Family Time: A Cave, Pictures, A Show, and .....

Thursday, July 7, 2016
The heat and humidity here in Branson reached saturation this morning.  The sun was out yet it drizzled!!!  We have been waking to extremely high humidity and temps already in the 80s that get into the high 90s as the day progresses.  But we push on sometimes choosing to be inside rather than outside.  Our youngest daughter, Janet, has continued to do her morning runs and shared these photos on Facebook this morning.  The deer they (her nephew and our grandson Jackson ran with her) saw

as well as dangling hot feet in the cold pool as part of the cool down afterwards.

Shortly after that we saw our daughter Beth and her husband walk by our motorhome on the path along side of Table Rock Lake getting their exercise in before the heat hits its zenith.

As we were driving over to the cabins where the kids were staying we saw Janet and her family pulling out.  They stopped and told us they were headed to the Talking Caverns a short distance away. We quick threw our food in a fridge, turned around and raced off to join them.  What fun we had first checking out the little crawl space for the little ones (a perfect spot for Karsten to use energy) while waiting for the tour to begin.

 Then joining about 20 others going down a very steep staircase into the cave.

into the narrowest and steepest cave we've ever been in.  It wasn't very large but the guide shared many stories along the way allowing people time to handle the 235 steps that it took to go up and down to see everything.

Because of the steepness we saw some very very long columns - the one below continues down much further as well as up.  And there was lots of "drapery"

as well as some that looked like bacon

Part way through we had our guide take a picture of us

The person who first discovered the cave felt this looked like an angel 

We then went back and had a very quick lunch followed by a family picture session

which of course included a silly one

Before we drove over to the Sight and Sound Theater caravan style (5 cars one behind the other)

Before going in, we had all the grandchildren line up for a picture in the front (except for Karsten who had fallen asleep in the car)

Just inside the door was this huge statue of Moses

We then set off up the stairs to our seats.  We had 20 seats in the very back row but right in the center of the theater with a great view because of the steep rise.

Everyone could see all the action with ease including baby Moses float down a river (the center aisle), lots of different animals moving up and down aisles and on the stage, and an angel rise up right in front of us before flying to the stage.  The picture below gives an idea of our view -- it was taken as the theater began to fill.

Following the show we caravaned over to Mel's Diner, with its singing waiters, for our supper.  One of them had been on American Idol so most everyone in the group had seen that one in the competition.

There was a few minutes before they could find tables for all of us (no way we could all be together) so we tried again to get a picture of all of our grandchildren with us.

The diner served excellent hamburgers (huge 1/2 pounders) as well as a variety of other such items. Certainly more than we could eat!!

We managed to fill up three tables

One of the singing waitresses cuddled up to Jackson

and one of the patrons in his casual Santa outfit (there was a Santa convention in town) was eating at a nearby table and came over to talk with Anders, Dagny and Karsten and give them stickers

and at the end of the meal this same table enjoyed the birthday special ice cream and serenade by a few of the waiters because it Janet and Anders are celebrating their birthdays on July 9 and 13.

We then all met down at Branson Landing for the musical fountain show

While waiting we took a few more family pictures.  First of the four siblings

And then we joined them for a shot of us with our kids

All of our grandsons gathered for this shot

One granddaughter was off shopping so we weren't able to get one of all of them but we did get some fun ones.  Rachel and Reilly

Our son Dan and grandson Jackson

and our daughter Bethany with our granddaughter Noelle

Then there were lots of hugs as our daughter Susan, her husband Tim and their two boys Jackson and Reilly bid us farewell.  They were off to pack and go to bed as they hoped to be on the road for home by 3:00 am!

The time together was coming to an end.