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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
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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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