Steal Your Dollar City

There is a theme park not far from us.  It's called Silver Dollar City. Silver Dollar City is a unique 1800's-themed park and has more than rides. It features native craftsman, music, and some quirky good old-fashioned fun.  There are plenty of Ozarkians who refuse to go within 5 miles of the park...Old Silver Dollar City can get pretty crowded and like any theme park it's expensive...it also has oodles and oodles of places to buy things. Like woven baskets, hand-dipped candles, hand blown glass, salt-water taffy...Hence, my dad has always called it Steal Your Dollar City.  I personally love Steal Your Dollar City and if I made more dollars they could steal anything they like (as long as I get a bowl of skillet potatoes out of it). 
It's particularly beautiful in the fall and around Christmas. I have been going for years and somewhere exists a picture of me sitting on a pumpkin when I was around 4 or 5. Yesterday, my brother treated Josiah and I (Troy had a bike ride) to a day at Silver Dollar City.  His work gave all the employees tickets and there were a few extras from those who weren't going to use them.  I didn't drag out my camera (it's having issues and I'm hoping that Santa takes pity on me and drops me a new one), but my sis-in-law Stephannie had a few I am passing along. It was a beautiful day. I got to watch a guy plank huge logs for a log cabin and in true Silver Dollar City form heard a quartet sing a tribute to the Beatles, "We All Live In a Yellow Mobile Home" and "Hep, I Need Somebody" (no, that is not a typo!)

 My little brother. He has a weird aversion to large crowds and plays video games like he's still 12, but he's cool. We have a similar sense of humor...which is a little frightening. I think he's trying to not look at his wife taking his picture.

 This was one of those roly ball thingy fountains (how is that for a description!) The kids were fascinated with it...Every time we passed it they had to lay hands on it and say a little pray for whatever strange affliction it was suffering with (well, we are pentecostal!)

 One of my brother's oldest. I say "one of" because Christopher is the male half of a set of twins. They are 13. Christopher is also the only boy...which makes him a well-seasoned 'button pusher.'

 This was a place called "Geyser Gulch." There weren't too many other people around Geyser Gulch. It could be because Geyser Gulch has numerous water features and it was 70.  The beautiful girl with my brother is his other oldest, Kalynn. The other beautiful little girl is Ryan's youngest, Madalyn (Maddie Paige). I think they are shooting a water gun at some poor unsuspecting duck.

 Silver Dollar City has a section of the park called The Grand Exposition. It takes its cues from the old World Fair. One of our favorites was the Tea Cups.  My sister in-law also took pictures of me riding the Tea Cups, but I refuse to post them on my blog. One doesn't look her best when swirling around in a large cup.  The two cuties are Madalyn and Alexandra. Ages 6 and 7, respectively.

 Alex is caught by a "gotcha" water feature at Geyser Gulch.

 This was a little morbid. They thought it was great fun.

 More water at Geyster Gulch. I will say that shortly after this we went on a ride called the Lost River. I rode it once (it's my fav) and the kids (including Josiah) and my sister-in-law, Stephannie rode it 3 times.  If I had control of this camera I would have taken pictures of Stephannie's soaked jeans.  They looked like they had just come out of the washer and she stuck them on. I would have displayed the picture at Thanksgiving...right along side the turkey and my mom's chocolate pie.

This is Alexandra sitting on the fence post. She's always good for a pose. I loved all the Scarecrows displayed all the over the park. If I could have stuck that one behind her in my purse and not been stopped by security on the way out of park (and if I wouldn't have felt so guilty for stealing...we are pentecostal) I would have. He could have sat on my couch.

As much fun as we had I am suffering for it today. Silver Dollar City is hilly...it is located in the hills after all. Even my toenails hurt.  But I can tell you we had a wonderful time.  And now that I think about it I haven't seen that bag of salt water taffy we brought home in a while. Somebody is going to pay!