I realize that Branson was almost a month ago, but I haven’t had time to post.  Here’s the pictures from our trip to Wilson’s Creek National Monument, a Civil War battlefield.

After about an hour and a half in the car (and I got super carsick) we finally arrived.  The day was bright, blue, crisp and cheerful.  I love those days, don’t you?

We entered the Visitor’s Center to have a look at the stuff they had for sale (Tom Tierney Paper Dolls!!!) and to watch the 20 minute video on the battle’s history.

Sister and I found Confederate and Union hats, so we had a fight, right then and there.

She beat me.

Viciously.

See how she’s pounding me in the head?!

She was taking this whole “The North beat the South” thing very seriously.  I mean, look at her face.

She was NOT messing around.

The video was really interesting, but it made me sad that we had to have a Civil War at all.  I haaaaaaaaaaate wars and I wish we could all just duke it out on an X-box or something, and whichever country wins the game wins the war.  But no one else likes my idea.  Anyway, visiting battlefields is super interesting, but it’s also really sobering.  I know we can’t all just get along, but I still think war is not the way to answer the problems, and I think it’s really awful.  (Call me a pacifist – see if I care.)

After getting super serious watching the video, we went outside and unpacked our picnic lunch on a picnic table in the sun.  It was just right.

Sister and I had our requisite “Sisters” picture taken while Mom got things ready (cough, cough – we probably should have been helping).

Then I started kicking the air because Joey kept taking ELEVENTY BILLION PICTURES.  Sister tried to look sanctimonious and succeeded very well.

I like this picture of Pops.  It makes him look like Realtor Extraordinare, don’t you think?!

After we finished our lunch, we packed it up and headed to the first stop on the driving tour of the battlefield.  There were trails to walk on to see the Wilson’s Creek and the old foundation of the mill that was along the water.

Stephen got kind of combative with a stick he found.

Danger.

Off we walked down the trail.  Pops & I, Mom & Sister, Stephen & Joey.

LOOK at how CUTE Mom is in this picture?  I don’t know what she’s doing, but she’s obviously happy about something.

Joey took a bunch of really cool pictures, but he and I both like this one.

We reached the end of the trail and located the foundation of the old mill.  I love old-timey stuff, and if I could have been born 100 years ago, I would have been the happiest clam in the world.

We all examined the foundation with great intensity.

Isn’t that creek lovely?  It babbled and bubbled just like in a fairy tale, and made me want to stay right where I was. Forever.

(I kind of throw “I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, DON’T MAKE ME LEAVE” fits when I get in the middle of nowhere.  Joey is used to it.)

We meandered our way to the house where they cared for wounded soldiers.  It was closed, which was a bummer, but we were able to look in the windows.

We gave up trying to get inside and decided to take some group pictures on the balcony.

This one looks pretty good – we all look mostly normal.

Joey wanted to get a candid shot of the group…amazing how candid shots usually kind of capture personalities.  Look how cute Mom and Dad are?!  They look so schmoopsy.

We headed down the hill towards the spring house and on the way, Joey decided to be rebellious.

Look at him disregarding the One Way sign.  Srsly.

Inside the spring house it was pretty interesting.  Pops pointed out the fance-pantsy architechture and he, Sister and Stephen looked up to observe it properly.

We left the farmhouse and went on to the next stop on the tour.  We got out and walked, like normal.

Sister and I walked like sisters.

There were signs that described who shot who from where, so Mom, Stephen and Sister stopped to read them while I went running down the hill towards the cannons.

Then we realized we were going to be late for the show we had tickets to in Branson, so we left quick fast in a hurry.

Wilson’s Creek was interesting, sobering and a lovely time outside.

The End.

The Kid is making me stop because he wants the ethernet cable and I’m hogging it or something.

You’ll have to forgive me for being so pokey about posting pics of Branson.  My lappy’s battery died so I had to charge it, then I ran out of time…and so on and so forth.

Anyway, right after we visited the Snatchery we drove across Table Rock Dam to tour the visitor’s center and watch the informational video on the making of the dam.  Unfortunately, the stupid visitor’s center was closed and wasn’t going to reopen until April 1.

There were trails that wound around the lake’s edge, though, so we thought we’d do that instead.

We found a pleasant patch of sandstone rock and everyone sat down.  On vacation, there’s nothing better than sitting next to a large body of water, be it Northern Minnesota or Southern Missouri.

Sister handed me a perfect piece of chalk-rock, and I began scribbling “I Love Joey” on the rock next to me.

But it’s nearly impossible to sit next to a lake, creek, pond or stream without throwing something in.  (At least it is for me.)  And sandstone makes for perfect skipping rocks, so before long, Stephen was impressing us all with his mad skills at rock skipping.

First he’d find The Perfect Rock.

Then he’d wind up…

And let ‘er rip!

Sometimes he’d get six or seven skips before the rock just glided across the water’s surface…and then sunk.  It was pretty impressive.  We all sat there for who knows how long, just watching Stephen skip rocks.

The Branson Belle, one of those tourist-trap showboats, went paddling past us on its pre-season practice run, and we all yelled, “Stephen! Try to hit the boat with one of your rocks!”

Stephen was game.  He found the right rock and got ready.  He aimed.

Then he fired.

While not hitting the Branson Belle, he did get pretty far out into the lake.  We all gave him lofty congratulations and Joey even put down his camera for awhile to skip rocks as well.

Oh, but not before he took a bunch more pictures of me.  I finally got sick of it and began shooting him with my imaginary guns.  THEN he put the camera down and skipped rocks.

Sister, not to be left out of the fun, also tried her hand.  I think she got three or four skips, which is way better than me.  I tried once and got a whopping two skips.  So then I gave up and moved on to bigger, more important things.

Like taking off my shoes and putting my feet in the FRIGID water.  (It seemed like a good idea before I actually did it.)

Fortunately there are no pictures of this because at this point, Joey was still skipping rocks.

Stephen wearied of skipping rocks after awhile, and he decided to go for the big kahuna.

He found the largest rock he could pick up…and launched.

Everyone loves a good splash.

Once my feet dried off from getting in the nearly freezing lake, I decided that it was time to teach Pops to text.

I sort of think I may have caused poor Pops undue stress in the instruction of speed-texting (you know, the Word function).  I don’t think he’ll ever use it again.

Sister and Mom enjoyed the outdoors, as always, and once we were finished with our rock skipping, launching, and texting instructions, we all walked a bit further down the lakeshore.

The view was beautiful, the air was crisp, and there was no reason at all to not enjoy the lovely day.

On the way back to our resort, we drove on a road that was having some construction done on it.  There were those little yellow dividers sticking up from the blacktop and, as we drove past them, I said, “I’ve always wanted to touch one of those.”

(I have a lot of things like that.)

Suddenly, Dad pulled the van over.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Stopping so you can touch one of those road dividers!” Dad said.

“WOAH, cool!” I yelled, and dove out of the van.  I ran helter-skelter across/in the road to the nearest yellow road diver, careful to look both ways before I ran out into traffic.

(If I had known Joey had also gotten out of the car TO TAKE PICTURES OF ME, I may have reconsidered.)

Once I reached the road divider, I crouched down and touched it.  To my great surprise, it was made out of rubber, not metal like I had always thought, and it squished down with great ease.

“Look at me,” Joey said.  He was in the middle of the road a little bit away from me, and he began snapping pictures like the paparazzi he is.

Then I noticed a big van bearing down the hill, pretty much about ready to run over Joey.

“GET OUT OF THE WAY,” I yelled, and we both ran back to the car.

“Thanks, Dad,” I panted.  “And now I don’t have to worry about those things.  They’re made out of rubber, so they won’t pop my tires.”

“I’ve always worried about that too,” said Sister.

And while unrelated to this post, I’m including a picture Joey took of our condo building.  He took it in the dark with some fancy thing on his camera…a 30 second exposure or something?

Anyway, I like the picture.