Caboose Junction

I found a new experience for us to try after we decided that we wanted to get away for a long weeknd, Caboose Junction Resort at Table Rock Lake in the Lake of the Ozarks.  We left early Friday morning for the four hour drive...a nice relaxing drive until the last hour or so when the roads began to be twisty and hilly for about the last 100 miles!  We all survived :) (momma seems to be the only one with a queasy tummy in the car thankfully). 

Our caboose was right by the lake where we played in the water (well mom did only until she got bit by something and refused to go back in!), relaxed in the hammocks and took walks along the shore.  We also enjoyed playing card games together, talking, laughing and just spending time as a family. Staying in the cabooses was really a fun and unique thing for us.  We loved that there was a small kitchen (with supplies) and a grill so that we could make most of our meals.  The beds were a little hard :) and the bathrooms were TINY but definately a new experience for all of us!

We also took a day trip to a drive thru/petting zoo and ate dinner at a great little diner.  And on our way home we took a drive through Joplin, MO to look at the damage/rebuilding of the tornado last year.

Spring Break 2012 - St. Louis, MO

We packed up the van with clothes, swim gear and snacks and headed out for the five hour drive (with stopping for lunch) to St. Louis.  We've been there twice before, in 1997 and again in 2008...it's amazing that all three times we have found new things to do and there's still more that we haven't gotten to yet!

We lucked out and missed all the rain back home while we enjoyed the warm and sunny weather in St. Louis!  We visited the St. Louis Zoo, The Magic House (children's museum), two malls, a movie theatre (Journey 2 the Mysterious Island), Hammer's (pizza/arcade), Mini golf, lots of fun restaurants, the hotel volleyball court and the great hotel pool MANY times!  For souveniers Lexy chose a Build a Bear panda (Oreo) at the zoo and Brooke choose a couple of new outfits at the mall.

Myrtle Beach, SC - Summer Fun Week 4

When we decided that we needed some R&R we knew we should head to a beach.  We had been to a FL beach so we looked into other places and found Myrtle Beach.  We're so glad we did, we had a fabulous time reconnecting as a family for the week we were there!  It was so relaxing and yet there were things to do when we wanted to.

Highlights of our days:
Friday - arrived in the late evening, had dinner at the pier and walked out to the beach/ocean
Saturday - played on the beach all day only stopping to do a little shopping
Sunday - celebrated Father's Day at Broadway at the Beach (got caught in a major storm!) and then went to the hotel pool
Monday - started the day out early walking on the pier, then spent the day on the beach under our pricey rented umbrella :)
Tuesday - we slept in, stayed at the hotel all day and then went to the mall to shop, Lexy went on the indoor trampoline and we watched "Mr. Popper's Penguins"
Wednesday - We spent the morning at the beach, went walking around and then back to the beach for walking on the boardwalk and fireworks
Thursday - We went to Wonderworks and then back to the hotel pool
Friday - packed up and headed home :(

We did a lot but there's still so much more that we would have liked to have seen/done....maybe we'll go back!!!

Here's a few pictures of our time at Myrtle Beach...

First time

to swim in the ocean and play on a beach...

Myrtle Beach, SC

and Lexy LOVES it!!!

And here's a (very blurry) picture of the first time Brooke visited the ocean/beach in 2000...

Marco Island, FL

I think both my girls could stay forever...

We made it!

We decided that our family needed some R&R so we headed to Myrtle Beach, SC for a week!

our first look at the ocean...

It was late and dark but we just HAD to take a close up peek!

Vacation and Kids

We had started talking about taking a vacation a couple of weeks ago.  We thought it would be a good idea to take a nice vacation before anymore kids move in.  We don't have too much more time to take family vacations before Brooke heads off to college (or whatever she chooses) so we wanted to make this a good one.  We've finally settled on Myrtle Beach, SC.  Both girls wanted to go to a beach, Brooke has been once when she was four and Lexy has never been.  I wanted someplace that had other things to do too and this destination has both!  The girls are VERY excited and to be honest I think some relaxation on the beach will be good for all of us!  Now to keep the girls from trying to pack too soon!

Nothing like planning a vacation to get the possible adoption situations popping up again!  A friend told us of two new sibling groups that we are going to look into...

Sibling set of four - g-5, g-4, g-2, b-1...yes FOUR but we both agreed to at least get more information about them. 

Sibling set of two - g-3, b-1...this one REALLY pulls at my heartstrings but it might be a situation that the agency won't look at families that aren't homestudied through them (which we are not) unless they can't find a family in their own agency.

There's also a new baby at the far away special needs agency...hmm....

Chicago 2010

Highlights of our trip...

• Excited for an early morning departure from home, we actually got gone with only two bags and three carry ons!!!! Of course Brooke felt like she didn't bring ANYTHING!!
• Delayed at the airport
• Lexy's first airplane ride!
• A SCARY and EXPENSIVE taxi ride to our hotel, Brooke & Lexy's first
• No lunch and an EXPENSIVE first dinner in Chicago
• A walk to the nearest grocery store for snacks, etc. so we don't starve!
• A VERY COLD HOTEL POOL...FREEZING!
• Beautiful scenery
• Waiting in the heat for an hour to get into Shedd Aquarium
• Watching Lexy's face at the seal, dolphin & Beluga whale show :-)
• Lexy dressing up and playing like a penguin
• Hot & Tired..."do we have to walk anymore?", "how much further?"
• Watching fireworks from our hotel window after having a drunk woman flick spiders on us on the pool balcony :(
• Learning all about city buses - another first for Brooke & Lexy
• A mall & a children's museum all in one place, who could ask for more!!!
• Lexy loves to play pretend at the children's museum...so does Brooke :)
• Brooke tries to feed Lexy to a dinosaur :) Lexy tried to soak Brooke in the water room :)
• a purse for Brooke's souvenir, stuffed animal for Lexy ...surprise, surprise
• Trying a Chicago deep dish pizza - we are not fans :(
• Getting said pizza free when another hotel guest takes ours by mistake!
• Beautiful views from the pier of the water and the city
• Riding the biggest ferris wheel we've ever seen, what a view!
• A trip to the zoo...loving the animals, not the heat!
• An unexpected scenic ride on the city bus...note to self, buses don't stop at the same places both ways!
• Brooke and I saw LOTS of stores that we would have liked to shop at, maybe someday!
• POOL STILL FREEZING! Lexy learns how to play marco polo
• Lots of family fun, giggles and memories!!!
• Another crazy and expensive taxi trip to the airport
• Another flight delay, wild kids/crazy mom in the seats in front of us
• Good to be home!!

Brooke said that she absolutely loved Chicago and wants to go to school there for college. I knew if we showed her a big city she would be hooked! Do we dare show her New York or LA?? Lexy liked Chicago but it was a lot of go go go for her, she's a much more laid back kinda gal. Mike managed well with all the people and craziness but I'm pretty sure he won't be suggesting going back anytime soon :-) For me, I've always loved the big city life and thought as a kid that I would end up living in one but I sure wouldn't want to raise kids in a city that big and really it was just TOO much hustle and bustle...guess old age changes our views!! :-) All in all it was a great vacation that exposed us all to things we hadn't experienced before and gave us a chance to connect as a family!

Summer Fun

Yesterday Robin and I packed up the kids and headed up to the Farmstead for the day. It was WAY hot but we had a good time anyway. We bought sack lunches for everyone and enjoyed all the animals and park equipment!


In other news...We have decided to go to Chicago for our vacation this summer. We were going between that and Arkansas but figure that since Chicago is a flying vacation that we should go there this year (before we get more kids). Who knows how many kids/what kind of behaviors we might be dealing with next summer and airfare is ridiculously high!

The girls are super excited for this vacation. We haven't been on a plane in seven years (when Brooke was seven and we went to Disney World). And this will be Lexy's first airplane ride!!

The same week we are going on vacation, we will be attending an adoption event at the end of the week. We will be going to a town about 3 1/2 hours away so we'll make a mini vacation out of it! Our worker is excited for us to attend...I'm thinking that she wants us to meet some sib sets that she's mentioned that are a little above our age range. We'll see what happens. It's just a short sidewalk chalk event but it should be fun!

Branson

We had a fabulous time on our mini vacation to Branson, MO. It had been eight years since we had been there last (so Brooke was 5 last time and Lexy had never been!). We stayed in a motel that had a free breakfast buffet (always nice) and a dessert buffet each night (yeah!!)...thanks Robin for the suggestion!

On our way to Branson we stopped off at the Precious Moments Chapel in Springfield. While there, Lexy left a message to Swimmy (her fish that passed) in one of the memory books that they have set up in a memorial room...they keep and store all the books when they are filled. I can't wait for her to visit when she is older and we can look up her message to swimmy!

While in Branson we saw a couple of different magic/illusion shows that Lexy found absolutely amazing, we shopped (Brooke found this great!), we ate WAY too much junk, played in the pool and we went to Silver Dollar City. At SDC the first ride that we rode was a wooden roller coaster, what a way to start off the day! Brooke has never been a roller coaster type of kid and this was Lexy's first roller coaster ride but they both really enjoyed it. Later Brooke and Lexy talked Mike into going on the Waterboggan ride (I was smart enough to look at the people as they were getting off and know that they were getting completely soaked)...they all had a fabulous time on the ride but it took them ALL day to dry off!

I remembered to take my camera but forgot the memory card so I had to rely on the camera on my phone (until it died just a couple of hours into SDC) but here are a few shots I managed to capture of our trip...

Long time no blog...

Wow I can't believe it has taken me so long to get back to blogging! Last week we spent our "stay-cation" just being a family, spending time together enjoying one another and it was great!!

We started off shopping for new things for the playroom makeover (pics to come after I take them) such as carpet, cabinets and paint. We went to see a movie one day and spent a couple days at a local hotel that has a waterpark inside and had a great 4th of July with family and friends...in between we worked on our playroom makeover which includes a handmade kitchen and small stage area :-) Surprising how much we enjoyed just spending time together without all the hustle and bustle of a go go go type of vacation!

Spring Break - St. Louis

For spring break this year we went to St. Louis, MO with Robin's family.  We drove there seperately and then met up at our hotel.

We visited the St. Louis Science Center...

Had fun at our hotel that had a nice pool and arcade area...

We went to The Magic House...

and the mall...

Lexy, Ryan, Brooke, Mackenzie, Molly

We also visited the Anheuser Busch Brewery but I can't seem to find those pictures.   A great time was had by all!  (Except maybe Lexy's pink eye and Brooke's stomach virus).  It was raining most of the time we were there so we didn't get to visit the Zoo or Grant's Farm...maybe another time!