Adventures on Grand Lake

This was the first time EVER that I have been on vacation for an entire week. I thought we would be bored at some point. .and was pleasantly surprised to find that we were not, at any time, without something to do.

The first morning we took our boat and our map of Grand Lake and navigated our way around the lake. It took around an hour to get to the dam from where we were. We ran into this swan in one of the coves and found out that they like Golden Grahams, and that they might eat out of your hand, if you don't freak and drop the cereal first!! The kids enjoyed watching it eat. .and the HUGE carp that would sneak up from the underside and gulp the cereal from under the swans beak!

The covered boat dock right outside the house was a source for much enjoyment. Many people had diving boards and slipper slides attached to their docks for swimming. Our boat estimated the depth where the kids were jumping to be about 20 feet deep, so no worries about diving and horseplay.

Cami's favorite part of the trip was the swimming, and by the end of the trip we were calling her "Minnow."

We threw in D and Cami's scooters for them to ride around with, but I wouldn't have dreamed they would be used for this purpose.

It only took the kids about an hour to decide to dig out the scooters to ride down the launch ramp, which was right next to our yard.

Jeremy and I got lots of laughs out of their antics for sure!! We were waiting for the Devin, the graceful one (NOT), to break an arm, or lacerate a limb. .but he didn't!

Monkey see. .Monkey do around here!! Didn't take her long to desire her own turn.

This was my favorite time of the whole trip. I LOVED sitting outside on the deck late in the evenings, with my coffee, after lunch. .pretty much anytime. . and watch. .the kids. .the birds. .the waves. .and the sunset. We ate a lot of meals right there, despite the triple digit heat. And Grant and I had a couple of Scrabble wars out there too.

The second morning we drove back into Grove and went to Har-ber Village. This place was actually an antique collection started by Harvey and Bernice Jones back in the 1940's. There were 112 buildings on the property (which was situated right on Grand Lake). Some of the buildings were old log cabins that were actually disassembled and moved to their site, being re-assembled there. The buildings included an old post office, doctors office, jail. .

. .courtroom, old homes, and other buildings that were created to fit into the scheme of things. The buildings were outfitted with an amazing collection of antiques. I'm sure the kids didn't enjoy it as much as I did, but they did show some interest just the same.

They ran along quite a ways ahead of me. .

which was nice because then I could enjoy some of it quietly!

I wondered how many people had been married in the tiny little chapel that sat in full view of the lake.

Cami and I stayed home for her nap that day and I did some bird watching for a bit before we hit the waters again.

She was SURE that Grant hadn't gotten his sumscream put on right. .so she helped him out a little bit!

Then it was back on the water till supper time. Even I get in and play sometimes!! Where we were most of the time was right up against this rock cliff. Unbelievably, the water was about 80-90 feet deep right where I am!!

I had nearly 500 pictures when I got home. .don't panic. .I won't show them ALL to you!! But I did divide them up into 3 posts. .so in a day or two. .I'll put some more up!

 Have a great week!!

Vacation Notes: Day 3

Well, we made it to our final day. 3 days sure went quickly! By Sunday, everyone was getting tired and grouchy. The babies weren't sleeping too well. C had a big bed in our condo, which she fell out of every night. The first night I thought that T was knocking her out of bed, but Sat night she fell out all by herself. Of course, naps were short and bedtimes were late. Sunday morning found everyone just hanging out. We walked down to the marina to take some family pictures. We are getting pretty good at working the tripod and camera timers. This was the first time that I used the timer on my camera--thanks Brendan for figuring it out! The trick is trying to get everyone to look in the same direction and smile at the right time. Mom took family pictures during the weekend and I haven't even seen those yet. She is to be emailing them to me. The families on the left (above) are my brothers, and my sister's family is on the end right.

We tried to get a picture of the granddaughters by themselves, but C was not cooperating. In fact the first pictures that I took had her laying on the ground having a fit and Haley and Taryn were wondering what the heck was the matter with her. So we put mamas in the picture with them.


Trying to get the boys picture taken was much harder than the girls. They were busy--no one would look at me (and it was sunny, so it hurt their eyes to look) This was the best picture I could get. left to right: Devin, Braedon, Colton, Tristan, Kadon, Grant and Teegan (in Grant's lap)

We bought my folks a huge collaged picture frame for their anniversary a few years ago. The same year that we took everyone and went to a huge cabin in Oklahoma for a long weekend. Mom put in pictures from our trip and so we were taking some different group pictures to change out this year. We have 5 more grandkids since the last vacation 3 years ago. Can you spell P-R-O-L-I-F-I-C?? That's what we are! Some of us on purpose, some of us NOT--right Tina??

Right photo-Kristi (my sis), Tina, Dad, Me, and Steph

back row: Nick, Brendan (my brothers) and Jeremy; front row: Chris and mom

I discovered that Branson traffic SUCKS! My breakfast was scheduled for Mon morning and my plan was to splurge on Panera bagels and pastries. So I headed out about 45 minutes before lunch, thinking I'd grab the goodies and get right back--WRONG. I averaged about 5 mph when I hit the city, then couldn't find Panera (I drove right by it). Traffic home wasn't so bad--but it took me 1 1/2 hours from start to finish! They were the best pastries EVER!

The boys and their families headed for home after lunch Sunday and the rest of us went back to SDC for the afternoon. Everyone was in bed early that night! Monday morning we all headed back for home. It is always so fun to go on a trip--but I think the best part, truly, is getting home again!

I have been on vacation this week, except for family planning clinic Thurs. We got D moved upstairs with T. That is always such a good feeling to me to get something organized. And they certainly are better organized now than they were. School supplies are purchased and ready to be put in bags. We start on the 11th! My big purchase this week was a Wii. We got that on the way home from vacation. We have been enjoying it so far. The best part was making our Mii's (these are little dudes AND dudettes that you create with all kinds of face shapes, hairstyles, eyes and mouth shapes and colors) I think mine turned out very cute-with big blinky eyes! But J's is the most hilarious. We made him bald (cause he is) with his blue eyes and little goatee. The boys laughed so hard to see that little bald bobblehead. These little Mii's are what you see on the screen anytime you are playing. So J and I played the first night after we set it up (the kids were in bed!) and I do not feel bad saying that I was sore the next day from not stretching before I started! It is easy to get into the action. I hate to bowl in real life because I STINK!--but I ROCKED on the Wii. It comes with a sports game that includes tennis, bowling, golf, baseball, and boxing--what a cool concept! Right now it is working REALLY well for attitude training on my children--it hurts when they don't get to play-so they are trying harder to get along and be good!

J is off to the races this weekend. We are celebrating the town's 125th birthday so there are TONS of things going on here. I sang a solo in the variety show Friday night and Saturday we will be hitting the parade, park games, free swimming, and BBQ supper. Our theater is showing Ice Age 3-D, so we are hoping to get to that also! Sunday--church and REST! We'll need it! Haven't run the air conditioner for 3 days now--hoping for some rain--not just the usual sprinkle. Dreading the hot weather coming next week! Be safe!

Vacation Notes: Day 2

We awoke to rain on Saturday. It was just a mild drizzle, so we headed a couple miles down the road to Silver Dollar City. It turned out to be a perfect day to go. It was overcast all day and cool. Nick's family was going to skip SDC in pursuit of other things and Brendan's family hadn't gotten tickets yet (the rest of us had already bought some 2 day tickets in a special deal). However, as we were standing in the parking lot preparing to leave, an older lady walked up to my sister and handed her 4 tickets to SDC that they hadn't used. What a blessing. So all 21 of us enjoyed the fun theme park. The picture above was of Braedon and Devin watching the Blacksmith work. They all enjoyed watching them pound the red hot iron! T and G immediately spent some of their hard earned (:-) money at the blacksmith shop!

Next we watched the women make peanut brittle. That was an interesting process. When they were done they said they needed a volunteer to taste test. Out of the 30 people in there, they picked Dev! He was pretty shy, but answered their questions and then deemed the brittle great. In fact, he had to go back later and spend some of his souvenier money on a bag of it for himself!

The little kids got some ride action in the mild ride section. Even C rode some stuff. She enjoyed the butterfly ride much more than the hopping frog ride--you can tell by her face!

butterfly ride. . . (she's saying "cheese")

Hoppin frogs! OOPS--what a mean mom! She wasn't screaming so much at the end--but she didn't like it any better either!

Papa has always been a ride fanatic. My sister and I were remembering that anytime we ever went to an amusement park, she and I would ride together and he always had to ride with someone else because our mom HATES stuff like that!
So we got the riders together and rode the big water innertube thing where you ride through some rapids. Papa was sure that since he outweighs everyone else, he would not get wet (what kind of thinking is that?) And he didn't. . .until the ride was nearly over. BEEP. Guess he was wrong :-) None of us were too wet on the front and it's hard to see in the picture, but our butts were SOAKED!

We also enjoyed the roller coasters. We did the Thunderation many times. There weren't too many people in the line. Even Dev and Brady rode. J said that Dev was pretty concerned for a bit, but he ended up really liking it. It didn't turn loops or do 60 miles an hour. Tristan has historically been the one that hated that rush, but he even rode the PowderKeg coaster and enjoyed it. That ride literally SHOOTs the buggy off at the launch! They said it goes from 0 mph to 60-some mph in 2.8 seconds. And it did!! my short hair was sticking straight back off my head and the g-force glues your eyes shut! It rocked though. J rode that one with me. We ended up with no waiting in line because it had shut down for a period of time due to the drizzle. We were still hanging around while Dev was shopping when they opened it back up--so we were first in line!

Later that night most of the crew went to play laser tag and ride the go-carts. They played for a couple of hours and enjoyed it. Apparently Brendan lost his phone there. He retrieved it but Nick was still looking for it--and everyone left. His wife called him to let him know that they were stopping to bring the babysitters (Me and Tina) some ice cream, so his car would know where they went. The conversation went down like this: When he asked where she was she replied "Behind you" ; "Behind me where??" ; "Behind you and Jeremy (she thought he was with J in our suburban)"; "I'M STILL IN THE *BEEPING* PARKING LOT" Screeeeeech went the car brakes. Oops. I am still laughing about that! Poor Nick!

The melted ice cream sundae was delicious (really!) I decided that the way to do an amusement park is with multiple people. That allowed everyone who loves rides to ride and provided a sitter for the kids and company for the non-riders. We split up our babysitting and it really worked out well! I have some family pictures that will post next with the happenings of the last day!

Vacation Notes: Day 1

Well we have returned from our big family fun-cation to Table Rock lake near Branson. I had a ton of pictures to share, so these blogs will be in a series of 3 days. We are moving D to the upstairs bedroom with T (OOOH, the two sloppiest kids living in one room). So I uploaded all of my pictures between trips to the trash and between bedrooms. Now just need to journal a little! Thurs night found everyone trickling in the late afternoon. We had left on Wed to do some eye appointments and school shopping, so we were around Branson around lunch time. Mom and Dad and Kristi's family arrived mid afternoon, so we took a tour of Stone Hill Winery before supper. The kids got to sample some of their grape juice, which is excellent! J and I went to Branson on our honeymoon 15 years ago this week, and Stone Hill was one of the places we went then. We sampled about 13 different wines, and we bought several bottles of our favorites. My pick was a Spumante Blush--I sure like the bubbles.

Colton had a butterfly land on his shoulder!

Friday was our first day together. We really didn't have much planned so several of us took off and went to the Butterfly Palace. My boys wanted to hit the pool, so just C and I went with my Mom, Kristi and Nick's families, and Tina and her girls. What a fun place. It took C a little bit to catch on to what we were looking for.



They let the kids release the butterflies by dumping them out of little plastic containers. C caught on to that right away and she made sure that she got her turn! Kadon was not too impressed with the whole dumping out thing.




Colton caught one off of his arm and shared with Grandma and the girls. C wasn't sure what to think of having one on her fingers!



Haley, Cami, Taryn and Colton are checking out Grandma's butterfly

Taryn's smile says it all doesn't it!! The kids had a blast

and it was fun to watch them all

The kids were waiting with Uncle Nick to release the butterflies

The afternoon found several little girls and boys napping. Dad happened to know some people that were out there with boats, so they graciously came and picked up Jeremy, Nick, Brendan, and Dad and took them out on the lake for some skiing. I believe it was a LITTLE rough, but they enjoyed it anyway. (Oh, except maybe for Brendan, who put his back out and was a LITTLE sore!)

Dad rented a pontoon boat for the evening hours and so everyone took turns cruising the lake with Papa. The first trip was quite uneventful. But the second trip after dinner was memorable, at least for the kids! There get to be some tremendous wakes (or big ole waves for you non-lakers) on that lake. Apparently as they went across one and came down onto the lake, a large amount of water crashed onto the front of the boat, knocking the front gate open, threatening to swallow the cooler of beverages (I must say however, that no one was drinking alcoholic beverages). The adults on board who were in the front of the boat promptly returned to the back of the boat (you know who you are!) leaving the children to drown first. Tristan, being the quick thinker he is, saved the cooler, which was loaded with capri sun and beer, from dropping nearly 200 feet onto the bottom of Table Rock Lake, thanks son! Then my sister, being the quick thinker she is, thought to yell to the children in the front of the sinking ship to run to the back of the boat. By then the drama was over--no sunken ship, no one injured--just a little paranoid after that. From a bystander viewpoint--the children were hilarious. They came back up to the condo's a one to a few at a time. Each time one of them entered, they would sigh and roll their eyes and say something to indict PAPA. Like Grant "You will NEVER guess what happened to us!" Colton "Papa nearly killed us." Kristi "- - - " Oh yeah, Kris didn't have anything to say, because she was laughing so hard she could bearly speak!

So the first day ended well, we had lots of fun visiting. No major kid fights. The boys were pestering throughout the first 2 days about going to play laser tag. Plans for Saturday included Silver Dollar City. More on that later.


Papa is saying "Look Grandma--No Hands!!" (really, he was using his hands to steer during the aforementioned boating incident!!)