It's too hot to live ...

Somebody just take a gun and shoot me. One of us (I think it was me, but I'm much too ashamed to admit it) thought it would be Oh! So! Fun! to escape to Branson once more for the weekend and hit the parks in one last roller coaster fling before school starts back next week.

And what I'm really too embarrassed to admit publicly is that I actually tried to talk my family into camping out one night before we checked into Big Cedar on Friday.

What was I smoking?

It is hotter than Hades in Arkansas right now, y'all, and Missouri is not a whole lot better. It passed tolerable about a month ago.

The past three times we've traveled, I have forgotten some essential component necessary for the Baby Bears to keep from hurting each other watch movies in the back seat. The first time it was the stash of movies. The second time it was the power supply. The third time it was the player itself. I groveled all the way to Branson, a 90-mile exercise in humility, and promised the kids up and down that I would never as long as I live ever, under any circumstances, pull out of the driveway on a trip longer than 50 miles without first testing the player to make certain, you know, that ALL the parts and pieces were along for the ride.

They were quick to forgive because they understand all too well that their Mama is probably the most scatter-brained Mama west of the Mississippi.

Anyway, Hubs and the Cubs were all too eager to talk me out of my hair-brained camping notion, and so were understandably thrilled when I announced last week after watching the local weatherman forecast 100+ temperatures that maybe camping out in a tent wasn't the brightest idea after all.

So, we spent Thursday night in the sanctity of our own beds and air conditioning and took off early Friday morning to experience three full days of humidity-induced madness.

My brother and his sweet little family joined us there, and my sister-in-law and I competed with each other to see who could slather the most sunscreen on our offspring the fastest. I really wanted to share some pictures of the Sweat-Fest, but, alas, in my obsession to make certain that we had a functional DVD player (and movies) for the trip, the camera didn't make it along.

When did I get so middle aged and forgetful??