Big Cedar Christmas Trip ~ MM

Today's Memory Monday post = the recap of our Big Cedar trip!  Thanks very much to Ruth for being awesome and sharing her timeshare with us for the third time!!  It makes for a fun, relaxing, scenic, and very affordable mini-vacation! =)

We all worked on Wednesday, but somehow still managed to leave from my house around 5:30. (I had my purse, camera, suitcase, and backpack. Jenna and Tiffany both had approximately 97 bags each + blankets and pillows and purses + the ice chest and all the kitchen stuff! lol  I never thought of myself as a super light packer, but seeing them and Sarah and Laura, I guess I am!) Anyhow, it was just the three of us so it all fit in easily enough.  We took my car, and Jenna drove us all the way there and back, which I so appreciated!!  The weird roundabouts and unfamiliar Missouri roads would've stressed me out even without the added bonus of freezing weather and misty rain on our drive back... yikes! 

Okay, so we made it in time to stop for dinner at Lambert's Cafe on Wednesday - YAY!!  Who would've thought they had a gluten free menu, but they had several options for Jenna, which made it even better. :) I'm always impressed with myself when I catch the rolls, as if it requires some sort of athletic skill. lol

Jenna volunteered at the Children's Hospital earlier that day at work and wore the cute little reindeer antlers headband. I had two of those from a couple years back and wanted a pic with all three of us in them before we left! Jenna suggested we take them with us and get a picture with them everywhere we went, so that became a thing and we have tons of pics with them! lol

We checked in at Big Cedar then made a midnight Walmart grocery run! We had banana bread and breakfast casserole in the morning, then headed to the Top of the Rock to do the golf cart tour... it's beautiful and fun, but WOW, so cold that morning!!!  They gave us blankets and we stopped for happy hot chocolate inside the cave, but we were still shivering and happy to get back to the fireplace when we came inside after the tour!  We went back to the room and Jenna made tasty tacos for lunch. Then we went to see the chapel (so pretty and peaceful) and the ice skating rink + Christmas light show, where we got faux ice skating pics that made my day!  

After that, despite the cold weather, we randomly stopped at Dollar General for rocky road ice cream and junk food and had a movie night! =) 

Jenna in her OSU apron making caramel corn! :)

 (PJs, fireplace, ice cream, all manner of junk food, and watching The Family Stone and Frozen = my kind of vacationing! lol)

Day 2 was Branson day... we slept in then had pumpkin French toast and breakfast casserole, then headed to Branson Landing! Jenna and Tiffany grabbed coffee at Starbucks, then we decided to do the Titanic Museum, which lasted well into the afternoon but it was awesome (my second time there, but they'd changed a few things up, and I could go maaaany times without getting bored!)  ...I may do a full post on just that later, but I highly recommend it!  After that, we did a bit of random Branson shopping and got a few Christmas gifts for people. The clerk at the Christian store recommended we see Moses at the Sight and Sound Theater, and we made a very last minute decision to go see it... I loved it -- so good!  They went through the entire life of Moses and did a great job of staying true to the Bible and weaving the gospel into it. The plagues, the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, and the Ten Commandments were all pretty epic and well done!! (I requested an aisle seat not wanting to have to crawl over people, but the animals and actors going through the aisles made that extra fun... there were goats, sheep, camels, donkeys, and horses that went by, yet it was the guy playing the drums who made me about jump out of my seat! lol)  Anyway, strongly recommend that as well! Now that I know more about them, when I get the chance to see anything else by Sight and Sound, I'll go!!

Dreams coming true! lol  (My dream = sneaking a pic here without the museum staff stopping me.)  "Make it count! Meet me at the clock." ~Jack Dawson

Branson day!

Cups that represent us. lol

We ended the night with a late Mexican dinner at Cantina Laredo, then crashed pretty quickly when we got back to our room... We packed up, stopped for coffee, hit the gift shop, then headed back to Tulsa Saturday morning. Jenna was confident and calm, but the drive back was stressful to me and I wasn't sure I'd make it to OKC later that night (but glad I chose to go!). 

Anyway, we never got to work in our Uninvited Bible study, so Tiffany is coming over tonight for that! :)  We had a great girls trip and I'm excited for the next time I get to go - cheers to Big Cedar!! ;-)

Happy Flipagram slideshow below!!  I'm obsessed with this song right now.  =)