Branson, Missouri!!!

Okay...so Chris and I have taken some pretty amazing trips together over the years. But this trip was SOO MUCH FUN and definitely the MOST adventurous! We really had a FANTASTIC time.

I had been to Branson 10 years ago with Chris. I remembered that it was fun but kinda hokey. But Chris has been gone soo dang much this year that I jumped at the chance to go with him just so I could see him for more than 2 days. To start off our adventure, we actually flew out of the Phoenix/Mesa Gateway airport--at Williamsfield and Power. It's a very small airport that has exactly 2 flights every week from Mesa to Springfield, MO. Flying into Springfield, MO puts you 30 minutes outside of Branson. All other major airlines fly to Tulsa, OK which is then a 3 hour drive to Branson. So we saved a lot of time and money and it was really quite fun. We flew out with 7 others flying out for this event--The Branson Show Choir Cup--which is FAME's (my hubby's company) 2nd biggest event of the year. FAME is the top Show Choir producer in the United States and Canada. Chris has been working for them for 14 years now and he STILL doesn't know a thing about music--but that's why I married him:) So I was going on this trip to work a little but then watch Show Choirs ALL weekend!!! It is like GLEE but without all the trash! My kind of weekend:)

So we arrived in Branson on Thursday night and went to our condos. Friday morning we were up bright and early to go to Silver Dollar City. This is the amusement park in Branson and has one of the BEST roller coasters EVER--WILDFIRE!!! We had 4 hours to fit in all the rides we could--we hit Wildfire 4 times. So no pictures here--I didn't want to be burdened with carrying around a camera:)

After lunch we went to set up the theater for the event. Well, we were there maybe 30 minutes. Chris was unloading the heavy equipment out of the truck when some sound equipment fell on him from behind and actually caused him to hit his face on a beam inside the truck! I didn't see it happen but one the the guys ran in and said, "Buffie! Chris is hurt and bleeding, can you go get some paper towels?" So I ran and grabbed 1 wet paper towel and 1 dry one thinking he had a bloody nose. I ran outside only to see my husband holding his mouth, blood ALL down his arms and all over his face. He was also spitting out mouthfuls of blood--not a sight any wife wants to see and I realized that I had definitely NOT grabbed enough paper towels! So we got him inside and into the bathroom to clean him up. We were both checking his teeth and I was just SURE I would be searching for his teeth out on the ground somewhere. But by some huge miracle, his teeth we all intact. We got some ice on his mouth and headed out for the nearest urgent care.

Once at the urgent care, we had the bleeding under control. It didn't look soo bad on the outside of his lip but then they looked underneath and well, it was a big mess. There was a hole torn through the skin that connects the inside of the lip to the gums. They decided that the damage was too much for them to repair there and they were trying to get us into the plastic surgeon at the hospital but the one plastic surgeon in all of Branson had gone home for the day. So we headed over to the ER hoping that someone else would take this on. We got to the ER and we had the pleasure of working with Dr. Teeter. What an AMAZING doctor! He described himself as "old school" and he "LOVED sewing up blunt force trauma wounds." ("Because they split soo nice and even--the only thing that makes a cleaner cut is a razor:)" Well he got Chris sewed right up--6 stitches and a tetanus shot. Dr. Teeter was quite proud of his work and said, "NO plastic surgeon could have done a better job!"

I know no one ever wants or plans on going to an ER or urgent care and it seems that I hear more bad than good about these places but we LOVED LOVED LOVED our service in both the urgent care and ER in Branson. Everyone was SOO amazing kind of us and took care of Chris right away. I really enjoyed talking to all the hospital staff. Maybe it was just their CUTE accents, but I could have talked to them ALL day! I could TOTALLY see myself picking up that accent if I lived there:) So if I had to choose where to get injured, it would be Branson all the way!!! We will be sending a nice thank you card to Dr. Teeter.

Here are some pics of my poor hubby: (don't mind his nostrils--no way to take a picture of the area without looking up his nose:)



We headed to the Branson Showboat Belle that night. Here we are about to board--my hubby is unable to smile in any more pictures this weekend! He really was happy here:)



OH MY GOSH!!! I remembered the show on the boat 10 years ago to be especially hokey--like a guy with talking dogs and stuff. But this show was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Holy cow! They had a SUPER funny MC--Christopher James and the music performances we seriously out of this world. First there were these six super hunky guys called "The Showmen" who could sing whatever and had seriously tight harmonies. All the high school girls were going CRAZY over these guys.


Then there was this amazing lady--Janice Martin--who made me realize that I've accomplished NOTHING in my life:) Just kidding but she was seriously talented. She graduated from Julliard and is a concert pianist, violinist/fiddlest, and soprano. And oh yeah...she was an aerial artist as well. (She also served in the army for 3 years). Both acts seriously blew my mind. I didn't get a great picture of Janice but here is one:


Saturday was the big event!!! I had the opportunity to welcome all of the show choir groups and escort them to their seats, warm-up area, pictures, etc. But I mostly got to sit and watch all of their shows. Once again! AMAZING!!! I don't know what they do in the midwest but the show choirs that come out of these states are unlike ANYTHING I've seen in AZ or NM. I would have given just about anything to be part of something that amazing in high school. The shows were amazing and the best choir definitely won.

We then went to see the show, "SIX." Once again...AMAZING! This show is made up of 6 brothers--the Knutsden brothers. They are LDS and they are actually only 6 of 10 brothers--funny story, their mom was told at 17 that she would never be able to have children. Well, the doctor was completely wrong--she had 10 boys! And the six oldest have now had a show in Branson for the past 5 years. Everything they do is COMPLETELY a capella. They have NO accompaniment whatsoever and make ALL of their noises (drums and everything) with their mouths! SERIOUSLY crazy talent in that family. They were SOOO funny and we're actually named the "Show of the Year" last year in Branson. I would HIGHLY recommend this show to anyone.

Sunday we actually got to sleep in and we definitely needed it. Our plane didn't leave until 8:30 that night so we had some time to kill. We hit the Titanic museum--this is the best museum I have ever been in. You get a card at the beginning of the tour with the name and background information of an actual person that was aboard the Titanic. You go through the museum and then you find out at the end if you survived or not. I was Eleanor Widner--1st class passenger--and yes, I did survive but my husband and son perished. Chris's guy died. I could have spent hours there reading every little thing. Tomorrow, April 12th, actually marks the 99th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

We also hit a wax museum--totally cheesy but fun.


Chris and his hero:


Joel (the big boss man of the company) was actually in Toronto this weekend. We jokingly refer to Chris' job being in the maffia because he would have to go into hiding if he ever quit. So here are the guys--Chris, Bert, and Jeremy (the other maffia members) taking their picture with the Godfather--ha ha Joel!!! We're just kidding:)


Me my other boyfriend:


We hit "Lambert's" for dinner.


Talk about good country home cookin'!!! And yes, it IS the home of "Throwed Rolls." The rolls there are AMAZING. And you can have as many as you want but you have to catch them! Holy cow! It was FUNNY! The guy who threw the roll NEVER missed!!! I spent more time laughing at all the rolls flying around than I did eating. It was HILARIOUS! And the food was fantastic too. I gotta go back someday:)


And finally, we headed back to the airport. Funny story...on the way over to MO, there was this HUGE muscular man with long hair and a guitar riding on our plane. I knew I had seen this guy somewhere but I just couldn't place him! One of our guys got to sit by him on the plane. Turns out, the guy is "Hollywood Yates" and he was the American Gladiator, "Wolf." I'm not a huge gladiator fan but I have watched it like twice but I totally remembered this guy ( I was a HUGE WWF fan back in the day)!!!! So I figured since there are only 2 flights between AZ and MO, that there was a really good chance that he'd be on our flight back too. Well, he WAS!!! And I just HAD to get picture with him!!! So check me out with "Hollywood Yates" a.k.a. "Wolf."


This is "The Wolf" in all his gladiator gear:


So in a nutshell, AWESOME rollercoasters, AMAZING show choirs, STITCHES in a FANTASTIC hospital by the BEST doctor, MIND-BLOWING shows and museums, GREAT food that flew in the air, topped off with meeting a real -live GLADIATOR!!! Seriously...could it have been any more FUN?!?! I dare say NO!!!