Branson playtime

The pictures in the post below are from two different trips to Branson, fun capital of Missouri (or tourist trap of Missouri depending on which way you look at it!)
John took a day off from composing and we took the two kids and Yue Jia to Silver Dollar city for a day of fun. It was great because there were enough "big" kids to take the "little" kids on all those twirly, toss your lunch rides so that I did not have to go on very many. The only unhappy ride turned out to be the "Lost River." All was going fine until Luke got drenched and started to cry and that started Lily crying in a chain reaction. Frozen lemonade seemed to make it go away and refresh us all.
Yesterday we spent the entire day at the Shanghai circus with the acrobats of China. This is the second year the theater has invited families with children adopted from China to come and spend a fun filled day surrounded by Chinese culture. The morning games were to take place in a park, but the weather changed all that. The theater was able to make a last minute change and move the games inside the theater. Luke had a great time with the Chinese yo yo, but it is not easy to keep it spinning. The best part of the day was that we were able to reunite with one of our travel families from our first visit to China, the Minden's. We had not seen Maddie in two years since our last reunion at there house in St. Louis. It was great to pick up right where we had left off and chatter about how our girls are doing and also about our latest trip to China to get Luke. Luke and Maddie hit it off right away and spent much of the day chasing each other around the large theater and having "balloon fights." Jada Jones was also present and so the four kids surrounded 14 year old Logan and beat him up with balloons. Logan looked like he was enjoying all the attention. We came back to Springfield after the show ended so that Yue Jia could finish up her last bit of packing.
She came to us with lots of luggage but she left with more. She ended up leaving several items behind. I told John it was like the pioneers heading West dumping stuff out of the wagons along the way. Lily was thrilled as she was the recipient of four pairs of beautiful fu fu shoes (the girl has a shoe fetish at 4). John took Yue Jia to the airport at 4am for her 6am flight. I hope she enjoyed her 10 months in the USA.
The Minden's continue to hang out in Branson so we are headed down that way again today to join them at Silver Dollar City for dinner and the evening show. We are lucky it is only a 45 minute drive! We are so sorry our friends the Binzel's could not make this trip. Their private runway was flooded out by all the rain in Wisconsin. We hope to meet up with them later this summer or for sure in December when we make our annual visit to Chicago!
This is a rare moment when both kids are sleeping (daddy too) so they will be well rested to make it through the show tonight.