entire time, I just had to smile because that made the boat trip so much more enjoyable for them.

We would have liked to stay in Branson a little longer, but we have to make it to D.C. on time so it was off to Little Rock Arkansas this morning. Arkansas was beautiful, but we were surprised that on the main road going North and South through Arkansas you drive through "The Sticks" the whole way. It was beautiful rolling hills, green and tree lined the whole way.

We did stop at the rock bridge for a quick break, we have some beautiful photos of our trip through Arkansas for tommorrows post. Good Night.