The Lake

We had SO. MUCH. FUN. Thank you to the Jensens for taking my cute Beehives down to the lake for a few days, and for allowing me and my kids to tag along! It was amazing.

Every evening the resort had fires burning and s'mores stuff out on the tables, just in case that urge struck for something sweet and smokey. The kids went every night, of course!

After the s'mores there were other fun options to try out, including miniature golfing. Matt was an extra-challenging moving obstacle. Not to mention he'd grab your ball and take off with it if you weren't looking. One of my girls got smart partway through and taught him to pick up her ball and put it into the hole for her. :-)

Izzie did cause one minor golfing accident, but he was a good sport about it and of course, she was horrified. I'd bet she'll be a lot more careful with clubs in the future. I was SO glad to see she'd hit him just below his eye. An inch or so higher and we could have really had a problem. Incident management was kind of funny, though. Apparently if you so much as ask for a bandaid at this place they send out their first aid crew, lights and all. Braden was well patched and cared for, that's for certain.

I couldn't believe the wild rides Erick and Izzie took. I can only assume Erick's strength came from the muscles he's developed from his DS, because I couldn't figure out how in the world either of my children were staying on that tube - and honestly, they probably rode for hours.

Then of course, there was cliff jumping. Erick went right off the lower one, and I caught that one on film. However, I had to post a picture of the other cliff as well because he did that one - twice! The first time I was so amazed he did it I missed it, and the second time, well, I was in the water too. Matt and I did a lot of swimming around the boat. But he did it! I don't think I was ever that brave. Izzie looked for a LONG time at the lower cliff, climbing up and staring, then making her way back down. Just before we were done there for the day, though, she did manage a jump with one of my girls. After that she was a jumping maniac, although she never did make the high one. I wasn't too sad about that, it scared me just watching them!

And even Audrey made it on the tube - once. One of the kids she was riding with jumped partway through, and when they turned around to pick him up the nose of the tube submurged. Yikes! Anyway, she was done after that. She may have a stubborn streak a mile wide, but she missed the handout on nerves of steel. I have to remind myself she's still only four though, so maybe she'll try again next year. The second picture is her re-enactment of her face when she fell off the tube, although I hear it was much more dramatic in real life. ;-)

We swam in the resort pools, had movie night and made nachos and waffles in beautiful furnished rooms as well. We said hello to the neighborhood mountain goat, had icecream on one of the docks and I even got up wakeboarding for the first time in almost nine years! This was my first trip to the Branson area and it really was beautiful. Table Rock Lake reminded me a lot of a very lush version of Lake Powell (but smaller!) and I kept thinking about how much my mom would love this style of boating. We stayed in a resort area on the lakefront, but it really was huge with restaurants and everything there. They provided shuttles to take you wherever, and slips for your boat so you literally could get up and enjoy the glass early in the morning, head back for breakfast, go back out in the morning, come back for naps, etc. Here's a map of the lake I found - it even looks a lot like Lake Powell to me. Hopefully we'll get another chance to spend some time there in the future!

For those interested, according to wikipedia, Lake Powell has 3 times the surface area, but holds 5 times as much water as Table Rock Lake. Them 'r some de-e-e-ep canyons!