Branson with the official family!!!

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After the adoption was final, we headed over to Branson to celebrate.  Our hotel room wasn't ready yet, so we decided to shop for a bit.  We went to the Amish Store as well as the outlet malls.  Nana had given the kids some money to spend and it was burning a hole in their pockets!  Luke and I kept telling them to wait on spending it after they wanted to buy the first thing they saw.

We took a nap in the hotel and headed to the Landings for dinner and a little more shopping.  We ate at Old Chicago and had pizza.  It was good but rich!  Luke and I had been talking about how we wanted something for the kids to commemorate their special day.  We walked by Build a Bear and decided that was it.  The kids had never been there before.  Robert picked a black bear and Asia picked a puppy dog.  They each got recorder buttons in their bears. Luke and I went and recorded messages to them inside their animals.  They then got to stuff them and put a heart inside.  They really thought that was neat.  After giving them an air bath, we headed over to make their official birth certificates.  We told the kids they should name them after their new names.  So, Asia's puppy dog is named after her new name and Robert's is named after his new name.  They do however have nicknames that change almost every day.   After Build a Bear we headed to get ice cream and back to the hotel.  We were all tired!

The next day, we went to Silver Dollar City.  The kids love it there.  I was having issues with a ligament in my foot, so the walking was about all I could do.  Luke took the kids on their first ride- the Plume.  I think they weren't too excited but loved it after it was over.  We rode more rides before lunch.  We ate a Pork Tenderloin sandwich and that succotash out of those big skillets for lunch.  It was starting to get hot around 3, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap.  That night, we went to Shorty Smalls to eat.  I ordered the Chicken Pot Pie and Luke got the BBQ chicken.  The kids got their usual burgers- but got green beans instead of french fries.  I hated my chicken pot pie.  Luke being the good man that he is- ate mine- we ended up eating some of both our plates.

After dinner, we decided to go swimming with the kids.  They splashed around and had a blast jumping in.  When the shallow end got a little crowded we took the kids over the rope to the sorta deep end.  They weren't having it.  Robert is so close to swimming.  He was crying that he was scared.  So, I got nose to nose with him.  I told him, "In the 7 months that we've had you, have I ever done anything for you not to trust me?"  "No Momma," he said.  "And yesterday, when we signed your papers, I proved that I'm always going to be here.  So can you trust me?"  I asked.  "Yes," he said.  He started swimming again.  I looked around the pool at that time and realized it had gone quiet.  Yep, apparently everyone and their dog heard what I said, and I'm sure it sounded kinda strange.  We left the pool shortly after that!

On the ride home, we stopped at Furgeson's for lunch.  We love to eat there.  I had some crayons in my purse, so the kids and I colored while waiting on our food.  I drew a heart and put all our names in it.  Asia says, "Mom we're now a forever family!"  "That's right baby, we sure are!"  It was a great end to a memorable trip!