Family Vacation Part 2

The cold snap that came through made our initial plan to spend an entire day at the beach a little less probable.  Also, beaches at state parks with no waves are really just small rocks and not sand, which isn't quite as fun.

Regardless, after I ran some errands with Abe in the morning while Scott and the girls fished, Abe went down for a really early nap and when he woke up, we hit the beach.

Annie, my little rock collector, found all those rocks on the shore and decided they were BEAUTIFUL!!! and had to keep them all.

These two are so much more brave in the water after taking swimming lessons this summer.  I'm really glad we did them, as they had a blast playing out in the water.

Once the shivering took over, we headed back to the condo for dinner.

The next day was our last day and Scott took Evelyn and Abraham back to the state park since Annie climbed in bed at 9 am and went back to sleep for 3 hours.

The explored the land bridge.

Hiding in the bushes is far superior to eating your lunch.

Then returned home for Abraham to nap and Evelyn to get some more swimming in.  She finally worked up the courage to do the slide off the dock, and then didn't want to stop.

Once everyone was up from napping, we headed to our last destination, the Bridal Cave.  Annie enjoyed it the most, Evelyn would have more if she had remembered to use the bathroom before we were 200 ft underground.

Family Vacation Part 1

We finally made a family vacation happen!  We had never before gone somewhere with the kids other than to visit family and friends, or traveled somewhere with extended family along.  We aren't at a stage of life where vacation is relaxing, but we certainly had an awesome time.

We stayed at the condo of an old family friend at the Lake of the Ozarks which made for a perfect home away from home.  We were able to have access to a full kitchen since restaurants just don't work for our kids' food needs.  It also meant the kids could sleep in their usual arrangements and we weren't all trying to sleep in a hotel together.

It's also been clearly decided that I'm Lake People.  I adore begin by the water and could live here.

I want my backyard view to be this all the time.

The kids are in clear agreement.  They spent our first afternoon at the Ozarks checking out the fishing from the backyard.

Abraham basically got to live in this life jacket for 4 days.  He can't be trusted near a body of water.  No discernment exists for this little guy.

Case and point.  Running, running, running.

Pose nice for a picture kids!

He's happiest outside when he gets to carry around a big stick.  His sisters are least happy outside when he's carrying around a big stick.

Our first morning after arrival, we packed up for the day and headed the state park.  I was hoping to spend the whole day exploring the trails.  2 of our 3 kids' legs gave out by lunch time though.

The first trail we hit up leads you to castle ruins.  The house was destroyed by a massive fire years and years ago.

The views from the castle were spectacular.

And the kids had a blast running around the castle.

Near the end of the castle trail we saw signs for a trail to go see the quarry.  We only made it part way down this trail before we decided it was way too long for the kids and opted for sticking to paved trails.

The next trail we tried took us to a natural spring.

After that the kids were officially done walking.  And we were done listening to them complain to be carried.  So we ate the lunch we packed and headed back to the condo to let Abe nap.

Scott spent the afternoon helping the kids do some more fishing off the dock.  All three managed to catch some and total they caught over 10 fish!

Scott convinced them that it's customary to kiss your fish. They did it.  Gag.

We all crashed early that night after a very full day.