It's good to be home...

I was looking through my photos in preparation for this post and I thought I'd show you our latest portrait taken while on vacation!  Do you like my outfit?  Sorry, couldn't resist.  So where did we go and what did we do?

With the very hot summer that my lineman hubby worked in, and knowing how tired he has been this year, I decided that a relaxing vacation was in order.  (Some of you may remember he had a heart attack last summer.)   He knew that I had planned on another repeat trip out west so that is where he was prepared to go, but he left the decision up to me.  I think he was pleasantly surprised when I told him I really wanted to spend most of our vacation in Branson.  Frankly, the heat and drought this summer had made me a tired and cranky woman and I really wasn't looking forward to a car trip of over 3000 miles.  Retirement is only a couple of years away, so we'll soon have lots of time for traveling, God willing. 

We started our vacation by meandering down south through the bootheel of Missouri and going through a bit of Tennessee and Mississippi before heading into Arkansas and driving up to Branson.

Why does Branson draw me to it?  I honestly can't point to any one thing.  We do consider the condo we always stay in as our home away from home.  It's quiet and the scenery is beautiful from the screened-in deck.  It's a little pricey, so we didn't save much money by staying closer to home, but it was so nice to not be on the road every day and living out of a suitcase.  I was so relaxed and lazy that I didn't even pick up my camera very often. 

One of my very favorite things to do on vacation is to eat.  I love eating something that I didn't have to prepare!  I may have overdone the eating a bit, as I've noticed my capris are getting a little harder to button!!  We enjoyed our breakfast on the screened-in deck most mornings without flies or kitties bothering us.  I didn't mind fixing breakfast, knowing I didn't have to worry about preparing the next meals of the day!

A favorite stop is always at Mel's Hard Luck Diner in Branson.  The food is pretty good, but it's the singing waiters that makes the visit a real treat.  This visit, I was in the mood for an old fashioned chocolate ice-cream soda.  It was more than I could possibly eat and hubby was happy to finish it up for me!  The young man singing in the back of the photo is Jason Yeager who made the top 24 finalists on American Idol in 2008.  He is a very talented singer!  Btw, our son was working in Branson a couple of days while we were there and joined us at our favorite eatery at the Landing for a nice dinner one night.  Oh, yes, we had lots of yummy things to eat on vacation....I won't talk about the blackberry cobbler or the apple dumpling with cinnamon ice cream.   Just thinking about it makes me hungry and I must slow down on the food intake.  I must!!

I was amazed at how green everything looked in Arkansas compared to our part of Missouri when we left., but we've had a couple of nice rains while we were gone and it's greening up here again!  It's also much cooler.  First thing on the agenda since coming home is mowing.  I think we only mowed prior to now maybe 5 times all spring/summer. 

I have kitties to hug and unpacking to do.  Plus a lot of little fall cleaning to get started on.  I've come home from vacation more determined than ever to rid my house of stuff that I don't use or love!  I'm determined to simplify my life!   It's time to get busy...but I'll be by to visit as soon as I can!

Until next time...