Our 12th Anniversary Get-A-Way

On Wednesday, after a couple of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad of days, we packed up the kids and headed for the farm. Thursday morning we got up to get ready to leave for Branson. John has been planning our trip for over a month. He had everything planned out which was a gift in itself to me. I didn't have to do anything except pack! That was awesome! John had gifts wrapped and packed to open at different times throughout our weekend! How cute is that?! Since our 10th anniversary (that John planned also) he looks up the "Traditional" anniversary gifts for each year and uses those ideas for a theme. 12th year is silk and linen/cotton. The first gift he let me open was on Thursday before we left. He mad us matching "Anniversary T-shirts! I totally LAUGHED! How funny!

We wore them for our drive up to Branson. It was just too funny!

(Back View)
The funniest part was when we stopped in Mt. Home to get a few things at Wal-Mart. We were trying to find almonds and couldn't find them so we split up to look. I found them and called John on his cell. As soon as he hung up with me, this random couple said "She's back there. We recognized the shirts." John found me, laughingly told me the story and said "Now I feel like a DORK!" But it was a very sweet idea and I will always have the T-shirt to remind me of our trip!

This is where we stayed!This is a B&B that we pass by all the time on our way to Silver Dollar City!This is the building that we stayed in!This is the view from the other side of the highway loop.This is from the back deck.Our room-The Bridal SuiteIt was a very cute, quiet place. We had never stayed at a B&B before, so it was nice change for us. We enjoyed yummy breakfast each day and the people that ran it were so nice. We totally considered cashing in the ol' 401k and buying a B&B in our favorite place! But that probably isn't going to happen in this lifetime!

After changing out of our matching shirts, we got dressed and headed downtown to the Branson Landing. It's a very new shopping/entertainment district on Lake Taneycomo. It is very cool!
We were just walking down the brick streets checking out the different shops and we headed into this store. "Northwoods Candy Emporium".
We looked through the store looking at ALL the different candies. (We could do that because we didn't have children with us trying to sample the goods). So we made our way through to the back of the store and saw this display case. John said "Hey! Check that out" and I looked and saw THIS! There was a giant Chocolate Heart with our engagement picture on it! I was completely surprised and shocked!!! And I must say, he was pretty proud of how well he pulled it off! It was just such a sweet surprise!
So after we got done in the candy shop we strolled on down the landing checking things out and finally ended up at "Ernie Biggs". John had heard about this place from a friend at work.It is a Piano Bar! I know what your thing "OOHHH! That sounds real fun! IT WAS A BLAST! They have 2 grand pianos, drums and a guitar. There were 3 guys and a girl and they took turns singing and playing songs on the piano. When one was playing/singing the other would accompany or harmonize or sometimes just "Trash Talk" the song they were playing. The people were such talented musicians and singers!!! The crowd writes down requests, takes them up there (with some cash) and they play them! They played everything! They would play the songs and get the crowd to sing/clap/scream/whatever along with them! It was so much fun! They played everything from 80's Bon Jovi to The Spongebob theme song. John was pretty stoked when they broke out in some "old school" Guns N Roses! One time one guy started playing "F-R-E-E-That-Spells-Free-Credit-Report-Dot-Com-Bay-Bee"! We got there at 8pm (when they started playing) and ate some tasty chicken Nachos and some O.K. pizza... ...here we are 5 hours later at 1am when they closed the place down! The time just flew by we were having so much fun! John and I LOVE live music and we both "Soberly" fit in surprisingly well among drunk crowds! I guess that's just part of our charm! Ha!

The next day we got up to go eat breakfast and then went back to the room for a nap! We can't quite party like we used to. John had had a lot of Dr. Pepper the night before! You know how bad that hangover can be! After our nap we headed to White Water for a few hours. We pretty much just hung out in the wave pool the whole time! We didn't feel like flying down the water slides that day! We were floating there in the pool and I look up on the sidewalk and saw Dana Jones and her family there! What a small world! They live just across the neighborhood from us and here we see them 5 hours away in Branson! Funny! After White Water we went back, got dressed, and headed back down to the Landing again!

The pants I'm wearing are one of the gifts that John got me. They are linen (remember the theme?!) This pic doesn't do them justice-they are much cuter!

We walked around and went to watch the fountain/fire show. It was pretty neat! The water and fire go along with music that's blaring! Then we went to eat at Joe's Crab Shack. We had never been there before so we thought we would try it! We shared a Bucket of Crabs! It was pretty good!

I've learned how to use the self portrait setting on my camera!

R: "Hey Hun! Let's take a cute picture together!"(CLICK-Look at back of camera) R: "HA HA-You're real funny!"
(CLICK) R: "Better, but it's not a mug shot-C'mon."
(CLICK) R: "OH COME ON! You're not even trying!"
(CLICK) R: "Oh! That's real cute! Let's do it again." (CLICK) J: "How was that one?" R: "How 'bout we try one not looking at the camera."
(CLICK) R: "I guess that will have to do."

The next morning we got up and ate breakfast one last time! We grudgingly packed up our stuff and cleaned out our room :( . We drove around town and looked around in a few shops and finally headed back toward the farm. We stopped in Mt. Home and ate at Chili's (our last meal)! Then we went to Dairy Queen to get a Thin Mint blizzard. As I was headed out the door I look up and see Dana's parents! Too weird! I've known Dana's mom since I was 15 years old. And John has known her since he was a little kid! I stopped to chat just for a second and she said she had seen us at White Water just floating around in the pool like a couple of care free teenagers! She's cute!
This is the last part of the trip back to the farm to see our kiddos and relieve Nana and Pawpaw! We had such a great time! We laughed, played, ate and did Grown Up things (silly grown up things) but Grown Up things none the less! I sooo needed that! Being home all the time sucks you out of the grown up world. Once in a while it's fun to get dressed up and just hang out with my Hubby! John did such a great job of planning our trip and thinking of everything! I have such a great, sweet, loving, fun, cute husband! I can't believe we've been married 12 years! What Fun!

John said next year I'm in charge of our anniversary. He said he already looked it up and the traditional gifts for the 13th anniversary is "Guns and Bullets"! But I think he might just be making that up! Other than the kids almost burning Nana and Pawpaws house down (for real!), the kids had fun at the farm. Thanks Nana and Pawpaw for keeping our babies for us! We had a GREAT TIME!