The Davis Family: Branson trip 2011

Last week we took our first official family vacation. We went to Branson, MO. My parents were kind enough to let us take advantage of their time share, and one of the locations was Branson so we thought it sounded perfect.

There were so many fun things to do in Branson as a family. We started off the trip with a ride on the famous Duck Boats. It's a land/water vehicle that takes you out on Lake Taneycomo. It was very fun, the boys had a blast, Jake had fun the rest of the time in Branson spotting duck boats all over town.

One of the fun things on the duck boat is the opportunity the passengers get to drive the boat. Our whole family got to drive the boat, there isn't a picture of me because while the captain was trying to take my picture i was turning the wheel a little too hard so he didn't get a good picture because he was more worried about his boat, woops.

Next up that day was Silver Dollar City. It is a amusement park set in the old west. It was really fun, it was really hot that day but we still had fun. The lines were not too bad and the boys had fun on the rides.

The next day we went Go-Carting. This was something that Cody especially was really looking forward to. Me and Jake were riding buddies and Robert and Cody, of course because they were sure to go faster. They did go faster than us but not by much. It was fun and if you can tell by the look on Jake's face he was super excited to be "driving" the go-cart.

After we got done on the big track Cody got to drive by himself on the rookie track, he said that was his favorite part of the whole vacation.

After go-carting we went and did a little shopping. While shopping we came upon a little water fountain show with Lake Taneycomo in the background.

My families Harley shop.... he, he, just kidding but I was pretty excited about it, even spelled right, that's pretty rare.

Lake Taneycomo

That evening we went to the Dixie Stampede Dinner Show. It was a blast. I would give it 4 stars and highly recommend it to anyone traveling in the area. It started with a pre show of a juggling father and son, Jake was in awe of them, he didn't move the whole time. They were great. Then we went into the arena and were seated. The show was fabulous and the animals were beautiful. Jake loved the horsies and yelled for them to come back every time they left. The meal was great too, i got Jake to eat a lot because he was so into the show and i just kept putting food in his mouth. It was mu favorite part of the vacation because i could see how much everyone was enjoying themselves.

On Saturday we went to the Dinosaur museum, it was pretty cheesy and no where close to as good as other one's we have been to in the past but that's OK. Below is a picture of Robert and Jake with the Utahraptor.

We went to the fish hatchery on Saturday too and Table Rock Dam was right near there. And you all should know of Robert's love for a good Dam so we had to get some pictures...

Here is a pic of Cody at the Hatchery. It was very interesting to see how they raise the rainbow and brown trout. There were so many fish there and the boys had fun feeding them.

Saturday we also went on a tour through the Titanic museum. I was very interesting. It may have been more fun without the boys, they didn't love it so much but they hung in there with us.

All vacation we had a lot of pool time. We tried to go everyday. Cody has turned into quite the little fish lately. He loves to be in the water and has really come a long way in getting over his fear of going under the water. We are very proud of him and the progress he has made this summer. Below is a pic of Robert throwing him into the pool, he loved it.

Hand stand...

Sunday came too fast and it was time for us to head home. We did have a couple of fun stops along the way though. First we stopped at Bass Pro Shops headquarters in Springfield, MO. It was huge. There was so much to look at there, we didn't spend as much time there as we could have, we will have to go back and explore more.

Our final stop on our trip was at Fantastic Caverns. It was really neat. It's a series of caves that you drive through in a jeep that pulls a tram. I think caves are so cool and the boys seemed have a good time too. It gave Robert a few flashbacks from his days underground but he liked it too.