Spring Break, Part 2 1/2

Sorry I keep posting multiple times, but I feel self conscious when the posts get too long ;)

But this is about this morning anyway, so we've moved on to another part of the trip! This morning we drove the dune buggy and the ATVs!!! And we got soooo muddy! And of course, not really being used to these kinds of activities, didn't realize I was wearing a white shirt until the first mud splash. Don't worry, my grandma works wonders on stains and the shirt is in the wash now ; ) **Update - the shirt is out of the wash and spotless!!! Thanks Grandma!!!** After the first ride I borrowed a work shirt to cover what I was wearing. John and I both had a chance to drive the dune buggy and took some rides on the ATVs as well.

Off we go!!

All messy and muddy!

I showed a bit of my wild side when it was my turn to drive the dune buggy. John got some fun videos of the adventure. I took the muddy puddles pretty fast and we ended up so wet and yucky! So fun :)

John's looking a little worried with me at the wheel...

AHHH!!!!!!!

In the ZONE

Here are the videos!! (There's sound!)

We took a short trip with the ATVs, mostly because I didn't like riding them on the really rough terrain...i like the buggy better.


Then John went back again for another trip. The one he was riding had a hard time starting up every once in a while, so he had to call us while he was out at one point because he was stuck and couldn't get it going. But he finally did and made it back!

Then we got to start the fun process of cleaning up all of our muddy clothes. But that's okay, it was totally worth it.

Spring Break, Part 2

Still having lots of fun in the hill-billy capital of the world! ;)

This picture was taken the day we got in, but it's still a nice picture with the lovely landscape... apart from the fact that we're all yucky and gross from an early morning of plane travel ;)

Yesterday we were still going strong! In the afternoon, we saw what ended up being my favorite show so far, SIX. SO FUN! They are a group of 6 brothers (but there are 10 total in their family) and they are an AMAZING a Capella group. It was so much fun to watch! They are so talented and are so funny and it was awesome.


Unfortunately, you can't take pictures in any of the shows, so we don't have a ton of pictures from this day.

In between shows we drove by a theater showing something called "Liverpool Legends" who are basically Beatles impersonators. We saw these outside their theater :)

We all live in a yellow submarine... :)

Bugs are seriously my favorite car!!!

After SIX, we ran over to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede.


So cool! It's a dinner attraction, so we had dinner while watching a fun show in a large arena with amazing horsemanship and songs and dancing and it was a lot of fun. There was a competition between the audience sitting on the "northerners" side and those on the "southerners" side. We were sitting with the southerners (which grandma didn't like). Everything was finger food (or so they said) so we didn't get any silverware! And then they serve us a whole rotisserie chicken that we get to pick at with our fingers...so we got a little messy. There were fun horse races and pig races (watching the pigs jump over the hurdles was probably one of the funniest thing I'd seen) and we in the south won the competition! It was a really fun show.

Here we are in the lobby before Dixie Stampede
(sorry it's a little bright)

After that we walked around the lakeside shopping center and looked at shops. We stopped at Bass Pro Shop and John has decided he wants a boat ;)

we liked this party boat we found ha ha

On the way back down the lake, we watched a water/light/fire show in the shopping center courtyard, it was pretty cool!

John also got a cool video!
(PS there's sound)

And now I think this post is getting a little long too, so I'm going to start another one again ;)

Spring Break, Part 1 1/2

Whew! That first post was getting a little long, yes? Yes. We are just doing so many things! I'm glad I have a chance to blog a little this morning before I get too far behind ;)

After riding the ducks (see this post) We went to the Butterfly palace. SO COOL! It's basically a large room (called the aviary) with lots of trees and plants and BUTTERFLIES! Of all different kinds! They were beautiful! We spent quite a while in there, just admiring the amazing colors and types of butterflies there are!

well, after we played around with stuff in the gift shop ;)

I think John's trying to show off his butterfly proboscis...

In the aviary

So pretty!

This one was one of my favorites

I really wanted one to land on me! But I'd get startled every time one came close ha ha

The place provided hats, binoculars and magnifying glasses for us to use

a beautiful blue one landed on John!!! But of course it wouldn't open its wings while we were trying to take a picture, but I promise it's blue ;)

So cool! After that they had a rain forest exhibit with frogs and salamanders and iguanas that we looked at and a mirror maze that we got lost in, but was so fun to try.

That evening we had dinner with some of grandma and grandpa's friends, then went to the Hollywood wax museum for a few minutes before catching the Clay Cooper show.

My camera battery died while at the wax museum, so I only have a couple, but grandma's friend is going to get hers to us later.

Life is like a box of chocolates...

Live long and prosper

The Clay Cooper show was awesome! I was a little nervous about it because I'm not a fan of country music, but they had a lot of different things in the show and it was a lot of fun.

After the show, we came home and crashed. Grandma and Grandpa totally wear us out ;)

Spring Break Part 1

Greetings from Branson, Missouri!!

My grandpa had us flying out of LA, so we headed up Friday night to spend Saturday with John's family before we flew out. Saturday morning we went for a walk/hike at a park. We got some awesome panoramic pictures of the scenery.

(we're having fun playing with the features on the camera)






In the afternoon after we all got cleaned up, John's dad took us to the movie, "How to Train Your Dragon". So cute!! We really enjoyed it. It's funny though, we hadn't even heard of it until the night before because that's when we saw billboards and ads about it on the way up to LA! But we recommend it!

On Sunday morning (EARLY) we left for Branson. We almost missed our flight! Eek! We arrived an hour early, thinking that would be enough time. It couldn't possibly be that busy early on a Sunday morning at the end of March... WRONG. The security line was one of the longest we'd ever seen! By the time we finally made it through, we had to run over to our gate!! Because our flight was leaving in less than 10 minutes!!! But we made it! Whew!

We were heathens this Sunday, as by the time we got in, all the wards were done except for the Spanish speaking ward. My grandparents both had to work that day so we met up with them at work, which happens to be an amusement park. So even though we were tired, we walked around the park a little while my grandparents were finishing up and took a cave tour.

Most of our pictures turned out blurry because of the lighting though. Sorry!


After that we came back to grandma and grandpa's house and settled in a little bit. We also went to our first show of the week, Spirit of the Dance. It was mostly Irish clogging, with a few other styles mixed in there. But it was pretty good! Then we finally came back and crashed. We had been up at 4am to get to our flight that morning! So we were definitely ready for sleeping :)

Monday we got to sleep in a little. After we got up and ready, we headed over to meet grandma and grandpa for lunch. They volunteer at the hospital here, so we met them there and had lunch. Then we went to RIDE THE DUCK!! The amphibious vehicle. Not a real duck :) It was so much fun! Our tour guide was hilarious and it was quite exciting when we reached the lake and he floored the gas and we sped into the water. We also get what are called "Wacky Quackers". Basically annoying little whistle type things that make a quacking sound instead. Loud and obnoxious. But we had fun with them! ha ha Keep out of reach of little children ;)

Another duck we saw out on the lake

Hee hee

I even got to drive it!!!!

See? I really did!

And then I got a dollar for my efforts ;)

It was so much fun! And now I'm going to start a new blog post before this one gets ridiculously long ;)

Couponing TRIUMPH!!!

Okay. I just have to tell you all:

I got $60 worth of food for

...

(drumroll please)

...

$14.50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing? Yes, I know, I'm still excited about it and I got back 2 hours ago.

And that is just the beginning!!

Now I will tell you some of the awesome things I got and stocked up on (don't worry, I'm not going to tell you everything I got on my shopping trip...):

Progresso Soup (normally $2.49) for $.50
Ronzoni Pasta (normally $2.29) for $.25 - $.50
Revlon Lip Gloss (LOVE!!! *ahem* normally $8.49) for *approx* $3
Bumblebee Tuna (normally $1.69) for $.80

Okay, so with all of my savings and couponing techniques (such as stacking and rolling catalinas), I purchased

$157.14 worth of food...for...

(drumrollllllll)

$53.02!!!!!! (excluding tax ha ha)

Did I score or WHAT?! (now, I realize that as a novice couponer, some of you experts out there can do better. but for my first time...I think I did pretty well!) I saved over $100!!!!!!! I'm so proud of myself :)

And this is what our couch looked like after I clipped all the coupons I'd ordered in the mail:


And then spent the afternoon organizing them all nice in my BYU binder :) (and yes, I know I have way too much time on my hands, but at least I'm making a worthwhile use of it!!)

:D