Schwatken's Branson Vacation

I think the Griswold's have some competition with their family vacations!  Last week Adam, Jack, NonaJane and I headed out for a fun filled family vacation! The whole Schwatken clan including Ron, Sue, Ryan, Emma, Nicole, Madison and Molly all met up at Table Rock Lake to stay in Ron and Sue's new time share.  The resort is called "Stormy Point". The village is adorable! The brightly painted homes and manicured landscaping reminded me of a Dr. Seuss story. 

The view from the entrance of Stormy Point

Adam and I on the wave runner

Of course this fun filled family vacation happened to fall during the hottest damn week ever. Literally, I think it might have been the hottest week ever. I am pretty sure heat records were being broke all over the United States.  The temperatures were over a 100 from sun up to sun down, each and every day that we were gone.  I think a few random rain drops fell on Monday, but other than that it was much like being in an oven.  Of course the entirety of our vacation plans revolved around being outside, and since the Schwatken's were out to have 'a FUN FILLED family vacation' we couldn't let a little HEAT scare us off. We braved the outdoors like complete idiots, and we had a blast. No worries, we do realize that sweet baby Nona is about the size of a Thanksgiving turkey, so we were extra cautious to make sure she didn't bake.  Thus we kept her on ice for the majority of the week. LITERALLY. My sister-in-law had the ingenious idea to freeze water bottles, and then lay Nona on top of them in her stroller (with a towel between them to protect her skin).  It worked great! Nona managed to stay pretty cool and comfortable! We also purchased one of those silly fans that also mist water. I no longer think they are silly. They are AMAZING. Everyone loved it, except NonaJane.  She wimpered and fussed anytime someone misted her.  Which of course Jack seemed to get a kick out of, and was quick to look innocent "I was just fanning her Mom :) "  He could have misted me all day long, but I guess that was not as entertaining.

Me, NonaJane and Jack lounging at the pool

 So anyhoo,  we traveled down on Monday (in Adam's NEW truck! Post to come on this).  We spent the afternoon settling in, checking out the pool and getting our wave runner into the dock slip.  Nicole and I went out for a quick spin... I screamed like a maniac and was acting crazy till I realized that everyone could probably hear us clear as day.  Our silly charades meant that I woke up on Tuesday morning sore all over. Officially aware that my post pregnancy body is out of shape.

Riding the train at Silver Dollar City

Adam and Jack on his first roller coaster

Me and Jack on the flying Caterpillars

Adam, Molly and Jack in the bouncing frogs

Jack and Nona passed out in the stroller at the end of the day :)

 Tuesday morning we headed to Silver Dollar City. I LOVE that place! It is so clean and very shaded. They have great rides, fun shops, entertainment, and nursing stations! Yes, air conditioned private buildings to nurse your wee little ones.  I remembered this with Jack, so I knew it would work great having an infant with us.  Jack and I rode the flying caterpillars just like we did when he was 10 months old.  Adam and he rode some flying elephants, and jumping frogs. Jack did NOT like the frogs, he was crying and saying "I don't want to bounce."  Surprisingly though he loved the roller coaster "Fire in the Hole!" and enjoys recounting his experience of being splashed at the end.  Mid-day we took a heat break and went in to enjoy one of their shows.  It started off with an extremely weird looking weirdo.  He had on purple knickers, with rhinestones, and long hair.  If the air conditioning hadn't felt so good I might have tried to escape. BUT then an amazing 14 year old juggler came out.  Jack informed us he too would juggle on stage when he gets bigger.  He now  likes to show us how to juggle. We hope his aspirations will go a bit higher than that but didn't want to shoot his dreams in the foot. After the juggler there were some tight rope walkers which were pretty cool too.  After the show, Ron and Sue spent some time with all the little ones while Adam, Nicole and I went on some roller coasters.  We also found time to enjoy the water classics including the log ride, and river raft. I was spared on the log ride, but came out of the river ride looking like a wet poodle.  We learned that heading to a them park with two little ones is definitely exhausting and a lot of work. But we could not have done it without the help of Ron, Sue, and Nicole. We are so thankful for them!!!

Adam, Jack and Madison enjoying the fireworks

Sue and NonaJane

Wednesday was the 4th of July. We spent the day at the pool, then cleaned up and headed out for the fireworks show.  I am an official 4th of July party pooper cause I don't really like fireworks.  This is most likely do to the brainwashing of my parents :)  They always talked about how dangerous they are (TRUE) and how you have to fight the crowds, stay up late, etc. etc.  I also can't help but think of all the poor birds and animals?? aren't they scared?! " Surely we can just stay home and watch some fireworks on TV?  But in the end I am glad we went to see the fireworks, they were big and loud and the kids loved them. Now I can find joy in fireworks by simply watching Jack enjoy them!  I think they even caught NonaJane's eye.

Our rented pontoon boat...and a naked sleeping baby :)

still sleeping...

proof that my daughter pooped on me

Thursday morning we were up bright and early and headed down to the dock. We rented a pontoon boat for the day so that we could get out and enjoy the lake.  Adam was disappointed to find that we only had a 50 horsepower motor. Pretty weak.  He opened it full-throttle to find that we would only be puttering around the lake all day. But with a newborn and four other children under age 8 aboard...the slower the better.  Luckily we had our wave runner with us, so we could be as wild as we wanted on it.  Jack and his cousins loved anchoring off and swimming.  We carefully suited Nona up in a lifejacket and quickly dipped her in the water to cool her off.  She retaliated by pooping on me.  Actually I think she liked the water, but we were way too nervous to let her stay in the water more than a second.  We managed to use all 8 hours of the rental, and thanks to a massive amount of sunscreen no one was burnt like a lobster. Success!

Jack's first spin on a go kart

                                                                        On Friday we were planning to take a hike thru Dogwood Canyon, like we did 5 years ago with Adam's parents.  Sue looked at me Thursday night and said "I think we have probably pushed it enough this week having Nona and Jack out in the heat." I agreed, and we decided against it.  But because Adam and I are incapable of sitting around and relaxing like normal people, we decided to head into Branson, just the 4 of us.

  Adam and Jack rode some go-karts, and then the 4 of us went mini-golfing. We discovered that mini-golf courses are NOT meant for strollers. Especially double strollers.  We had to do some pretty crazy maneuvers to get NonaJane from hole 1 to hole 18.  By the 18th hole Adam and I were sweated out, and decided mini-golf was too much work to be fun. Especially in the damn heat!  That afternoon Adam's sister, Nicole, volunteered to watch NonaJane while we took Jack to see the "New Shanghi Circus".  We could have taken Nona with us, but thought it seemed like a good opportunity to give Jack some special undivided attention.  He responded by saying "but baby Nona would like the show!"  Sure, as soon as we try to do something for just YOU now you want your sister around. The show was VERY impressive, we do recommend it! We spoiled Jack rotten by sharing both M&M's and skittles during the show.

Poor Nona slept thru our vacation..

and slept some more

Jack was handsome as ever

Mini Golf in eXtreme heat

Friday night I had to deal with the sudden onset of Adam's depression.  I call it "pre-end-of-vacation-depression".  I don't know why it catches me off guard because it happens EVERY time we go on vacation.  He begins to panic on the last day, tries to cram in twice as much FUN in 24 hours, and then begins to sulk and gripe. (I imagine this is much like Clark Griswald.)  Watch out, because he expects all others to squeeze every last drop of vacation fun out of the trip as well, and if you hold him back... I just wouldn't do that if I were you :)
Saturday morning we all packed up to head home. On the way we stopped in Springfield to try out Lambert's Cafe, the 'home of thrown rolls'.  It is a pretty famous restaurant so we thought it would be neat to check it out.  Jack was not a fan, because he had a hankering for some chocolate milk.  When he placed his order the waitress informed him that they did NOT have chocolate milk.  He retaliated with "Yes you DO. Restaurants DO have chocolate Milk!"  This pretty much ruined his dining experience. He did enjoy a 'thrown roll' and turns out their plain milk was pretty good because he downed a large quantity of it as well.

Cousins Madison and Molly enjoying the pool :)

It was sad to see the week end, but we will cherish the memories of this vacation forever.  I really do love opportunities to spend time with family, and appreciated SO MUCH all the help that Adam's family gave us with Jack and Nona.  We look forward to making this an annual trip, it will be fun to see the kids grow and the attachment and memories they will have with heading to "Stormy Point" each year.  Thank you Ron and Sue for sharing your time share and vacation with us!