The sunset was just so beautiful, God is such a wonderful artist. After dinner, Brett and I ran out to the 10th green and snapped this picture.

This is the country's oldest duckpin bowling lane. Cole scored higher than anyone by knocking down 8 pins in one roll.

Brett is at the end of the lane setting and resetting the pins.

I don't know where she gets her posing from!! I blame Miley Cyrus and all those other annoying Disney teen characters they shove down our throats.

This was looking out at the Jewel clubhouse from the porch of our cottage.

The road that leads up to the Grand Hotel

In the front lobby of the Grand

Main Street

Watching fudge being made.

Baylea the bookworm. She walked and read at the same time.

I should really quit taking pictures of myself, closeups are not my friend!

Connor gives the bear a high five.

Cole was not happy to be put so close to the bear.

We stopped at a Polish restaurant on the way home. While we waited for a table, we went to the garden area and the kids got together on the swing.

We could see a water spout starting to form. We watched it for about 20 minutes. It got a little larger and reached down to about halfway to the water, then slowly dissipated.

 

Lydia and Phil dropped by our house last night. They hung with the kids outside for awhile, then came in for Donkey Konga, luau leftovers, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Not too many more nights they'll have free, since school will be starting up soon. The kids had a blast jumping on the trampoline and jumping on Phil . . .come to think of it, our kids' freedom is winding down as well. Their classes start after Labor Day . . .where did the summer go?

Here is Baylea showing off her newly discovered talent. I have no idea where she gets here flexibility from. I just found a list she made for the trip to Missouri last month. It looks like she was worried about being bored on the 12+ hour drive, so she planned out activities to keep her occupied.

Things to Do on the Way to Missouri

1. Get comfy.
2. Watch 1 or 2 movies.
3. Get in the back.
4. Turn seats into bed (depends on what car)
5. Get comfy again.
6. Do NOT fall asleep.
7. Play grocery store game.
8. 20 questions game.
9. Talk
10. Read GBWR. (??? Not sure what book she's talking about.)
11. Alphabet game.
12. Another movie.
13. Laugh about stupid stories or jokes.
14. Spy on Connor.
15. Chit chat
16. Listen to Johnny Cash
17. Do hair with beady thing.
18. Do smart globe.
19. Shut up
20. Eat
21. Design hairdo
22. Alphabet game.
23. Johnny Cash
24. Listen to CD
25. Pillow fight
26. Grocery store game
27. Look for the arch
28. Drawing contest
29. Movies
30. Missouri maybe

Springfield by the Numbers

7 = days we were in Missouri
3 = times I ate at Tasia's (Brett ate there 4 times.)
1.5 = hours spent at Incredible Pizza before your mind starts going bonkers with the noise, the lights, the kids. . . .
3 = hours Brett and I drove to go to church on Sunday morning at KCBT.
9 = number of people we saw at KCBT who lived in Spfd once upon a time.
5 = number of rolls thrown at Connor at Lambert's
3 = number of rolls he actually caught and ate
1 = tornado warning, we were on the edge of the storm and watched the clouds roll east of us
2 = number of rainbows we saw
4 = times the kids went swimming
3 = number of good friends I met for breakfast at Village Inn (Mandy, Lori, Brittany)
12 = number of kids we have between us
32 = years I've known Lori and Mandy
3 = average minutes we waited in line for rides at Celebration City
2 = thumbs up for Celebration City -it's geared towards the younger crowd, lines are short or non-existent, it wasn't very crowded early on, we all had a blast there.
12 = time we pulled into our driveway, 14 hours after leaving Missouri