Silver Dollar City!

[eta: I have taken most of the pictures of my children off of this blog.  This post used to have several of them, but they aren't there anymore.]

So, one of my favorite places to go when I was growing up was Silver Dollar City, in Branson, MO. We went every summer for years. I have wanted to take my girls for a really long time. We were finally able to fit it into our budget this year. I was so excited, I couldn't sleep! :D

This is the entrance sign.

We were there for the opening ceremonies, where they asked the veterans in the crowd to help raise the flag. This is the parade.

This was very moving to me. I started tearing up.

Wow! Dale has such strength and flexibility!

Except that this is the Grandfather's Mansion, and it's built that way. :D

Posing

The girls were made junior deputies.

We got to watch fudge being made. Yummy! :P

Posing

My girls are so beautiful.

Sweet Pea is taking a picture of .....

these three ladies. My MIL is on the right, and her 2 best friends are on the left.

We were on the train ride. It's a great little show.

You see, the conductor walks down to check the line, and then the hillbillies hold up the train. They said, "Hold up your hands and act scared!" So Little Bit did. :D

Posing

One of the only family pictures we managed to take on our trip.

Posing

This guy is working on a hand cranked lathe. He's turning the lathe, while the woodworker is cutting behind him.

Posing

Posing

This was a new exhibit where the kids could try and "milk" the cow. LOL

And this is the store that we stopped at on our way home. Yummy, yummy! :D

And that is the end of our trip. We had so much fun, and I hope you enjoyed traveling with us. If you have any questions, I will be glad to answer them. :)

Hugs,

Melinda

On the way to Branson

I love this time of year. I love the explosion of colors in the trees, so the trip through NW Arkansas was wonderful for me. Please remember that I'm snapping pictures through the window of a moving vehicle.

I would love to be able to Photoshop this. "Look mom! A Pegasus!"
The start of the Ozark mountains.

And this is one of my dad's favorite spots. It's a little curve in the road, with this little barn. For some reason, he loves this spot. I was so thankful that I was able to get such a clear picture for him.
And... I had to add this fun little picture. This is where we ate dinner in Branson. We left Louisiana and ate at a Cajun restaurant. LOL

And that was the trip to Branson. :)

Hugs,

Melinda

Arkansas

Okay, so I thought I would share some pictures from our trip through Arkansas. Keep in mind, I was driving through most of it, so Dale took some of these pictures.

The Bill Clinton Presidential Library....

Beautiful colors in the trees.
This was NOT the sign that I wanted Dale to shoot, but it will work. This is the first exit sign you see.
This is a "new" exit. Only about 5 or 6 years old. (lol) This is home.
Now for a sad picture. :( This street corner is where my houses used to be. We used to pick up pecans by those two trees on the corner. The tree on the far right of the picture was the house on 1306 E. Market. The trees on the far left was the house on 204 N. Cross. Both houses are gone now. I lived on this corner from the time I was 6 until the time I was 20.

The sad part is that even though I knew the houses were gone, it was still actually quite a shock to see them gone.

This picture is also sad. This area was were my mom used to work. The single door was my mom's office. The other door was "The Liberty Room," which is where the single door is now. Oh, and another funny thing.... my grandmother also worked in the same area.
This is the Benson Auditorium. It was at one time the largest auditorium in Arkansas with the most seating area.
And the stage... This was my home away from home a lot of the time. This is where I learned the ins and outs of stagecraft. This picture is taken from about halfway back in the house.
Well, that's it. That's the place I used to call home. It was good to visit, but like I wrote in this post, it's my past, not my present, not my future.

Hugs,

Melinda

Louisiana Family

The biggest reason we went on vacation was to see family. I must say I have the cutest nieces and nephews anyone can have.

These two were definitely up to no good. ;)

This little sweetheart seemed to attach himself to me the moment we got there. He would give me kisses and say, "lub you 'Linda." :D My heart melted.
He is absolutely a cutie pie.
And she's going to be a beautiful heart breaker when she grows older.
And then there's Daisy.

*sigh* I love the dog. Really, I do. But for some reason, she thinks she has to pee EVERY TIME she sees me. I haven't seen her in four years, and she still pees when she sees me. *sigh*
These are my sisters in law. Somehow, when I got married, God gave me two good friends as well as family.
They make me laugh. :D I love them.
The young lady is also my niece. I met her 2 days after she was born. Dale and I had just gotten engaged. She was a cute little redhead. :) It's hard to believe she's actually 14 now. o_O
Little cutie pie is also a song leader. ;) He's sweet.
And somehow, I managed to not get a picture of my other nephew. But that's just a small sampling of our family. :)

Hugs,

Melinda

Bossier City, LA

Okay, so the trip between Little Rock, AR, and Bossier City, LA, is one of the most B-O-R-I-N-G drives ever. Lots of trees, lots of road......

So, can anyone tell me in what town we passed through? A little hint... It's the birthplace of a president. :D
See? Told you it was a boring drive.
Sometimes, this sign is a beautiful sight. *sigh* Only one more hour left. One more boring long hour of driving.
Okay, funny story here. See the cow in this picture?
That cow is NOT real. It's a big cut out. For years... literally years, every time we drove by this, I would say, "hey, look at the cow!" And every time, Dale would laugh at me, because it isn't real. LOL

Okay, this picture is of my MIL's apartment. I was trying to tell someone the other day how extravagant her apartment is. Her apartment is the second floor under the gold dome.
This is a new object in the area. This church built a cross. If a building or tower is something like 300 feet tall, it's required to have a light on top. This cross? It's 299 feet tall.
You know how some places are just so ingrained in your brain as being "home?" Believe it or not, Barksdale Air Force Base is one of those places. This sign has memories.
You can see this water tower from miles around. It's BAFB, and it's part of "home."
And this water tower is "home" as well. I can't explain it, but these sights mean so much.
Okay, another funny story. One night when Dale and I were visiting his family, when we were still dating, he asked me if I wanted to go out for a ride and see the stars. I loved it and was ready to go.

He took me out to Bayou Bodcau Reservoir and Dam. We're driving in the dark. The first thing I noticed that this "Dam" has no guard rails along the side of the road. Now, I don't know where you are from, but in Arkansas, you have guard rails along just about every side of every road. This scared me. All I could think was, "It's dark, there's no guard rails, I can't even see the water. If we go off the side of the road, they won't know where we are and won't be able to find us."

So, if you can remember that I'm already terrified because of the dark and the lack of guard rails, you can understand that when I see a sign that says "dip ahead" and then seeing the next picture, I was understandably concerned when Dale would NOT slow down. I was even pushing "my" brake to get him to slow down. (lol)
Keep in mind, the lines and the reflectors aren't reflecting at a certain point. To a certain, terrified young lady, it LOOKED like the road ENDED! I was so scared.

But, the upside to this picture... it doesn't end. It just has a semi-steep drop of a hill. After I screamed at him to stop, we parked and watched the stars for about a half an hour.

To this day, we still talk about "the dip." It's one of the best memories of our dating life.

Okay, that's all the pictures I took of the Bossier City area. Next up... family. :D

Hugs,

Melinda

Centennial Park

Okay, I forgot a couple of things. First, I wanted to post these pictures where they would get more of the attention they deserve.

Aren't they adorable?

My crazy family. :D I love 'em.

Okay, so our tour in Nashville ended with a picnic lunch at Centennial Park. If you don't know anything about this park, it's where the Parthenon replica is located. I think it's a really cool place. I've been on the tour twice now.

They also have this great big pond where you can feed the ducks and geese and pigeons. I don't know why, but the pigeons seemed to swarm me this time.

But I think I got some good pictures.

This goose looked grumpy.

I think this guy was just beautiful.

This is one of the best pigeon shots. For some reason, this bird reminds me of the pigeons from Animaniacs.

Okay, I promise. No more pictures of Nashville. At least until our next trip. LOL

Hugs,

Melinda

Bicentennial Mall

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what happens if you run out of picture storage space on Blogger? I'm currently at 24%, so I'm sure I've got a ways before I run out, but I thought I'd ask.

Okay, stop #2 on our Nashville tour was the Bicentennial Mall. It's a really unique area, and very pretty.

There's an amphitheater.

The trees were just starting to change colors.

"Help me up Sissy."

"Mom, take a picture without the grass, so it looks really tall and high."

Aren't these pillars just cool looking?

In the middle of the Mall, is a WWII memorial. It was humbling and beautiful. I can't do it justice, but I thought you might like to see a few of the pictures.

Then, there's this area with bells. It rings every 15 minutes, but apparently every half hour, it's a really long song/chime.

One of the bell towers.

Each one of those pillars has at least one bell in it. On the benches at the base of the bells are names of some of the music industry's greatest names.

And I thought this shot, just capped it off. The building smack dab in the middle is the Tennessee state capitol building. I don't know why, but I really like this one.

And that's our trip through Nashville. I hope you enjoyed it. Maybe next time, you can come too. :D

Hugs,

Melinda