Lake of the Ozarks

Since we most likely have less than 10 months left before we move to our next post I created a Missouri bucket list awhile back. My number one thing to do this summer was rent a boat at the Lake of the Ozarks and take the kids tubing. The military has a whole portion of the lake reserved just for service members and families and there are boats just waiting in the dock to be rented for super cheap by the hour. It's definitely a deal.This summer was cooler than normal and we were out of town a lot so it never seemed to work out for us to get to the lake...until last Saturday The weather was mid 90s and we decided on Thurs we just had to do it. We tried to coordinate with a couple different families so we could take turns with the kids but in the end decided with our fabulous babysitter/kids playmate Rosie that 4 kids would be no problem on a boat. We were mostly right.

Guess who hated the boat? Poor Hannah. She cried/panicked whenever she wasn't on someone's lap.

Lucy LOVED the boat and even put up with the life jacket that pushed her chin up way beyond comfort.

Here's Ashton and Rosie playing on the tube.  Ashton and Mallie both tubed a couple of times and liked it if we went super slow.

Ashton went with David a couple of times. And then David was on his own once as I was driving (never driven a boat before) and I got caught in the wake of a massive boat. Well the boat started jumping pretty high waves. And I was in a panic because Mallie was right up front bouncing all over the place... and poor Rosie was in the back trying to hold both Lucy and Hannah on her lap. I was torn between rescuing Mallie and steering away from the waves. It was hilarious later when I told David but crazy in the moment. I've decided the boat driving thing is not for me.

That's where Mallie was sitting when she was flopping all around like a fish. She stayed in front by herself almost the entire time. Afterwards she just giggled and said it was fun. She's a trooper.

And then we got out to swim in the warm water and it was perfect.

 On the way home David and I got in the car and talked about what a perfect family day it was. It's days like that that remind us what a joy is it to just be with our small family and focus on the kids!