Look at these cuties!!  This is Helena and Frank, Brian’s parents on their wedding day 50 years ago!  To celebrate this very special occasion, we took a family trip to Branson for the weekend.  These two really never ask for much, just gathering all of their kids together makes them so happy.  We had a great time spoiling them for a couple days!  John, Dawn, and the kids were able to come and Jennifer.  It was a heat index of 110 I think, but that didn’t stop us from celebrating!  Of course this included lots of swimming at the beautiful Marriott Willow Ridge resort (our hair will never recover from the massive chlorine intake).  We had 3, 2 bedroom/2 bath suites equipped with full kitchens right by the pool.  It was perfect!

We brought plenty of food and drinks and made all of our meals with the exception of our celebration dinner in Branson Landing.  The kids also went crazy ordering slushes at the pool.  Why not…it’s vacation…fill yourself with sugar!

We made it out for a friendly game of putt putt (girls against boys)

Grandma got a hole in one!  You go girl!

and the real troopers went go-karting!  Some of us had already sweat through every inch of clothing by this point and couldn’t continue on.  These guys had FUN…

Probably the highlight for all of us was the family wiffle ball game at the property.  I am always amazed at the EXTREME competitive nature this Conley family has.  I’m not sure I fit in…but I enjoyed watching Reece amaze everybody with multiple home runs.  And only in Branson can you get away with wearing a T-shirt as a dress.

I feel a re-match coming on in the future for these die-hards!

We ended our celebrating with a nice dinner out and an hour or so at Rack Room Shoes.  An hour or so that John will never get back 😉  You had to be there to enjoy the ridiculousness of that part!  The purpose was finding shoes for the kids to wear in Aunt Jenn’s wedding and it took a few twists and turns along the way (including 3 trips to different Rack Room locations!?).  In the end, all kids had shoes, Reece managed to squeak out an additional pair of light up flip flops, Helena got some new shoes, and Frank ended up with the bags!  Thankfully he didn’t end up with the bill.  Gotta love these memories…is this going in Aunt Jenn’s wedding album or should we pretend like this never happened? 🙂

When we returned back to our resort, we had champagne and pink lemonade poured and ready for toasting and a yummy chocolate cake.

 

Jennifer made a gorgeous picture book for them and we enjoyed looking through it and going over childhood memories with them.

Morgan made a canvas art project to commemorate the milestone…

and we flagged down a guy walking back from the pool to step into our room to take a picture of our group.  That poor guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time dealing with this crew!

We ended our evening with a family game and it’s not a Conley gathering without photo booth props!

 

Happy 50 years, we love you!!