Day 1 of Our Bull Shoals Vacation

IMG_5006-editAhh, vacation. The sounds of the birds, the trees blowing in the wind and all of that other nature-y stuff.

Wednesday was our first day on the lake. We left St. Louis at 7 am and made it down to Bull Shoals, Arkansas in record time. I think it might of had something to do with leaving on time and not making any unnecessary stops. I am not complaining. I would much rather get down to the lake as quickly as possible.

Getting the kids to stop bouncing off the walls the few days before we left for vacation was a challenge. So we used the lake as a bargaining chip against the kids so we could get them do various things. Such as quieting down, going to bed, eating the rest of their dinner. Stuff like that. It worked great, but now that we are here I can’t see us using that as a negotiation tactic again.

Anyways, the kids have been doing good on day one. We took them down to the docks and they swam all afternoon. We even took the kids out for a few rides on the jet ski/wet bike/sea-doo. Alex was loving the rides on the boats as well as the rides on the four wheeler from me and his uncle. Alex and his cousin are just about the same age and they both seem to be into these fast vehicles. They hope to get in just one more ride while I just hope my insurance rates won’t increase.

GOPR0202

After some lake play we went back to our cabins and started playing around while we cooked dinner and drank some drinks. Being from St. Louis of course we are gonna have a few beers. Luckily for my wife, beer wasn’t the only thing flowing. Apparently, pickle shots are now a thing. While I am a fan of the classic spear pickle, they typically are not my first choice to mix a drink with. So the pickle juice was doing its thing for the adults, while the kids were having a grand ol’ time running around chasing balls and jumping on our various tubes we use for the lake.

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0251.As dusk started creeping in I figured it was as good of a time as any to get the movie screen setup that I brought down. This 12 foot inflatable movie screen is intense. The directions say the screen size is about 12 feet. But I would suspect that the actual size of the entire thing is closer to sixteen feet. It’s enormous and very cool. I setup my projector and picked a movie for the kids to sit and relax and enjoy. Even a few of the adults were slipping away from their conversations to watch the movie for a few minutes.

The movie ended right around 10PM. I figured it too late to start another movie and also the pickle juice was flowing through practically everyone but the kids, so I enlisted some help and took down the screen and packed up all of the equipment. I managed to get the screen down in record time and got it all put away just fine. Now that the movie was cleaned up it was time to get the kids settled and in bed so they are well refreshed for day two. Our vacation posse had a few more drinks and by the time all was said and done we were crashing by about 1AM. What a day and night and we have just gotten started here!

#TBT – Bull Shoals Family Vacation 2014

IMG_1625In 2014 we had a fantastic time at Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas. We stayed at the same place we stayed at this year (2015) and we had the same cabin this time around. One cool thing about the trip this year as oppose to those in the past is that we had access to an awesome GoPro camera. So I took the liberty of taking all of that footage and pictures and putting them together to make two great videos.

This year was Alex’s first year at the lake. He was still a little guy but he had a blast. Relaxing in his little boat was probably his favorite thing to do. While I’m sure if he could’ve walked at the time he would’ve jumped off the cliffs. I’m just glad he couldn’t. Jumping off the cliffs is always a good time and I am happy we were able to capture that experience.

Here is part one, done to the tune of Kenny Chesney’s When The Sun Goes Down.

And here is part two with the sounds of Calvin Harris’ Summer.

Bull Shoals Family Vacation (day 4 & 5)

Destiny and Abby Bull Shoals 2015Day four of our family vacation was one for the books. Earlier in the week a few of the guys went out and put together this amazing water slide. It was suppose to be over 50 feet but ended up being 30 feet because of how high the water level was. Using a water pump we got the water flowing down the slide and that is when the fun began. Using the GoPro I was able to capture some pretty cool footage going down the slide. My niece took it with her as well as my wife. Alex is still too little to go down the slide and Abby was just a little too scared to try it out. My niece however was a trooper and was having a blast sliding into the lake.

It will be interesting to find out next year if the slide is still there or if the core of engineers will tear it down. Several years ago we hung a zip line between two cliffs and would zip line between them and drop off into the water. They shut down our fun pretty quickly that year. That’s okay though, we still had a lot of fun.

Day five of our vacation was a slow one. We woke up later in the day because of a very active night. Pretty much a lot of the same. Swimming, riding the wet bike, and having fun. Check out the video below to see our fun from day four & five and click here to see day 1 & 2, and here for day 3!

Day Four

Day Five

Bull Shoals Family Vacation (day 3)

Uncle Mike and AlexDay three of our family vacation was a lot of fun. I had attempted to fly a kite with my GoPro attached but it never took off like I expected. Maybe next year we will have a drone or some helium balloons to send the GoPro up into the sky. Day three had more swimming and riding the wet bike. There was some turtle spotting! I did my best to capture the little guy on camera. Alex even had a chance to ride the motorcycle with his Uncle Mike. He absolutely loved every second of it. At first he cried when we put the helmet on him (safety first!) but once the engine was started his face lite up like a firework. Enjoy the video below and watch out for day four and five!

If you haven’t checked out day one and two click here!