FIRST Five for Friday!

As it states in the title, this is the first time I have ever linked up with the talented Kacey at Doodle Bugs, for her fabulous "Five for Friday."

As most of you know, this link is about 5 random (usually unrelated) things from today or the past week.
Most of my 5 will be related to my vacation this week, but there might be one or two random items:)
{HINT: Please read all the way to the bottom! I saved the VERY BEST for last!!!!)
 Here we go!

Last Saturday, my kiddos and I piled into my parents' Honda Pilot for the 5-hour trek to Branson, MO. We had a great time with family and friends at my Grandparents' Timeshare condo. We visited some great Branson sites, like:

Of course, one of our favorite places to go is SDC. 

MOST of us love the roller coasters (love you, my sweet-but-timid Aiden!), and ALL of us love the homemade goodies...especially the salt-water taffy. Yum!

A summer vacation trip to Branson would not be complete without one or two (or five...) visits to a mini-golf course. Branson has a lot to choose from, but the Pirate Cove is our favorite:)

They even donated a class set of pirate hats for my classroom this year!!!!

For the first time in my little family's history, we went to White Water park.

We had a blast on the water slides, lazy river, and wave pool.

I might have gotten a little too much sun, though....ouch!

Okay, folks!

This is the most exciting of all the randomness!

Most of you know how incredibly sweet and wonderful Nikki @ Melonheadz is.

I mean, several bloggers got to meet her in the flesh this past week in Vegas! #jealousmuch

My cousin, Brianne, a former educator, wrote a couple of children's books while her daughter Baylee, a soon to be second-grader, was undergoing treatments for Wilm's Disease.

This was Baylee's 2nd diagnosis with cancer...at the age of 6!

That little girl is such a fighter!

I wanted to create some resources to go with Brianne's books, so I contacted Nikki to see if she would   be so kind as to create a FEW images with bald princesses and knights.

Boy, was I blown away with her creativity and generosity!

You can head to Nikki's blog (if you haven't seen it already) to read more about it.

SHE IS AMAZING, y'all!

But of course, you knew that, too:)

I will be back sometime before the month ends to blog about how one lucky follower can WIN a copy of Brianne's book, The Beautiful Princess.

Enjoy your weekend, sweet friends!