What fun we had! Tons of pics ahead...

More about the place we stayed and also pics of the weekend.  I called around to find a place, but most of them were booked. I found a great place according to their website. "Immaculate" and "Clean" on the brochure. When I talked to the lady on the phone, she was super sweet and told me it's a popular place for people to meet between Dallas and St Louis. She said it was very clean, modern and updated and would be great for small kids. We have 8 kids between us, so that was very important.

I guess we all have our own idea of Immaculate and modern, but I'm not sure many people would say that about this place...

Maybe since the fridge and micro were maybe made in the last 20 years that would make it modern?  The carpet and furniture however were at least 40 years old.  I shuddered when anyone took their shoes off or sat on the floor.  Ah well, Joy and I had to grit our teeth and do our very best to grin and bear it because the kids did not care one bit.  They were so excited!

One of the other issues we had with the property was the lack of safe play space.  It was just plain scary and made it tough to relax.  I was sure we'd have at least one major accident while we were there.  But all went well.

I didn't even get pics of the long scary stairs down to the cars and road

We had a beautiful view...if only we could take our eyes off the kids long enough to enjoy it.

Fishing was the best part for the kids I think.  The dock area had a bit of a "bayou" feeling and it was kinda cool (if totally unsafe for lots of small kids)

This pic says it all about the whole weekend

Derek was the best fisherman, catching the first of many fish

Bryan's first catch

I love my face here.  He almost got a hand on the fish.  Once again, the sum of my feelings...I'm such a spoilsport

Fishing was followed by swimming in the Lake.  Pretty fun, since it had a slide off into the water.  Scary since the water was 25ft deep right off the dock and they had no shoreline for the kids...yikes!

Ephraim LOVED sitting in that little float.  He was screaming and laughing the whole time

Joy's twins Abbey and Nolan and Elsa

The swimming was followed by naps for everyone in my family (yes Dave fell asleep on that nasty carpet, he can sleep anywhere)

Followed by BBQ and Smores for all

One of the funniest things was the size difference in our kids.  Tom and Joy's kids are very small.  Small heads, bodies and weights.  Mine on the other hand are on the large side (especially their heads).  Next to these kiddos, they look huge.  Seriously.  It was so funny.  But then I see this pic Dave took of Joy and I.  And I realize the kids come by it honestly.  I look like Gigantor in this picture (sorry about the closed/squinty eyes Joy, it's the only one I had)