The Teen Years

Saturday my precious baby turned 13.

Yep, I'm now officially the mother of a teenager.

I sent her a HUGE candy basket and balloon bokay at school Friday and she was really happy with that. I think she's come to expect it really, damned spoiled brat.

Saturday we got her up early and had her open presents. I made her keep her eyes open while she guessed what was what. Amazingly enough she guessed a lot of it pretty close. The last thing I got her was a bra from Victoria's Secret. A cute little padded job with little pink dogs on it. Very cute. Unfortunately, it embarrassed her beyond belief! Oh, well, it's my job to embarrass my kid. LOL

So, after the gifts and the jokes and a quick count of the birthday loot, we loaded the Jeep and headed out for a day of birthday fun. She had no idea where we were going. We had her pack her ATV helmet, cowboy boots and other miscellaneous items to confuse her. Our first stop was in Springfield, MO, at the (duh) Bass Pro Shop. If I had a nickel for each time I've been there I'd be a thousandaire. I'm so not overexaggerating. We checked out "our" turtle and ooh'd and aah'd at all the neat stuff and loaded up yet again. She was still curious about what was happening.

Finally, when we got closer to Branson she figured it out. We asked her what she'd like to do in Branson and she kind of pouted and said she'd like to go to that indoor water park but that she didn't bring her swim suit. After I let her sulk for a minute, I told her I PACKED IT!!!!!!!!! LOL She was so excited! She had been wanting to go to Splash Country for, well, ever! LOL

So that is what we did, we swam, we shopped, we ate and we had a super fantastic time! We had lunch at Shorty Small's, dinner at Landry's (OMG I had the best shrimp!), breakfast at Hillbilly Inn (ewwww, new owners have made it nasty) and lunch on the fly at the pretzel place, Auntie Annie's in Branson Landing.

I was really excited about and very impressed with the new Branson Landing. Branson has really improved in the past five years or so and I think it's back on the right track.

I have so much more to write but not enough time, I started typing this Sunday night but just now finished it and I'm not at all happy with how little I wrote. Oh well, such is life. I could sit here and write about it or I could get off my ass and get out there and LIVE IT! Care to guess what I'm choosing?