(Road) Trippin' Out

Faced with a long holiday weekend (Labor Day here in the USA) it was hard to decide what to do. Worlds of Fun was a bust as I had hoped to get press passes for the family. When that didn't happen, our options were narrowed to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival or a trip to Bagnell Dam at Lake of the Ozarks.

In the end, it was Nick and Amanda who decided we should visit the Lake. After all, they reasoned, we hadn't been to the Lake yet this year and the Renaissance Festival runs through Columbus Day.

We spent Saturday working around the yard. I'm still trying to clear out a summer's worth of overgrowth, but I can now see the walkout side of the basement. The plan was to wake up Sunday whenever we woke and head out.

The way things worked, Callie stayed up most of the night taking care of Saxon and Ella. Then when I got up in the morning, I took over and she slept. By the time everyone was awake and the babies were fed, it was just after 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

But the trip was still a go! We loaded up Nick, Amanda, Saxon and Ella and off we went! I must say the van is a comfortable vehicle for travel the kids once again made use of the built-in television and DVD player. I believe the movie choice for the trip down was Starsky and Hutch.


(Callie, Sara, Amanda and now Ella, are all at home in the saddle.)

Driving down in the middle of the weekend meant there wasn't much traffic until we got to Camdenton and we hit the Dam about 3:30 in the afternoon. The babies made the entire trip with hardly a peep and we stopped just before the Dam at a McDonald's. Everyone got a quick bite while Saxon and Ella enjoyed a bottled lunch.

And then we became celebrities. Or at least it certainly felt that way. Going out in Marshall, I expect to be stopped by people. We know most of them. But when I'm on vacation, I'm used to a certain amount of anonymity. Well, not anymore.

As soon as that jumbo dual stroller hit the ground, it was off to the races. Frequently asked (and totally real) questions of the day:
What are their names?
How much do they weigh?
Are those real babies? (An alarming number of people think we have given Amanda a $160 stroller to push her dolls around in.)
And my favorite question: Are they twins? No, we work quick and had them 15 days apart.


(10-cent skee ball is at the end of the strip. Saxon had given up by then.)

But it was a good time despite the unwashed masses who wanted to touch my babies. We didn't do everything, but we hit the favorites including the bumper boats and the 10 cent skee ball. What's funny is I recently got my old cell phone back from Eric and discovered pictures from a Bagnell Dam trip about three years ago in its memory.


(Nick, Tyler and Amanda do a little Lake shopping. This is from two or three years ago)


(Tyler had to work this year, leaving Nick and Amanda to pose without him.)

We finally called it a day as the sun was setting over the lake. As we were preparing to leave, the babies each got one last bottle and a fresh diaper and they slept all the way home while Nick and Amanda kicked back and watched "Look Who's Talking." I'm not sure who picked the DVDs that are currently in the van, but it certainly is an eclectic collection.