Missouri

Right after Christmas we were able to go to Missouri with my parents and my little brother Dal to visit my brother and aunts that live out there. Minus the horrible traveling experience we had on both our flight there and back, we had a lot of fun in Missouri.

We were suppose to leave Saturday but due to mechanical problems with our airplane the whole flight got canceled and we left Sunday. It was a bit of a pain but we were all grateful to finally make it to Missouri.

On Monday night we went to my Aunt Karla's house and had "Christmas Dinner" with the whole family including my Aunt Kaye and her family. It brought back many childhood memories of having Sunday dinners and FHE with the whole Ficklin family. I loved it.

We had a pool tournament which was an absolute blast. I played my cousin Steve in the first round and well thanks to his great talent of hitting in the 8 ball I moved on but didn't make it past my amazing cousin Jake.


Spencer made it through the 1st round but lost to my little brother Dalen. My Aunt Karla made it through the 1st round by my dad knocking the 8 ball in, she squeezed past the 2nd round by beating her husband thanks to the advice of others and landed a spot in the finals! She was super excited. It was between her and my little brother and Karla won! She loved it! It was a great night!
The happy winner!

My little nephew loving the piano, so cute!

My little brother Dal and me, he's great!

The next day we went to Silver Dollar City and enjoyed the lights and decorations of the park. For dinner we ate at a little restaurant inside the park it was good but the most memorable part was the table we sat at. There was a huge beam where my parents were sitting that separated the two of them, they looked so funny sitting my each other with this huge beam in the way. It was really funny, I just had to get a picture.

While at Silver Dollar we went to watch their version of the Christmas Carol and I was really excited to see it. Spencer has heard all of these great stories of things in Missouri but he has the worst luck when it comes to him seeing all the things we've talked about. We got about 20 minutes into the show when it started smelling like fire. They canceled the show right in the middle of the performance and we had to leave. Lol, so Spencer's luck!

Enjoying the huge Christmas Tree. Can you tell it was just a little bit cold?


My nephew refused to wear his gloves so his little hands were freezing! Boys...they never change.

The next night we went on the Branson Bell Showboat. It's a dinner cruise where you enjoy a delicious meal and then great entertainment. My cousin is one of the performers in the show and he gave us a few comp tickets. It was a lot of fun.

My brother Josh and his wife Alicia

Our table
Dalen and my Dad

We took this picture from the highest balcony. You can see the stage down below. Pretty crazy!


For Christmas Josh got the Mario game for the Wii and once Dalen and Spencer learned how to play, they loved it. They were addicted especially the fact that they could "bubble." (If you have no idea what I'm talking about just watch someone play with multiple players and it will all make sense). Truthfully it was really entertaining to watch them play, such boys.

Then as our luck would have it, we flew how New Years Eve day and were scheduled to be back to Salt Lake around 5:30, well after a 4 hour delay in Missouri, and a missed flight in Denver we didn't arrive in Salt lake til about 11:00 that night. Let's just say it was a very unique New Years Eve! We spent it in the car driving home! We honked, watched the fireworks from both sides of I-15 and laughed about what a great memory we were creating. Honestly it was a lot a fun and being married I didn't really care where I spent New Years eve as long as Spencer was with me.

Happy 2010!

Overall we had an amazing vacation! It was so nice to get away for a while and to see my family. We loved every minute of our trip and are so glad we we're able to go!