When I was big pregnant, three of my girlfriends planned to come see me. We made a day trip to New Orleans and I showed them around Cajun Country. You can read about that trip here and here. After that trip, we've made great efforts to get together off and on throughout the year and to make one big girls trip a year.
This year, I somehow convinced them to go to Branson. Those who know me know that I spent the majority of my young life at Kanakuk Kamps and fell in love with Branson. Love me some Ozarks, y'all!! Branson was one of Jamie and my first trips as a married couple. You can briefly read about that trip here. Needless to say, I absolutely love Branson, so my girlfriends took me up on my vacation idea!
Thursday, May 1st, I flew to Tulsa and rode in the car with Karen and Kendall to our log cabin at Lonesome Dove Log Cabins. That is where Jamie and I stayed about four years ago and absolutely loved it.
I was the trip historian and was put in charge of the picture taking, so here we go!
Karen picked me up and then we grabbed Kendall and made our way to Branson. Lindsay met us there.
After a fun, chatty, hilarious drive, we made it! The insanity quickly began! Lindsay met us on the balcony and the trip was officially off to a perfect start once we were all united! We all also brought gifts for each other complete with monogrammed shirts, pj pants, headbands, homemade sugar cookies, monogrammed pillows, candy and more! We're so fun!!! :)
Of course, we had to try on our new gear:
Leave it to Kendall to do the pretty faces :)
Our first group shot of the trip!
Lindsay's beautiful cookies:
She made each of our monograms on individual cookies, and we posed by them appropriately...
Karen looking beautiful:
Kendall looking...lovely:
Lindsay looking spastic:
Me looking foolish:
If you love the look of these cookies as much as I do, you can contact the gorgeous Lindsay Hassell at The Happy Domestic and order cookies for yourself! She's wildly talented and these cookies are as delicious as they are beautiful!
We had a very picturesque fireplace that we did many-a-pose in front of during our stay. Starting with this one:
Then this one:
Oh mercy. Then this one:
We tried the whole, "run into the picture last minute and pose" kind of pose. We're ridiculous.
I love my friends.
After a while, we put on our matching PJs and took some more group shots:
That last one is probably my favorite from the whole weekend.
Our first evening together was spent laughing uncontrollably and loudly! We reminisced on our Chi O and college days, told married and baby stores, cried, laughed, hugged, snuggled and just had a ball. We stayed up until about 2:00 in the morning and finally called it a night. We could have easily stayed up all night talking, but we decided that we needed to get a few hours of rest for our long day ahead of us.
Friday morning, Kendall (my Chi Omega "Big") and I woke up and went on a little walk. Our cabin is up in the mountains so we had quite the hike. Lafayette couldn't be any flatter, so it was nice to walk some really great hills!
Did I mention that it was chilly? Oh my goodness, how glorious!
How cute is our cabin?
I took this exact same picture when Jamie and I came here four years ago:
This dog followed us for the first and last parts of our walk. I'm sure he was sweet but he was horrifying!!
He sniffed our tushies and jumped up on us and he was just a bit scary. I'm a dog person, but not a fan of dogs that can eat me!
We made a Starbucks run and ate a quick breakfast, we all got ready and then headed out the door to go shopping. First stop was the Branson Landing. But we had to take our daily fireplace picture:
My friends are not only great fun, but look at how beautiful they are!!
Shortly after we got there, we noticed they had zip lining, so you bet your bottom dollar that Kendall and I jumped on that! For only $25 for unlimited zip lining, there was no way we are passing that up!
We sat on this contraption and it took us backwards up the cable, over Table Rock Lake.
It kind of jerked at first and judging by this next picture, we were a little spooked:
Up we go!
We dangled at the top for a bit (scariest part), and then we were let go!
And here we come!!!!
I have NEVER laughed so hard in my life!
So thankful we did that! Huge laughs! Great memories!
Next stop was posing in front of some show's poster:
The redhead in the picture looks quite strikingly like Karen!!
Ridiculous.
Shopping then ensued.
Hello, Grumpy Cat...and Karen:
Poses with the gorilla:
Of course!
Bear hugs with my converse-loving Wife:
And what trip to the Branson Landing is complete without an experience in the hurricane:
Don't get blown away, Lindsay!!!
Kendall found her hubby's lost truck:
Our next stop was to the Tanger Outlet Mall. More shopping!!
I'm pretty sure she knocked over a toddler to get to this bull:
Ride 'em, Cowgirl!!
We all did our fair share of shopping damage and felt quite accomplished with our loot :)
For dinner...LAMBERT'S CAFE!
We dined on rolls, potatoes, fried okra, sweet potatoes, chicken pot pie, carrorts, chicken fried steak and more. We were full. Chunky. Rolly. And happy.
If you have never been to Lambert's, plan your next vacay to Branson and make a trip there! So delish!
After dinner, we headed back home and despite the fullness, we all still made room for s'mores.
What girls trip is complete without s'mores? Holy yum.
It was another late night of talking. That evening was a little more subdued. Still lots of laughs and giggles and hilarious yelling (I'm shocked we didn't get kicked out!), but there was also a fair share of heart-to-heart conversations. A few tears. A few quiet moments. Hugging and hand holding. And just beautiful, intentional conversation with three of my best friends in the world. Nothing better.
Saturday morning, we had really fun plans. We were heading to Silver Dollar City!
But not without the mandatory fireplace group pic:
I love me some SDC and I was going to force these girls to love it as well!
We rode some fantastic roller coasters, laughed till our throats hurt, screamed like banshees and had a hooplah of a good time!
I have to explain this picture...
We were watching a man form some pottery and there was a "Mr. Know-It-All" that was giving his opinions and telling about his pottery journeys and asking too many questions and this was Lindsay's physical response:
The three of us were dying watching her! I mean dying!! As I'm typing this, I realize it doesn't sound funny at all. Totally one of those "you have to have been there" moments, because it was pure hilarity!
We also spent lots of time in the Christmas shop:
I love Christmas all year long!
Yet another Lindsay snark..
This poor kid did not realize that he was interrupting our picture-taking. Get a hint, kid.
And of course, I moment with the saloon girl:
Y'all this girl. She was loving her job. She was full of sass and old-timeyness and just a perfect little saloon girl. We loved her!
After a few hours at the park, some kettle corn, funnel cakes and corn dogs later, we headed home to relax, shower and get ready for the Dixie Stampede. Out of the 12 summers I spent in Branson, we never went to the Dixie Stampede.
We got all prettified and headed out to Dixieland.
Keep it classy, ladies:
Group shot on the porch:
This property is beautiful. The horses are all outside, and they're stunning and regal and just perfect. We had fun posing next to them, taking awkward pictures.
We all sipped on some delicious virgin strawberries daiquiris (this is Branson after all) for the pre-show.
We had a ball! There were no pictures allowed, but we made up for that back at the cabin.
Love love love these ladies!
Sunday morning was sad. We packed. And I took sad pictures of the property.
Our cute cute cabin, The Cherokee.
Our final fireplace picture with our luggage and shopping bags:
Sexy, ladies.
This next picture took some work...
It was an awkward pose and position and angle and...it was just a difficult shot that I really wanted!
Karen planned a delightfully beautiful lunch at Big Cedar Lodge.
It was probably the most delicious meal I've ever had in my life! So so good!
And the view was absolutely breathtaking.
We finished breakfast and walked around a bit taking pictures before we said our goodbyes to Lindsay. Sad sad goodbye to my wife and then Kendall, Karen and I headed on the road back to Tulsa.
I can't express how much fun this trip was! Every bit of it was pure perfection and we are already planning another trip for this Fall to go to an OSU game. Trips with girlfriends are soooo important and I am so thankful we embraced it!! Love you girls so so much! See you in the Fall!!
As much fun as we had, I sure missed these lovelies:
Until next time, my dears! Love you!
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