Branson Vacation - Day 3

I learned my lesson last night with the hide-a-bed -- a lesson I would not repeat again. Tonight we put the kids to sleep in the bed, and after we were finished packing up, we moved them to the hide-a-bed!

"Ahhhh," my body spoke as I sunk into the king bed with crisp sheets and down-filled duvet. Unfortunately, my slumber was cut short at 3am with the same sound my children gave me Friday and Sunday evenings as they hugged the nearest toilet or trash can. The good news is that I knew it would be relatively short lived; the bad news, we were on our way to see my college roommate who I haven't seen in 3 years.

The exertion of putting on clothes exhausted me to the point of having to lay down again so I could manage the stairs to the car. I would have had one of the boys tie my shoes if they hadn't been helping Sheri pack the van. Fortunately, I was able to avert danger and managed my way up the concrete stairs and into the van without stepping on my other shoe's laces. Once inside, I muttered incoherent directions that Sheri deciphered with the assistance of broken hand signals, but she was a great pilot and got us to a nice remote, er, secluded place that was yet plotted on Google or Bing maps.

Luckily, our hosts are a nurse and doctor by trade, so the Zofran they had in stock and some Imodium AD we purchased en route helped tremendously. Shortly after arriving, we had fixed both ends of my illness, but I was still achy and exhausted, but was determined not to miss out on the fun that was being had with both family's kids.

Everyone had a great time picnicking in the woods and splashing in a creek.

Even though I could only muster less than a zombie-esque countenance, I still got the touch when it comes to putting kids to sleep, (Who knew that an official Brazil away jersey could double as a blanket?) and I loved seeing Maddox show off his adventuresome rock climbing skills

before we headed to the pool to cool off-- and subsequently leave our digital camera.

Back at the house, we had a great dinner: Mac-n-Cheese with hot dogs for the kids, lasagna with garlic bread for the adults, and yogurt and 2 pretzels rods for "sick-boy." But I actually felt hungry for the first time that day, so I didn't complain.

Tomorrow, we're off to Silver Dollar City. Not sure how that's gonna turn out with no camera.