Part 2...road trip...

You might recall if you have been following me for some time now; that my hubby traveled a LOT with his previous job. Then the Lord blessed us with a new adventure that had him home a WHOLE LOT more. His travel is minimal. And on occasion, we pack up and join him on his outings. Last week, his road trip took him to Branson, Missouri and he wanted me to tag along.

My thoughts....

There is NO way! First week of school for the girls, less help at the shop with my right arm Leah gone and not to mention the other 9,274 things that mother's have to do on a day to day basis, and to think to leave for a WEEK! 

Well, with lots of help from family and friends, and our fantastic Amanda holding down Fort Bellamia;  (even packing Saturday night as if it still wasn't really going to happen) we set our alarms, set out before day break and arrived here just before sunset....

 Tim's conference was in the hotel we were staying in, Chateau on the Lake.  And after touring the city of Branson the first day, decided I'd rather stay in this fabulous Hotel the whole week.

I wasn't impressed with the city itself, unless of course you are looking for things like this....

just in case you would like to have a closer look of this GINORMOUS chicken.... to enter you must pass through his legs. They serve chicken, but down stairs it is an all you can eat crab claws buffet...huh, go figure?? Not like anything else in this town is a little strange.....

Don't get me wrong, with what seemed as 100+ putt putt golf parks, every kind of buffet, and an "Old Time Photo" shop on every corner; I am not saying it isn't fun. I just decided since Tim was in conference and the Kiddos were 800 miles south, I would rather enjoy the views of  Table Rock Lake from the pool. And venture to the Spa that is connected to the hotel....

There is only Two things I regret happening (besides not pulling the kids out of school the first week to enjoy this, I must have said that a million times!)......

First, was Not going in here.....

Seriously, I think it would've been so cool.


Second, was having the Fire Alarm go off during the night while you are staying on the 9th floor, and realizing your husband is completely helpless when awoken in such a panic. I am pretty sure I was halfway down the hall when the Manager said it was a false alarm. I will give Tim credit that he got up to look for a shirt, but when I came back in the room he was in the bed...I am sure it had nothing to do with driving 14+ hours and jumping into teaching 9 hours a day that week ;)




My most favorite part by far was our drive home.

We traveled 2 hours south to eat breakfast here.....

It was incredibly fabulous! I am so glad Tim remembered passing it on the way up.


Then we ventured in a few Flea Market and Antique Stores........




This was our first stop.....

And it says it ALL on this sign. It is truly the largest antique store I have ever seen.

Of, course unless it could fit in our Volkswagen Jetta, it wasn't coming home with us.


We were just about to leave when I spotted a stack of these....

Apparently the owner, (from what the other Antique'ers say), gets everything in crates from over seas. So they said that he is true to his word on these four old late 1800's wooden folding chairs from Ireland we picked up.

We had been keeping our eyes open for smaller unique chairs to go around this table....

Our plan is to strip and stain the chairs......thinking a color stain like red, yellow or black would be fun and different.....one more thing on our endless "to do" list...

 The Table above is our kitchen table, well was, until recent. The history behind this is that I won it in an auction along with the six matching chairs. While in School at Auburn, Tim, stripped and stained them.

Well, our little family has slowly out grown this  table with four chairs and a stool around it. It was time to give Miss Elizabeth some leg room. So we moved it to our Playroom to create a game table out of it since we replaced it in the kitchen with this.....

On our way up, we stopped at one antique store right before they closed and I eyed a very small chandelier. We have an old home, which I LOVE, but one disappointment when we bought it was either....

a.) the original owners didn't have the going "taste" for the era the house was built, by not having the fabulously beautiful chandeliers and crystal door nobs. or....

b.) taking them out when the 60's got here and replacing them with NOT good looking retro ones.


Tim and I have been slowly restoring these details in our home.

I had never seen the chandelier I "eyed" at this place in that small of a size. I left with out purchasing it, but it stayed on my mind throughout the week.

On the way home, Tim asked me if I wanted to stop back by and pick up that chandelier. Of course I was thrilled. When we walked in the owner's reconized us, and when approaching the chandelier they said it was mis-marked the other day and the real price was actually supposed to be $100 more, but they told us they would give it for the price we came back for.

Of course hanging around there that long and telling them about wanting to bring back the details of our home, the owner went in the back and came back out saying, "well, I just got this in yesterday. Haven't cleaned it up yet, but you can buy this one too if you want.".......


Of course I had the perfect spot for that one as well....small one in the hallway and large one in the dining room.....


I had to go to work on Saturday after returning from our trip, but when I returned home later that afternoon Tim had already cleaned and hung them.....


The old light fixture in the hall.....

And the new.....

I don't have a picture of the before of our dining room, but it was a Lowe's Special....

here is the "before it was cleaned" of the new one.....you always need to keep an opened mind to: not what things always look like, but what they can become....

And after......

I am pretty excited about our "finds"....


And of course a road trip isn't complete without a trip in the gas station for pork rinds, beef jerky and a Kit Kat. WHAT WERE WE THINKING...... the lady behind the counter should've pushed her sales and suggested Tums to us.


we didn't even eat dinner that night......we aren't kids anymore, that is for sure!



I missed you guys that week and had so much fun fancying these little guys when I returned......

Fall is EXPLODING in Bellamia! Come see us!