lake of the ozarks

We got away for a quick family vacation last weekend. It's the off season at Lake of the Ozarks so we were able to stay for next to nothing and have some down time together. As quickly as the time passed, we were able to really enjoy each other and the beautiful fall weather.

The biggest news of the trip was that Ella caught a fish all by herself! Mind you, this came right before she brushed her face with the hook which ended up catching in her hair. And then she threw the pole in the water on accident and Bryan injured himself trying to retrieve it (another story to be told at a later date when Bryan can laugh about it.)

The fish! So glad she hooked him and not herself!

There was a pumpkin festival going on not far from where we were staying but the kids didn't want to leave the condo. I found it rather sweet actually. It seems like Ella is so in need of real bonding time with her family, that she would much rather spend the moments lounging around doing "normal activities" rather than play in a bounce house or whatever...Fine by me. That is so much easier! Simon was the same way...every time we left the condo (like, to go buy a first aid kit a Walgreens...again, another story) he would ask, "Are we going back to our vatation now?" meaning, back to the condo?

So, aside from all around RELAXING, we visited the little playground on the rental property which consisted of a slide, monkey bars and a teeter totter. Ella mastered the monkey bars so the kids were quite content to visit this small, unimpressive playground multiple times. Next to the playground was a pecan tree that was dropping hundreds of nuts. We gathered up two bagfuls in hopes of cracking them open and enjoying them in some oatmeal or something (well, that was my hope. Nobody else really likes oatmeal.) But even after I bought a nut cracker, the cracking didn't really produce an "uncrushed" nut. Oh well. We had fun collecting them all.

In order to convince our kids to go on a long walk, we turned it into a treasure hunt. The kids loved that idea and were very successful at finding all the things I listed off, like:

1. a red leaf
2. something white
3. a purple flower
4. an acorn
5. something orange

I will definitely use this game again when trying to manipulate my children to exercise.

The loot

 As we packed to leave, we discovered a turtle outside our door. The kids were mesmerized and tried to feed it lettuce. Ella wrote a story/list of observations to show her teacher. Under a rather lovely drawing of the turtle were these sentences:
I saw a turtle on my vacation. It had red spots all over it. I gave the turtle some lettuce. But it wouldn't eat it.
Ella is in school even when she's not in school!

Other happenings were:

1. Making s'mores with marshmallows we roasted in the fireplace. (Oh how I wish we had a working fireplace at home!)
2. Playing lots of Miss Pac Man
3. Reading on the front deck
4. Simon falling out of bed
5. Attending Christ's Church (one of our sister churches) and reconnecting with our friends there. What a great group of folks!

Reading in the crisp morning air. Bryan-The Bible, Ella-Curious George, Simon-Harold and the Purple Crayon

Every time we visit Lake of the Ozarks, Bryan gets the itch to buy a used boat. He almost has me convinced! Almost.