the story of a great little getaway:

Late on Wednesday night once Ben returned from a work trip and after all of the kids were asleep for the night, Ben and I were discussing how much we were looking forward to enjoying a couple of days off together.  We weren't sure what we wanted to do with a four- day weekend free of obligations, but we knew family time was key. With a little discussion, we agreed on heading to the Lake of the Ozarks bright and early the next morning. My fun husband suggested it would be even more exciting to have everything ready so that we could surprise the kids once they woke up by hopping into the car to leave. I stayed up late to get everything ready and bags packed so that we could leave as soon as possible the next morning.

It was awfully fun to surprise the kids first thing that morning. I had placed their clothes for the day out, so we woke them up and told them they had fifteen minutes to get dressed, brush their teeth, and pack a car bag before "Hank" was leaving for our adventure. They were so excited!

We made a first stop for breakfast and the kids were all smiles:

We then enjoyed our first road trip in our new vehicle complete with a viewing (and singalong, of course) of Frozen.  Have I mentioned how much my children love this movie? I enjoyed the time to catch up with Ben because we haven't had a whole lot of time together over the past week and a half.

We arrived in Osage Beach around noon and checked into our resort. We got a neat little suite for the night that had two rooms and a kitchen overlooking the lake. The boys, especially, loved it. They couldn't get over the cool water view.

Next we headed into town to get some lunch. There were LOTS of giggles at our table.

After lunch came the most fun part of our day- the indoor water park at our resort! I can't say enough about the fun we all had over three and a half hours in that cool place. We even lucked out by running into one of Drew's classmates from preschool and one of Luke's friends from basketball camp (such a coincidence!), so the boys had friends to run around with.  The park had a lazy river, a hot tub, two huge water slides and two smaller slides, a pool with basketball hoops, and a large playground in the middle of the huge room. My favorite part of the afternoon is a tie between doing the lazy river with the littles and going down the huge waterside on a double tube with Gracie and Luke. I laughed all afternoon.

After a full and tiring afternoon, the kids were ready to change scenery. We headed back to our room to get cleaned up and then headed out for the evening. We found a barbecue place for dinner, stopped at the store for a few things, and then hit an outlet mall in the area. Gracie and I had so much fun shopping for about an hour while Ben and the kids chose to watch a movie in the car together. I gave Gracie fifteen dollars to shop with and she stretched it well. My little bargain shopper got a pair of sunglasses and three pairs of flip flops with her cash. I had about as much luck at a great sale at Ann Taylor Loft. We love to shop together and she was really appreciative of the outing.

Our very fun day ended with some much-needed rest for everyone. Ben watched some basketball while I played around with editing pictures, and the whole family was asleep by ten.

We awoke this morning ready for another day of fun. The weather was beautiful and we were ready to explore a bit more. We headed out for breakfast at a diner overlooking a golf course before driving to a state park to hike. It was a really great morning. The kids had so much fun throwing rocks into the lake!

After about ninety minutes at the state park, the littlest of legs in the group were getting a little tired. We headed back to the resort to pack up and then made a little drive to a cave in the area. We lucked into a really great guide for our very small tour. She was friendly and enthusiastic and answered our many, many questions like she had nowhere else to be. (Which… maybe she didn't. There were not a lot of visitors to this little cave.)

The trip ended with a stop in Jefferson City on the drive home. We had burgers, fries, and malts for late lunch/early dinner and then drove over to the State Capitol to explore.

I love this little family of mine and love that we can have so much fun together. I love all of the "thank you's" we heard from the kids. I love the smiles and giggles of the past two days. I love remembering the look of surprise on Gracie's face yesterday morning when I woke her up.  I love how the kids have been hugging on us and each other. I love that Ben has been able to relax and take a break from his phone.  I love remembering the laughter I shared with Luke as we went down the huge waterside together. I love the fun that Gracie and I had shopping and talking with each other. I love that Katie and Drew have been so happy to have all of their people around. I love that Luke excitedly declared our thrown together getaway "the best vacation ever!"

I will remember this little trip for years to come.