A Vacation I Will NEVER Forget

Last week, we travelled down to a place we’ve been going for many, many years now…BRANSON, MISSOURI!If you’ve been reading the blog for any amount of time now, you know that this is pretty much our home away from home. We absolutely LOVE it down at the lake and Silver Dollar City, and will make any excuse we can to go down there, even if it’s just for a short weekend away.However, this trip was a little different than usual. While I’ve been going down to Branson regularly now for about 18 years (since Matt and I started dating), I haven’t been with my side of the family since I was 18 months old.And my dad will be quick to remind you that it was a nightmare of a trip. Car sickness, cars overheating, parasites, pretty much every bad thing you can imagine happened on that trip. My dad hadn’t been down to Branson since I was 18 months old. But, 33 years later, we finally got to travel to one of my favorite places on earth (not that I’ve been a ton of places, but you get it…) with my mom’s entire side of the family.(Sidenote: we were missing one of my aunt’s and her family, and of course, my brother + his family who live in California. But, there were 22 of us at one point all hanging out in the same house.)So, this isn’t going to be your typical vacation recap where I talk about all the things that we did. But, I want to talk about the 2 things that made this trip one of the best of my life.1. TIME WITH FAMILY.We headed down a day early so the kids (and Matt) could have some time in Silver Dollar City doing what THEY wanted to do. Since most of my family have never been to Matt’s favorite place on earth, we knew that when we went with them, we’d want to cater to what they wanted to do. So, we spent several hours on Friday hanging out and letting the kids do their thing.The next day, we met up with the rest of my family (after a little fender bender on our way to the cabin) for the most epic 5 days. Lots of boating, game playing, and laughing. In fact, originally, we were supposed to head back home on Memorial Day since MacKenna still had 2 days left of school, but we decided to stay an extra couple of days.The real reason why we stayed longer was something my uncle said to my husband…While we were playing games + having a BLAST on Saturday night (our first night there), my uncle leaned over to Matt and said, “This is exactly what I was hoping would happen.”My cousins are all significantly younger than me. The time we have together is a brief few hours and I’ve never really had a chance to bond with them as they’ve entered high school. I’ve always been close to my aunts and uncle (I’m closer to their age than I am to my cousins), so having the opportunity to sit for hours and play games and laugh and have a blast with them was so, so special. Plus, Kenna + Miles LOVED getting to hang out with the “big kids” and stay up late.It is definitely a trip that I will NEVER forget! We had so much fun that we are hoping it becomes an annual thing with the entire family!2. THE HILL.Like I said, I’ve been going down to Branson regularly for 18 years now. And there’s been ONE THING that has been on my bucket list to do every single year, but I’ve always been too scared to do it...Run the 19% grade hill.Cars struggle to go up this hill, so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But, I NEEDED the challenge. I NEEDED to prove to myself that it WAS possible.I've been chasing after several goals for what seems like forever. It's easy to get frustrated and feel totally defeated. I’ll be honest, there have been several nights recently when I’ve wanted to quit.But, when I woke up that Sunday morning, I knew I had a goal to accomplish. I was going to run this hill. I knew it was possible. I knew I'd make it to the top. But, I also knew it was going to suck.⠀It hurt.My legs burned.I was sucking wind.I'll admit that I even had to walk part of the way.But, I made it.And had this amazing view as my sweet, sweet reward.⠀The journey isn't easy, my friend.It sucks.It hurts.It burns.Sometimes you'll be running.Sometimes you've gotta slow down a bit.But, as long as you keep moving forward, no matter how long it takes, I promise you'll make it to the top of the mountain.And on the way back down, I set a new goal. I stopped at one of the houses for sale and picked up a flier. We’ve got a LONG way to go before we can buy a house on the lake in Branson, but I’m all about dreaming BIG and chasing down those goals. It might take us years to accomplish, but I know, one day, I’ll be spending every morning sitting on the deck, looking out at the lake, coffee in hand, and loving life.