Branson, MO- Showbiz Rally!

     We've been looking forward to this event since we first signed up for it - which happened to be last fall at the Balloon Fiesta. In case you aren't familiar with the term fulltime family, it's a family who lives in their RV fulltime. Full-time Families is actually a group that you can join and the owners have done a fabulous job of getting members discounts at certain campgrounds, mail services, solar products, and much more. Another great thing they do is help connect families who travel by planning several rallies each year and also providing Facebook pages for us to ask questions and discuss pretty much any topic. 

     Rallies have a wide variety of events for families, kids, and adults. I'll list some of the things that happened at the Showbiz Rally.

For families:

- A short hike

-Discounted tickets to Fritz's Adventures (we didn't go)

-Evening campfires

-Appitizer potluck

-Dessert potluck

For adults:

-Mom's night out (one evening the mom's could go out for supper kid free)

-Dad's night out (dad's went out for supper with just the dad's)

-Seminars on various topics taught by someone from the group. Mobile internet, healthcare insurance, homeschooling, making money on the road, unschooling, personalities, and RV upgrades were just some of the topics.

For kids:

-Board games

-Irish dance lessons (taught by a mom from our group)

-Theater class (taught by actors from Sight & Sound!)

-Painting class (taught by a dad)

-Kid's marketplace gave all the kids an opportunity to sell things they had made. There was a lovely array of artwork, sewing projects, lemonade, soap, snacks, and more.

-Movie and popcorn

     Everything was optional to attend so other then the kids, we didn't attend nearly everything. With 40 families and over 100 kids present, it was a noisy bunch and we enjoyed the downtime and simply visiting more then anything.   

A small waterfall on the way to our big waterfall hike.

The big waterfall!

Makayla with her friends, Chloe and Violet. They met at the Balloon Fiesta and were so excited to be together again!

The boys are at it again! They dug an impressive hole in the the pea gravel at the playground.

Love how kids of all ages played together all week long!

     A favorite game of the kids seemed to be night at the museum. One person was it and he closed his eyes then when he said "stop" everyone had to freeze, no matter what position. If "it" opened his eyes and saw you still moving you were out.

Ethan and his little friend, Candy :)

I think they were supposed to be creating art :).

During the seminars for adults, the older kids helped entertain the youngers. It was fun to watch them interact.

Makayla and a friend.

I sat in with Makayla on her theater class and it was fascinating! They had the kids play different games that had to do with following directions, speaking clearly, and imitating.

Story time! The lady in the red shirt volunteered to be in charge of the 3-5 year olds for 3 days while the adults had seminars with the help of a few teens. She did a fantastic job!

Digging again! Michael did so good at making friends this time!

Scavenger hunt group that I ended up leading. Here they had to draw a picture together.

My group again, with one of the new owners of Fulltime Families

Craft time!

 

Michael and Emily

Put the toys out, and kids will come!

Another common scene, a small group of men working on a project, or at least giving advice.

Emily loved the socialness of the event and was never alone!

The poor campground accepted Amazon packages. This was one days worth! They told us that they have never had this amount of boxes before!

 

Playing games.

One craft session the kids made Mother's Day cards.

Campfire time!

     One of our favorite evenings was the night we spent with some of the Traveling Mercies group. Traveling Mercies is a branch off the main Fulltime Families group and focus on finding places that families can serve. They also have live Bible studies several times a week. We had a super interesting conversation about different religions - in our small group we had Baptists, Quakers, Catholics, non-denominationals, and Mennonites represented.
 

Painting fun!

Kid's marketplace was a success for our family! Michael sold marshmallow shooters, Makayla purses and bracelets, and Emily little beauty kits that she put together.

Some of you may remember baby Cecelia since she was born at the balloon fiesta. She's now 7 months old and still everyone's favorite!

We skipped going to Fritz' Adventures so we could go watch Samson at Sight & Sound. It was awesome!

We also watched Ozarks at IMAX because the first morning show is free. It was fun to take the children since we had seen it so often when we lived in Harrison.

    

It was a wonderful, but exhausting week. Of course, it didn't help that Eldon and I stayed up past midnight every week because we didn't want to miss anything :). We so appreciate all the time and energy the planners and coordinators poured into this event. We're thrilled to walk away with a ton of happy memories and friendships both newly made and deepened. Spending time with other families who have intentionally chosen to live a simple life is so inspiring. Of course we all also have other personal reasons that play into it like work, love of history, following God's calling, intent on showing your children the world, service opportunity, and more but it all comes back to living simply. It was nice to not be the "weird" family and be with people that truly get it. But in spite of all that, there is so many things that can divide a group like this,so even more, we appreciate the kindness we saw extended to those who have different opinions about schooling, religion, trucks, and anything else you want to talk about! It was a good week :).