Day 2 of Our Bull Shoals Vacation

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0002.After a successful night we all awoke and slowly got our day started. The big task at hand for day 2 was to acquire a sea worthy vessel for the next two days for our group. We brought two jet skis and a small boat with us, but we had bigger plans. Plans that involved renting a nice pontoon that had an upper deck with a water slide. Awesome!

So after a delicious breakfast provided by Auntie Randa and soon-to-be Uncle Luke we got ready to head on down to the dock. Once we had the boat in our possession we loaded it up with our goodies and headed on out with the jet skis out to one of our favorite spots to do some cliff jumping and relaxing in the lake. I got plenty of Go-Pro footage with us jumping that I will be putting together later this week.

DSCF9383-editThe kids had a lot of fun so much in fact that Alex and his cousin headed back in early with Mammaw and Pawpaw for a much needed nap. My little Abby even got herself tuckered out and fell asleep on the boat on our way back a few hours later. It was a great day out on the lake and much energy was used climbing and jumping 10, 15, 40 feet off the cliffs.

We unloaded the boat and headed back to the cabin to clean up for dinner. Pawpaw fired up his deep fryer and made hot wings for everyone. While he was cooking up the wings, my wife took Abby and Alex down to a popular loading dock to feed some large carp. They go absolutely wild when you toss in some fish food. It is something the kids and her love doing every time we come down. When they got back dinner was ready and everyone chowed down on those deliciously cooked buffalo wings. Writing about it now makes me sad because I could really go for just a few more of those tasty wings.

DSCF9393-editThere was a storm on the horizon so we opted out of setting up the movie screen. We did setup some tarps to help keep the rain off our area and at the start of the storm it seemed like it was going to work. But then the rain started to come down a little harder and we got a few leaks. All of us guys were getting a little crazy under the tarps seeing how long we could last with the storm intensifying. Ultimately a gnarly gust of wind came through and snapped one of the ropes on our tarps and sent all of us scrambling onto the porch. So the rest of the night was spent on porch with all of us cracking jokes and having a few drinks.

The kids passed out on Mammaw and Pawpaw’s couch, so once we were ready for bed we scooped the kiddos up in our arms and carried them to our cabin. We laid them down and got ourselves into bed as well. It was an awesome but exhausting day. With two days left at the lake we had to make sure to not let any storms get us down. Stay tuned for day three!

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.

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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!