Thornock Visit Part 2: Silver Dollar City

Part 2 of the epic Thornock visit.
On Monday morning we drove over to Silver Dollar City in Branson. We love this place and we were excited to share this love with our friends. How cute are the shady kids? 

Our first stop was "Thunderation". The bigger kids got to ride while Benson, Tucker, Ollie, Christie and I waited for them. This is always hard to Tucker because he desperately wants to be a big kid and ride all the rides with his siblings, but he's just not tall enough for it yet. 

So instead, he hung out with his little brother. 

And we waited and waited. SDC is super busy in the summer so we typically don't go during their peak season. But we wanted to visit with the Thornocks so we braved the crowds.
The waits for the bigger rides were longer, but it was worth it. 

Here are the big kids and the dads waiting for "Thunderation"

After that roller coaster, we rode "The Flooded Mine". This ride is perfect for families because there is no height requirement. Even Benson got to ride. 

Everyone gets a gun and you ride through the flooded mine and try to shoot the targets. I held Benson the whole time and therefore got zero points, but everyone had a great time competing to see who shot the most targets. Tucker loved having his own gun!

Then we walked over to Half-Dollar Holler to play some more. The kids had a great time playing in the rope tree house. Then we fed the kids the lunch we packed for them. 

Benson was basically always in Christie's arms. If she didn't have him, then he was in the stroller or the front carrier. 

After getting some food for the adults, we went to ride "American Plunge". This was my kids first time ever riding this one because it's not typically open when we go- because we don't go during the summer. This ride was one of my favorites as a kid. I didn't ride because I was wearing Benson and he was sleeping, so Chris took the older three kids. 

Then we did the water gun area. You squirt the people on the boats and the squirt you back. The kids got soaked and had so much fun. 

Then it was on to the splash pad area. We figured we would all the wet attractions at once and then let the kids dry off. They had so much fun playing in the sprinkler. 

I think Tucker's favorite part of the park was "Fireman's landing". It's a fireman themed area and its pretty adorable. It's typically really crowded but this time it wasn't bad at all. There were hardly any lines for the rides and the kids had a great time riding anything they wanted. 

Look at this cute kid waving at me during his doggy ride. 

Then the kids rode the swings. These are the little kid swings and they don't go very high. They were a big disappointed that the ride didn't go faster or higher. 

Then they rode this fun ride. It raises you up and drops you over and over again. These little faces are my favorite. They were laughing and screaming the whole time. So funny!

Then it was time for "Dippin' Dots"

Next we walked over to the "Grand Exposition" area. Typically this area isn't crowded ever and today was no exception. It was empty. There were maybe three other kids there.  So fun. 

Finally, a roller coaster Tucker was big enough to ride. He was so thrilled. 

I took the kids on the teacups because Chris hates the spinning. lol. They loved it. 

It was such a fun day. We were all exhausted when we left but everyone had a great time. 

We left as the park closed at 7. It took us a while to get to our car but we finally made it on the road. We stopped for dinner and then made it home around 10 pm. 

It was a fun day full of laughter, smiles, roller coasters and happy kids. We had such a great time with the Thornocks!