Saturday, August 8, 2009

We're Baaack from Vacation

Hello again. I've missed you all this week. I can't tell you how nice it has been to disconnect from reality. Honestly, it made me consider if I want to continue my blog. I enjoy sharing bits and pieces of life here with you all but sometimes it feels like "one more thing to do." Eliminating it from my to do list the past week was so freeing. I've got ideas for new posts so I know I'll continue. Besides, I couldn't eliminate my connection with you, my blog world friends!

Much to share.

First, no pictures. I've got issues. Computer issues. (Other issues too but I don't need to tell everything, right?) Our memory is nearly at full capacity which means I need to save our last year of photos to CD ~ I don't have any blank CD's and I don't want to go buy any so that means until I get this taken care of, I can't download any new photos to share. Sorry. Stay with me though and I'll have more up soon I hope. This week will be a busy one with enrollment and the first day of school.


Vacation started out a bit rough. Alison and I both had sinus infections so we were home for a couple of days while Lawman and Madison went camping/boating with friends. All I can say is thank heavens for antibiotics and the day that they kicked in!


We packed our bags and headed out of town as planned. Had a great time with our friends at Lake of the Ozarks. Lots of boating, floating, reading, sunning. Eat, sleep and repeat again and again. I managed to read one book in its entirety ~ The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingslover. I read her Animal, Vegetable, Miracle last year on vacation but hadn't read any of her fiction. I really enjoyed it.


The lake was gorgeous. And BIG. And the houses? Oh my word! I can't imagine what some people must do for a living in order to have a multi-million dollar vacation home. I personally found the older homes built in the late 60's and 70's to be the most charming. They looked like what a lake cabin should be. We did notice that there were alot of homes for sale. More than the last time we were there 4 years ago. I'm sure the economic downturn is the reason why.


On our last day there we visited Ha Ha Tonka. A beautiful place. We docked the boat and hiked up the 1/2 mile trail to see the remains of the castle, stables and water tower. There's another route to take besides the trail -- 216 steps. We did that route last time. We were hot after the hike so we found a place to anchor near the spring. We swam over to the side of the lake where you can exit and then enter into the spring and let the current carry you out to the lake (it isn't very far). The spring water is C.O.L.D. A constant 55 degrees. I sure felt cool after that little dip! It made the lake water feel like a hot tub. As I was being carried out to the lake I thought to myself, "This is what it must feel like to be packed in a bathtub full of ice."


Since returning home we've managed to pack in a couple more fun vacation activities ~ G.I. Joe and a water park. Lawman loved the movie; he's the reason we went. As for the water park? I had more fun than anyone else. I took the girls there 2 years ago and they loved it. Today it was "too little kid." I guess I'm of the age where I don't mind acting like a kid. Note to self: It's not cool when you're a teenager.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I took an at-home unplugged week from the computer to catch up and it did the world for me. Though I don't trust the Wordpress auto publish function. I saved a post to post when I was in W. Virginia and it published two days after we got back!

Glad you had a good time, a time of rest is good I think to step away from the obligations at home.

I have over 4,000 pics on my computer. It's my goal to save them this week because I'm afraid otherwise I might lose them.

Think what that means about how many memories you've made this past year!

Anonymous said...

love the recap of your vacation. I use flickr for my "favorite" photos. that is awesome that you have so many pictures. yep, lots of memories.

Anonymous said...

I found that downloading photos on to a fire-proof portable hard drive a great secure option. Family hols always leave me with a great feeling of contentment.

Ginger said...

Had the same problem here, + videos...After much research I bought a Seagate Extreme 1.5 Terabite external hard drive and moved all my photos to that. 1 TB = 1000 GB....That;s a lot.

I love it. The transfer rate is super fast. I also am paying the small monthly fee to have my computer automatically upload all my sensitive materia..ie photos onto Carbonite an online hosting site....highly recommended from a talkshow computer Geek here in CA.

Anyway....I rewarded myself with a Nikon D90 DSLR when I accomplished my organizational task...Isn't getting all this digital stuff in order a full time job in itself?

I really scaled back my blogging too and changed what I blog about. I think everytime you have a child you have to reorganize your time and rethink what's important.

Jenni said...

Ha Ha Tonka is one of the places we planned to go for a Scout camping trip long ago, but no one could agree on the right weekend to go. Some day we'll get out there. It sounds like you all had a great time. I'm glad you enjoyed your trip!