So, last weekend my family and I took our little much-needed vacation to Branson, MO. It's a fairly short drive from our home. Now when I say a "short drive" I mean it is a short drive in reality, but in that "short-drive", it's like driving to another corner of the world. Half way there, you can feel the earth shift and the people are suddenly friendlier. They smile and wave at you when they see you. You can meet new people and carry on a conversation with them - it's amazing. The hills roll more and are covered with beautiful trees. You drive on a road that cuts through the land, rock walls on either side of you. Once you are there, you can notice your surroundings have morphed into something wonderful. Ok, maybe I'm a little too excited, but I love it. There are restaurants, theaters, museums, go-carts etc....
Now, when we go places, we can't have everything go our way for some reason - it rained, it poured on us. I was upset for awhile, but we embraced it. After all this is our get away. Plus, God has shown us alot through weather changes. You can't change it, you might as well dance in the rain - if we would have gotten upset, it would've ruined our whole trip. It did stop raining, so that just proves God is looking out for us.
We had a full trip, lots of things to do. Of course, the rain changed some of our plans - but it was all for the good though. We saw some awesome shows.
Buckets N Boards is a new show, it is made up of two guys, it's low budget, but it has such charm. They are so down-to-earth and they make music out of EVERYTHING! Plus, they are really funny so I LOVED IT!!! I will definitly go back next time. 
Then we went to see The Haygoods - the are fantastic! They are made up of 7 brothers (Yea, I loved that) and 1 sister (she was so good and beautiful dresses!). They were the most talented family I've seen. It's a high energy show, and they all play just about every instrument, and have beautiful voices! It is a MUST see!
Of course there was what I call my "Signature Show" Clay Cooper's Country Express, I love this show too! They just got a brand new beautiful theater (while we were there the bad storm blew out some glass - o yea, that was an interesting story) and added two comedians (YAY!) and they have my all-time FAVORITE comedian: Matt Gumm. He is such a nice guy too! He is very nice to his fans - he came over and talked to me like we were old friends. That show has a little bit of everything. Don't go there if you don't like great singing, dancing, comedy, music, roping - basicly everything. We went to an auto museum, the Branson Landing - well, we just did everything.
The last day we were there we went to visit a college. Well, we went because I had heard wonderful things about this museum that they had there. When we pulled up, it looked like a lodge - just beautiful! I fell in love with the atmosphere! We ended up eating at the restaurant they have there and talking to some of the students. It is the College of the Ozarks - otherwise known as Hard Work U. The students there work their way through college - literally. There are over 80 job-type positions to be filled to pay for tuition. Everyone whom I came accross there was so friendly and nice - I'm not used to that. It seemed so easy to meet people there and it was so home-y. Needless to say my mom wanted us to take a little tour. She's not one to want me to leave home AT ALL, but this place really impressed her. We walked around a little bit and did not find one thing we didn't like. So, mom trotted me right up to admissions and we got a packet. I am thinking of maybe trying to attend. I have no idea what I'd go for, or even if they would take me, but trust me - it's a big deal I'm thinking of this at all! The information and application is still sitting on my desk, but I look at it awful hard when I walk by. HAHA! O by the way - the museum was fantastic - very affordable and very interesting!We won't talk about the ride home, it is always sad and discouraging because it's just like the ride up only in reverse. But, all in all it was a fantastic trip and I CAN'T WAIT to go back again! SOON! '
