Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Branson 2014

 Once again, the Mills Family gathered together for our annual trip to Branson, Missouri.  This year was a blast, as always!  And as always, I swear time flies by faster every year (or maybe all those kiddos keep us moving faster and faster the older they get?)
My sister-in-law, Jessica, and I Tye-died shirts along with our kids back in March so we would all have matching shirts to wear on our travel day.  Matt and Justin were way too cool to match the rest of us (or not cool enough, I figured) but the kids were SUPER excited to finally get to put on their shirts and hit the road!
 Our first afternoon/evening it rained, but the didn't keep us from heading out to Cakes n' Creams for dessert!  The kids had fun eating ice cream and picking songs on the juke box. 
 A brand new event added for 2014 was the all family water gun war.  Each family picked their own color to wear (we were gray, obviously) and brought their weapons of choice.  It was SO much fun!  The little kids were super into it and it was a perfect way to cool off at the end of a hot day.  I LOVE Katie's "scary" face - so cute!

 Jessica, Cori, Kate, and I went to the Jonah show.  It was AMAZING!  I loved how the story came to life on the stage and the story of God's grace, mercy, and relentless pursuit of us was truly soul stirring.  I felt like we'd been to church after it was over!  The girls loved it too.  I definitely want to go see whatever story is coming next to the theater.
 Ryan and Poppy in their Mike Wazowsky shirts
 Kate won a prize at Bingo
 Family pictures in our Thunder gear...Thunder Up!!!


And per tradition, we ended out trip with breakfast at the Grand Country buffet and then feeding a ridiculous amount of quarters into the Love Chair.  See ya in 2015!!!

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

4th of July

 We had a very lovely 4th of July here at the Mills' house.  The weather was really nice and cool for July.
 We started out the day by heading to a fireworks stand that is run by some friends we know.  With our whopping $3 purchase in hand, we were off!
 We had red, white, and blue drinks with our dinner.  Kate and Ryan thought these were awesome!
 We went out to Riverview Park and met up with some friends to watch the fireworks.  Of course, we had to do a few sparklers first!
And just before the fireworks started we enjoyed some yummy red, white, and blue ice pops.  The kids did really well this year with the fireworks.  They really weren't scared at all and enjoyed all of the pretty colors.  Every 4th of July makes me think about how grateful I am to live in this wonderful country.  Although we are not without our problems, there's no where else I'd rather call home!