Oh, me oh MO!

We just got back from a fantastic weekend trip with Jordan's parents. Since we didn't get enough of Missouri a few weeks ago when we went to Kansas City, we decided to return and hit up Branson! And we had a blast!

We left on Friday evening right after work. We didn't do anything exciting that night since we did not get into town until 9:00. We hit up a frozen custard stand that was delicious and rich and returned back to our hotel to watch reruns of Whose Line is it Anyway (and in my head I was mourning my last day of non-football season for the next four months).

Saturday was our day full of fun. My in-laws had to sit through a travel group presentation to get free tickets to Yakov Smirnoff's show, so Jordan and I explored solo. So...what should two adults who are new to a city do first on their vacation? If you said ride over priced go-karts, you are correct. (Sad fact: I was two. inches. taller than the minimum height requirement for the go-karts. And they weren't fooling around about it either. I had to fully extend my arms to reach the steering wheel and fully extend my legs to push the brakes/gas. Sad? Yes.) Some how, we didn't get a picture of our go-kart experience, but it looked like a little something like this:
I have no idea how Jordan smuggled a green turtle shell onto the track...or how he grew a mustache so quickly.

After that, Jordan and I got ice cream. What- it's vacation.

We left to pick up my in-laws from their presentation and headed out for more excitement. Jordan saw that there was an Elvis Impersonator show called "The Elvis Experience".


My in-laws graciously took us to the show and it was AMAZING! There was no photography of any kind allowed, but THIS picture I found captures how I looked during the performance:
The impersonator was named Tony Roi. He has been impersonating Elvis for 13 years (or something) and has won numerous awards for his show. He did NOT disappoint! He sounded JUST like Elvis, looked a lot like him, and captured his mannerisms perfectly too. You could tell that alot of work has been put into his performance. I found Tony Roi on youtube. If you care, check out the video of him at the end of the entry. During intermission, he let people take pictures with him for free (and keep the picture for $20- gah!). I happily took the picture so that I could twll him how fantastic his show was. When I came up he said in a very Elvisy voice "Hey, Gorgeous!" (Which I think he also said to the old fat lady in line in front me) but I couldn't stop giggling. I said I loved his show and he told me he loved me- which lead to more nervous giggling. We took a picture and I let him kiss me on the cheek before I left. It's amazing- any other 40+ year old man complimenting me, saying he loves me and trying to kiss me would get mace in his eyes. However, if he's wearing a blue suede jump suit, he has my heart.

After the Elvis show, we hustled to go the Yakov Smirnoff Moscow Circus Show- and we sat in the second row! It was a circus based on a children's book that Yakov wrote. A clown falls in love with a ballerina and promises to take her away from oppressive Russia into the wonderful land of America, and he "will propose to her with the Statue of Liberty as his witness". Sounds lame? It ain't. It was an AWESOME show! Between the story line, there was alot of circus performances. Unicycle tricks, acrobats, fire twirling, and my personal favorite- dog tricks! SO CUTE!

In the middle of the show, the audience was given a Russian dinner of meatballs, potatoes, a Russian veggie soup, and a pudding dessert.They left the black lights on during dinner so our dinner boxes and utensils glowed in the dark. It's hard to see, but here is my psychedelic meal.

This lady had a glow in the dark and sang "Be Our Guest" as our dinners were passed out to us.

During intermission, they brought out this cannon that out candy to the audience. It was a little freaky being shot at in the second row, but we survived.
Jordan and I got one picture together: picking Yakov's giant nose. We are terribly mature.

After the show, we decided that getting ice cream two times just wasn't enough. We went to the Orange Leaf and grabbed some tasty frozen yogurt. Then we went back to the hotel and watched...football (It begiiiiiiins).

On Sunday we packed up, visited a few more areas of town, and drove back to Tulsa. It was a fast trip but it was really fun. This was the first vacation that I have ever been on with my in-laws.

Thank you, Richard and Elaine for the great time!!!

(Here's the link to the video in case it doesn't work here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPxRPizVadw&feature=related)