Fun close to home

I didn't ever get out my camera so the picture is from the web, but today Ryan took the day off work (which is a big deal--he never does that) so we could take Macauley to White Water in Branson. We were kind of celebrating a few huge sales Ryan has made recently at Aztec, the computer company he owns, but we also just wanted to enjoy our little boy before school starts and he grows up even more. Macauley absolutely loves White Water and we all had a good day and came back tired and pink. Living as close as we do (about 30-40 minutes) to Branson might cause us to take it for granted sometimes, but there are really a lot of great things to do in the famous tourist destination besides watch country/gospel/oldies shows and play putt-putt. Good shopping, good restaurants and a lot of places/activities to entertain a 5-year-old. We have an all-city season pass that covers White Water, Silver Dollar City and Celebration City (a nighttime amusement park built a few years ago). These parks and the whole town of Branson have really evolved into something way more than they were when I was a kid and went there on vacation from Oklahoma with my family, even though there is still a whole lot of the cheesy/touristy stuff left, too. Then to make a good day even better, we watched the season premiere of one of my favorite shows, Project Runway. Ryan and I love to watch that show and it's been one of our little couple rituals/bonding times for several seasons now. Can't wait to see more.