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It was a long, rainy, boring drive to Branson, Missouri. 10 hours actually without any stops!
We read books, played games, took naps, read more books, played media, more books, more games and some coloring time..... But even on the longest of days, I still would chose this travel life of ours! ?:)? 
Missouri is one of our favorite stops. The Ozarks are just so beautiful, and we adore the family fun this state offers. I have SO many childhood memories in this great state! :)
We love to try new places when we pull into town, so we loaded up for some BillyBob Burgers, what a cute diner!
Branson Landing is a neat outdoor shopping center, we usually go at night for the Fire and Lights show, but this time, we didn't stay long enough to watch it. Brrr!
We did enjoy walking around and getting some yummy butter olive oil before we left. (Tastes SO good to make Dale's famous popcorn!) 
We have a new favorite restaurant in Branson, Little Hacienda. Totally classy and modern!
Get the Burrito Supreme with the Queso Blanco over it. I love how they grill their tortillas first.
We had planned to go to our FAVORITE place on earth, Silver Dollar City, on Thursday when you can get in for half price. However, Dale was watching the weather, and when temperatures dropped to a high of 40 and 90% chance of icy mix, we knew that wasn't going to happen.
Thankfully, we found a similar coupon and went on Sunday when the crowds were lower and the high was 50. Still cold, but bearable for a day of fun! 
RIGHT into the park, Dale and the bigger kids wanted to do the Wildfire Roller Coaster. There was zero line since the park just opened, so they got right on.
Pax and I hung out and waited for them to go by..... 
Time Traveler is the newest coaster, Dale and the bigs LOVED it. Before we divided up by age and rideability, we all road the Lost Mine boat ride.
We had a girls boat vs boys boat contest shoot out, GIRLS WON! Whoop whoop! I took a pic of my high score gun, thankyouverymuch. 
Then, we walked through Grandfather's (crazy crooked) Mansion, and the kids talked me into going on the Thundersation rollercoaster with them. I am NOT a rollar coaster rider, mind you, and was very nervous. But I remembered many many moons ago, on our Senior trip, that it was the one and only coaster I could do without getting sick.
Slideshow:
We picked the warmest of the days we were here, and still.....
3 shirts, 2 pants, 2 sets of socks, fur boots, coat, hat, scarf, gloves and STILL COLD! We bought some wassil and hot cocoa in our refillable mugs, and that helped a lot. BTW, those are worth it. They are good for one full year and refills are $1-2 dollars depending on what you pick. Water is free all day long which saves dragging a jug all day! 
We hung out over in the Firehouse section as a family before dividing back up again. They have a huge fire station you can have ball wars in, huge cannons and launchers. Super fun!
Kids all went on a nutso launcher ride, up up up and away!
The Grand Exposition is a great place to take your younger kiddos while the bigs do the big kid rides. We spent a good hour over here riding the rides!
We met back up for dinner at the bakery. We had Kalskies? Basically a homemade pig in a blanket, giant pretzel and an even bigger Gingerbread man. That all cost an arm and two legs and we all still were starving, so we went down into the park again and got some awesome sausage, sweet potato skillets to share too.
At this point, all the millions of lights were being turned on, and transformed our favorite place on earth into one of twinkly MAGIC. It just gives me that warm fuzzy feeling in my heart, and I flashback to my own youth, and even more of years gone by of meeting my dad here when the kids were younger.
We watched the glass blowers for a while, then the parade started!
We were all cold to the bone by this point, so we checked the Silver Dollar City app and saw there was ONE more show we could catch, "It's A Wonderful Life". It was wonderfully done! All their shows are, and it comes with the price of your ticket. :)
We had been at the park 8 hours at this point, and time was flying. We were all sleepy, thirsty and ready to head home. But we had to walk past our FAVORITE part, the Christmas tree!
An amazing ending to an AMAZING DAY! 
A good nights sleep, and awakening to the pitter patter of rain, started our school day Monday. But the house was warm and the rain made it all cozy!
One more essential oil class, and breakfast at local favorite, BillyGail's before we packed up to head to our next stop. We have to beat the icy weather that is on it's way, because well, buses and ICE, just don't mix!
Have you ever seen a bigger pancake? 
Branson, it's been real.
Until next time! Hugs, T
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We are off for the summer! On the road once again.....this time until fall. We plan to go east coast and up north. We have great things planned like Creation Museum, Ark Encounter, Yorktown, Jamestown, Philly, NY city and MORE! And OIL CLASSES EVERYWHERE!!! I will share my schedule on the RV Oilers FB page as we go, so pay attention, if I am close to you, I would love for you to be my guest at class. :) It will be a summer of FUN for sure! Follow along with us..... First up, Missouri! There is a new happenin' team in Joplin that are using and loving oils! YAY! In addition to classes, we snuck away for some fun one morning, and visited the Precious Moments Park and Chapel What a NEAT place of faith! :)   Slideshow: Our next class is in Branson on Friday, so we headed there for some fun in the sun. First up, was LAMBERTS, home of the throwed roll! Great homestyle food, and lots of extras they walk around with to add to your heaping plates!  Avery wanted to catch a roll SO BAD, but was super nervous. Here is a video of her: https://www.facebook.com/daleandtonya/videos/pcb.10160517450600230/10160517413005230
We LOVE LOVE LOVE Silver Dollar City but are skipping this time because it's HOT. We are SPOILED and used to having the park to ourselves in the fall when everyone else is in school and it was customer appreciation day which means EXTRA LONG LINES. Instead, we treated the kids to our second favorite thing to do:
SIGHT AND SOUND THEATRE! They are doing Sampson right now, which we have never seen. It was SO SO GOOD! Wow. Any of the shows they produce is a must see on a MASSIVE stage!     Our favorite place to walk at night is the Branson Landing, our RV park was just down the way from it. So we would walk over to see the Fire and Lights Show every evening. Great atmosphere to walk and window shop as it is basically like an outdoor mall!
Slideshow: A friend of our recommended TWO amazing restaurants for us to try, off the beaten path of the Branson Strip and we LOVED them both! Branson has never been our favorite "food place" because of the lack of home cookin, but not anymore. Billy Gale's is one heck of a breakfast stop and we WILL be back again! WOW. They are famous for their 14 inch pancakes, and boy where they good, along with the biscuits and everything else we tried.
The second place she recommended was a Mexican joint called La Bonita's. WOAH BABY! They gave us a free cheese dip with our chips and salsa, which was delish. We ordered the 3 Taco platter, hard shells, and it came out homemade and lightly fried, unlike any shell I have eaten before.  We did a class at the house of a team member, who revealed to me we already knew each other! We had volunteered at a Weekend to Remember years and years ago, and they were the couple we worked the table with! She later stumbled onto our blog and then found doTERRA oils. It is SO COOL how God works! We had a lovely time with them, but UGH, no photos! Why do I do that?!   And just like that, our time in Branson was done. Off to Tennessee we go! Hugs, T  Branson, MO!!!!! What, you thought I meant something else? This is post 2 on our Branson adventure. Papa and Drea had just pulled out to head back to sunny Florida. The fun didn't end when Papa & Drea left, but we sure missed them..... We had a break before we had to leave town for classes, so we planned a few things like a SIX concert, a fishing day, and my favorite place on earth, Silver Dollar City! We had read some good reviews about a Belgium waffle place in town, so we went to check it out right after we waved bye to Papa and Grammy. This recipe is 150 years old, a secret passed down from generation to generation. WOW! Amazing you guys!  Right across the street from our breakfast joint was the COOLEST restaurant building I had ever seen, so of course I begged Dale to let us go take a photo.  Noodles all over the ground, cool "tablecloth" sidewalk, a giant meatball, fork and spaghetti. And a green pepper and tomato. SO AWESOME!  One of our favorite shows on the strip is SIX: Six brothers who sing acapella, from gospel, to oldies to hip hop. They also do a really awesome movie reel sketch, where they do that deep base melody that plays when the little robot comes out to adjust the sound at the beginning of the movie. Am I even explaining that remotely right? Its been a while since I've been to the movie. Its like a silver DHX, or something?! Anyhow, then they start doing these video snippets and making the sound effects. BEST PART! Well, second best only to the song they sing to their beautiful momma that makes me cry! The next day was SILVER DOLLAR CITY DAY! Whoop whoop, happy dance! 
 Ok so this year marked a VERY different dynamic for our family. This is the FIRST year that we have kids old enough and tall enough to want to and get to ride the BIG roller coasters!!!!!! I am not a spinny twisty round and round kind of person, but I can handle the occasional rollercoaster. As a mom though, I was not so sure about sending my BABIES on this crazy big twisty UPSIDE DOWN and SIDEWAYS roller coaster! I actually walked to the observation and deck and proceeded to call Dale 5 times in a row to see if I could catch him. Did they know it was the twisty upside roller coaster? Surely they didn't know and surely they needed their MOMMY to come save them. I just prayed and prayed and watched and prayed........
I was just hoping they didn't come off sobbing and start the day off sadly with tears and upset tummy's........ Guess I didn't need to worry! 
Fire in the Hole is a family favorite, except poor Paxton. He was scarred from last time and elected to stay out with daddy..... The rest of the day was spent taking turns on rides, and the littles and I had some downtime together while daddy and the bigs got their roller coaster fixes. It was different, but still so so fun! 
The perfect end to a perfect day! :)  After this is was time to head to Rolla, St Louis, Columbia and Kansas City for 12 classes, bootcamp and business trainings! I am so blessed that my job doesn't feel like one. I love sharing oils with people and watching their lives change, even within the hour class.
I'd love to come teach one for YOU! :) Hugs, T
Hi friends......welcome back to our blog!
We LOVE LOVE LOVE the faith and family based fun found in Branson, MO. It's like Christian Las Vegas! And Silver Dollar City is like Christian Disney, but kicking it old school. We love how everyone speaks of their faith without apology and the shows are clean and family friendly, So, as I am going through photos, first doing the Texas blog and now this one, I am realizing EVERY SINGLE PHOTO I AM USING IS FROM MY CELL PHONE! Oops. I never got out my big camera, not once. That is so so bad! But you guuuuuuys, it gets SO HEAVY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sigh. I will do better next time, ok?! :)
So we were planning a surprise when we arrived in Branson.....PAPA AND DREA were there waiting for us! It worked out perfectly for us to meet back up on their way home and our next class schedule in MO.
I didn't know how things would go down, or how close we'd be parked to them. It didn't take long once we pulled in because they happened to be out on a bike ride. Check out the kids reactions, this makes me smile SO BIG: Surprise! from Tonya Ferguson on Vimeo.
They had found us a beautiful RV close to Branson Landing, FUN, and with a beautiful view of the water!
The surprises kept coming as far as our activities for the week:
Say Moses! from Tonya Ferguson on Vimeo.
Ahhh! This makes me so happy! Lots of fun memories to come.....
Have you ever been to the Sight and Sound Theatre? This is our 3rd show. We saw the Nativity story, Jonah and now, Moses. If you haven't been its worth every PENNY! The sets, the music, wow. There are no words how detailed and phenomenal they are. We left feeling like we had been to a revival or extra powerful church service! No photos or videos allowed during the show, so just this to share: 
We doubled up on school a couple days, so we'd have some free time to have fun with Papa and Grammy. We tried to get the kids to HURRY and do their morning chores, but after a few hours we had to get out the marker board and start recording "Strikes".
Yup. As in 3 strikes and you lose a privilege like Moses, or Silver Dollar City, or Branson Landing. Yup, it was baaaaaaad. Thankfully they got it together after that!
We loved walking over to Branson Landing for walking, shopping, eating and watching the Fire and Lights show every night.
They have the coolest shops there like the spice one, flavored olive oil store and an old fashioned candy shop my kids think is the bomb.com. We also took the Trolley downtown to shop the 5 & 10 store and walk around. Tuesday was Farmers Market day, and just a short walk, so that was perfect for meal planning!
I wish you would could SMELL these photos! WOW. Quality ingredients make way better food.
It was beautifully cool and crisp, just like fall should be.
In fact one day when it rained it got realllly cool and we had to bust out the coats. But then right after Papa and Grammy left to head back home to Florida, 91*!!! WHAT?! 
One day was pants and short sleeve. The next big coats. The next shorts and tanks! What in the world? The midwest is so confusing!
Dale wanted to sleep with the windows open but his ears were cold. This was his solution:
Ladies, ladies. Back off, he is mine. ALLLL Mine! hahaha! :)
I actually welcomed the cool. Fall is one of my FAVORITE times of year! The smells, the tastes. Sweaters and boots! Heavenly!
If you are looking for yummy fall smells without any of the chemicals, consider a diffuser and some pure doTERRA essential oils! This one is called Cinnamon Bun: 2 drops each pure Cassia, Caradmom and Citrus Bliss essential oils. I add it to the water in my diffuser and it runs 8 hours and makes our home smell AMAZING! Mmm, I am hungry for Cinnamon rolls and Chili now! 
New wreath from Branson Landing home store...eek! Love how warm and inviting it is!
Dinner on the river
We parted ways with Papa and Grammy after a yummy soup supper and game night in their RV.....they were cold and ready for some Florida sunshine again!
Bye Papa and Grammy! Thanks so much for joining us in MO on your way home!
We had a few more days to relax before we needed to head to Rolla and St Louis for classes. We made SURE to go to Silver Dollar City during their Thursday bargain pricing days. More to come..... Hugs, T As you know, we love and use My Father's World curriculum for our schooling. We were so honored when they extended an invitation to us to tour their facility and park the RV at their GORGEOUS conference center. Check out this photo from their website: http://www.kabekonahills.com/ Yup, that was our view for the week! VERY nice place. Great place for retreats and events for SURE!  There is our home, across the lake from our tour we took of the conference center.   While we were staying here, we were able to slip out for early morning sunrises, fishing sessions and devotions, while watching the sunrise. Absolutely BREATHTAKING!   One morning, we got to head to the My Father's World offices, as well as the warehouse, the printing press, meet the owners, and see anr office full of shelves and shelves of books. Each section representing the study and literature, that went into each year of curriculum. WOW! Wish I had gotten a photo of that room! The kids even got to help bind some teachers manuals and curriculum books while we were up at the printing shop! All photos are in the slideshow below. And wait till you see the photos of the amazing barn and gorgeous mansion that is converted into a retreat center now. Pretty stinking awesome! I wish I had thought to take my big camera! Check it out! You know you just connect with some people? Todd is who I talk to every year on the phone, when we order our curriculum. He is the reason we ended up choosing doTERRA, because he is the only one from all the companies I called, that offered to pray for us and our decision.  We were blessed to get to meet him and his beautiful family, while we were in the area! Oh my goodness, we had SO much fun with them, it's like we have been friends forever! We had dinner together several times, coffee, crashed a birthday party with them, shared oils with their friends and did an impromtu essential oils class at a local 24 hours McDonalds. We are so excited to help build a team with them and their community in the near future!
 The kids had so much fun playing around the lake and fire, while we waited for everyone to get off of work and after school program. We played Blind Artist for a while. Have you ever played? You close your eyes and illustrate a story someone is telling you. Pretty hysterical!   Once everyone arrived, we just hung out, ate hot dogs, made S'mores and enjoyed the fire, the company, and the beautiful views. 
Todd's wife, the beautiful Marzetta, made the MOST AMAZING CHOCOLATE CAKE I HAVE EVER HAD. Oh my goodness gracious, my mouth is watering even now. I need the recipe! But I am afraid it's a secret....... ;)   The evening got away from us, and we failed to get a full group photo before dark, so we had to improvise with a self stick and a cell phone in the RV. Hahah! It's all about making memories anyhow, right?! We love this family!   I absolutely cannot WAIT to see what the Lord has in store them in the future! Todd and Marzetta have SUCH a heart for ministry, I know the Lord is going to use doTERRA not only to bless them with health, but healthy finances too.
This has to be my favorite part of my job, meeting precious believers with a heart for the Lord and a hunger for natural living.....and getting to invest in them and in a business designed to bless their finances. Life is all about CHOICES. And financial freedom, brings lots of those! I'd love to help you live financially free too. That's doTERRA's number 1 goal....to be known as the company that gets the most families out of debt. They want you to be free to give, and they are doing it every day. What are you waiting for? There is no better time to move towards a healthier, happier YOU, then right now with Dale and I, and the biggest research and science based, natural essential oil company in the world!!!! :) Hugs, T We spent our final days of summer, in Missouri, hanging out at the pool and the super cool playground at Basswood RV park.
We also had a nice home church, everyone was asked to share a passage and what it meant to them... We utilized the RV parks movie screen as our stage.  Our main objective and mission on the Missouri/Kansas border, was to get the first week of school under our belts. I didn't have any scheduled classes, so we could really focus in on getting it right. We pretty much hid out at the Hillsdale lake all week, focusing on school all morning, swimming all afternoon, and hiding out from the storms every all night. We were in a flash flood warning several times! And BIG ol' thunderstorms, ahh, welcome back to the Midwest!  We started school Monday morning, bright and early. Sophie is always my little school helper, close by at all times.   After school and lunch each day, we pretty much spent the rest of our time here, just fishing, swimming and relaxing...  
 I cooked most of the week, but Thursday night we took the kids out for dinner to celebrate a GREAT first week of school. We went to the #1 Trip Advisor restaurant, Joe's Kansas City. WOW! Yummo.  Have you ever made the Million Dollar Spaghetti that goes through facebook all the time? WOW. Was it ever good! Serve it with a HUGE green salad to make yourself feel better for eating all those amazing dairy fats. Cream cheese, cheese, cottage cheese and BUTTER. 4 main food groups, right? I used this recipe, but did linguini noodles, a lot more seasonings, including seasoning up the cream mixture. Everyone went crazy for it! http://sugarapron.com/2015/10/21/million-dollar-spaghetti/
The highlight of our time in MO/KS, was reconnecting with some friends we made along our journey this past year. Meet the Fercho's.......  So we are in Texas last Spring, waiting for the Midwest to thaw out enough for us to go back home for a while. We are just chilling, enjoying the Texas sunshine and teaching classes. We park for a few days at an RV park and as we awoke, look over to see a family our age, piling out of an RV. Everyone else is in school, so right away, the kids are intrigued. They have kids! They have kids! they shout to us. Dale walked to the bathhouse and noticed they had Kansas tags, and struck up a conversation with the dad, who handed him a cool Meet the Fercho's calling card. Dale looks down at it and says, That's funny, our last name is Ferguson. The conversation proceeds to, my name is Dale. Oh wow, my name is Dawson. What's your wife's name? Tonya. What? My wife's name is Tiffany. Crazy. Turns out, they too, hit the road for a year of Adventure with their 3 children. They too, were road schooling and seeing the United States from the comfort of their RV. WHAT are the odds? We all go about our day, and the next morning, Dawson Fercho, walks up to Dale Ferguson, and says.... OK, what's your middle name? Dale says, Lamar. Dawson, No way! Mine is Lee!!!! DLF meet DLF. Hahahaha!! HOW crazy! :) Our families spent the next 3 hours together talking as fast as we could get words out, before we had to pull out to head to classes in Amarillo. We had so much in common!!!! Their 3 kids, all similar ages to our 4. We found we had so many things alike, even down to their dog named Summer and our dog named Sophie. White and big, black and small, but still "S" dog names to match the theme. :) We love how the Lord works to bring people together! Turns out, we had literally been staying at the Florida Sun N Fun RV park the same week, and just never met. Thankfully the Lord brought us together in the Lone Star State! Well, as soon as we pulled out, we knew we had to get the Ferguson's and the Fercho's together again ASAP! Fast forward 5 months, and here we are, within 30 minutes of our new friends home base. We HAD to see them! The kids were shy around each other for like .5 seconds, then went right back to where they left off....... We spent the day at the lake, then the evening having pizza at their place. We stayed way too late, and had way too much fun. We could barely drag the kids apart by the end of it all. Love love love this family, and how the Lord just brings Brothers and Sisters in Christ to encourage and fellowship with each other, in every state we go to. We are already talking about some winter trips, Ferguson-Fercho Style! Love this crew!  Bye friends, see you soon!
Hugs, T |
Tonya Ferguson
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