Thanksgiving, a Play, & Gaylord Ice.

Thanksgiving weekend, we loaded up and went to Arkansas! The girls were super excited to spend the holiday with family!

Megan was so excited to see her Ya-Ya!!!! 

We even saw Allison! 

And took some fun pictures out on the hay bales. These girls are all growing up way too fast. 

The girls helped Gee do some baking. 

And one afternoon to get out of the house, we went and did some exploring around the big town of Bigelow, Houston, and Conway. Amelia was super excited to show her cousins the Bigelow store. 

I drove the girls to see the chapel where DJ and I got married. 

And we even happened upon a park where Adalyn had her 1st birthday pictures made. 

Thanksgiving day we watched the parade and we were ready for some turkey and pie! 

We had lunch at Aunt Mary's house and it was so wonderful to be with family for the holiday. 

After lunch, we loaded up and headed to Branson!!!! 

The girls were bundled up and ready for a day at Silver Dollar City!!! 

This is one of my favorite traditions! 

Fire in the Hole was getting a huge make over so we had to wait in line and ride it one more time! 

Gretchen was pumped when she finally got some coffee!

and Libby had all the snacks! 

One of Megan's friends was in the area too visiting her dad so they met us at SDC! 

And of course we all had to go in the treehouse together! 

Gee bought the girls all matching pj's! 

And we spent the night watching the end of the game and learning that we were making it to the championship game!!! 

The girls had matching shirts for their pictures wtih Santa! 

And Santa thought they were hilarious! He got up to read all of our shirts! 

We ended the night with some fun games before heading all the way home the following day. 

Gretchen performed in her school musical, Footloose! 

She was the cutest and we had fun watching her! 

But we had to leave her behind as we headed to Dallas for the championship game. I took the girls out of school and we headed to the Gaylord for their ICE event. 

We found a Longhorn at the hotel! 

After ice tubing and playing we headed in to downtown Grapevine to explore, have dinner, and then headed back to the hotel to rest up for the game the next day! Fall

 

Silver Dollar City

Growing up, I was always fond of our Thanksgiving weekend get-a-ways to Branson and Silver Dollar City. I remember piling in the car with my mom, grandmother, aunts, and cousins and having a huge girls weekend. We've been able to carry on the tradition years later with the girls, and while this year looked different (some of our family didn't want to travel this year), we still had a blast!

Silver Dollar City at Christmas time is a must see. The lights are spectacular, and we were able to get discounted tickets, and the park was less crowded than normal years. There are some perks to Covid ;) 

Temperature checks were required to get in, as well as masks, but we were able to take masks off for pictures. 

We never get a great picture in front of the entrance, but this year, we could because groups of people weren't huddled around it! 

We walked in and found these squares marked off that said "Do not stand here." so, of course, we had to stand in them and take a picture. 

We headed straight to the train and then realized the first train ride didn't start until later that afternoon, so we went on the flooded mine ride and Gretchen got a high score! Adalyn was at first, terrified, and the later asked to ride this ride again. 

Then we walked over to what I've dubbed "the carnival" area. The girls found a cute bench, and Gretchen was too cool for a picture.

It was UT game day, so I sported my burnt orange and watched the game on my phone while we were at the park!  You should've seen me when we were on the train, listening to the Christmas story, as I was silently cheering and cringing during the last minute of the game. 

Gretchen may have been too cool for that bench photo, but this year, she was brave enough to ride all the rides! (Except the upside down roller coasters)

She even rode the ride that shoots you up and drops you, and then back up again. Girl was brave. I was not. 

Gorgeous Christmas trees everywhere. 

and lots of photo ops! 

The girls were ready for the train..... and I was watching football. 

After the train, Gretchen and I rode Fire in the Hole which was the very first roller coaster I ever rode. Thankfully, she enjoys it and will ride with me. The other girls are too afraid. After the ride, we had smores made with chocolate chip cookies. 

And of course we visited the jail. 

We settled in the every other square and watched the Christmas parade, and then walked through to see the lights. 

And they were stunning. 

Since we arrived when the park opened, we didn't stay too late, which was perfect because it was getting cold! On our way out, we had a few more photo ops. And, if I was sending Christmas cards this year, this would be the photo I'd use. 

Then we found Santa and the girls had a blast taking silly photos with him! 

Once we got back to the condo, the girls made gingerbread houses and had a cookie decorating contest. 

We were making ugly sweater cookies, and this girl took ugly to heart, and was upset when she didn't win! 

Silver Dollar City sure was fun! It's changed so much through the years, but it's always a blast to go and make memories with the girls.