Four-tunate Mom: Houseboat trip 2012

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

Where do I start?!? My dream vacation... come true! I knew when I walked off the Dale Hollow houseboat... May of 2004 I believe, that it would be a LONG time before I'd ever step foot on one again. But I knew, or wanted to believe, that I would again someday... and my someday finally came true!! Not at Dale Hollow... but at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri surrounded by wonderful friends in honor & celebration of Chris & I's 10th wedding anniversary :D

We met at the Short's farm around 9pm and took off at 10... and our fearless leaders & drivers, drove us through the night. And what a perfect idea it turned out to be!! We were on the water, and driving the houseboat by ourselves by 9am :D We were pretty impressed with ourselves.

Dawn & Maggie on the couch before we left the dock...

getting the down-lo from the dock staff

Vacation!!! :D

Andrea working ... we tried to keep that at a minimum :)

See ya later!!! And we're off!

And so was the Mariah :)

I love this pic... looks like Chris is trying to figure out where to go. In all honesty I think he's trying to figure out the radio/how to play our Ipods. Which was fascinating to me!!! My first houseboat trips I remember playing a "Little Feat" cassette tape! In college I remember playing CD's... now, they're all equipped to belt out whatever is on your Ipod, on all speakers all over the boat!

"Who wants a ride?!"

It took us 3-hours to drive from our home dock to the 'state park' where they advised us to park the houseboat. Which I'm really glad they did, I'm not sure where else there was to go!

This lake was LINED with million-dollar houses, mansions, boats... it was amazing.

Chris took this pic of a skid-loader on a boat :)

We made it! Also different... we tied to trees, but there was shallow beaches to pull the houseboat up onto, so we were not suspended in a cove like I remember at Dale Hollow.

And in no-time-flat... we were sliding down the slide!!!

It was contagious & fun... and the song, "Pontoon" by Little Big Town describes it perfectly. "Jumpin' off the back, don't act like you don't want too... party in slow motion, mmmm... motor-boatin'"

Ahhh...I had to pinch myself and tell myself not to cry. It was everything I ever wanted it to be plus more.

They gave us the captain hat ;)

And here we are... this was our life. Floating, talking, relaxing... it was AMAZING. Let's count to see how many times I write that ;)

Notice Kelly not in the water?? That changed in a hurry!

Going out for a 'dual'

I have no doubt, and Chris confirmed, that he never quit talking smack to Ryan :)

And as you can see from their grins... they had a fabulous time :)

Chris had the advantage with the bigger tube, so they finally switched :)

Home sweet home :)

Our first night gourmet meal? Fred's famous jambalaya!

It was SO good...

Our first sunset... I didn't want it to end. Even though we had 3 more days... I didn't want any of them to come to an end...

And so.... we got back in the water :)

And stayed there until dark!!! The water felt like bath water is was so warm...

Here it is! THE picture that shows when Ryan lost his glasses... :) he got so excited about going down on the tube, he forgot to take them off! Lucky for him, he had another pair. By the end of the weekend, Chris was convinced if he had a pair of goggles, he could have found them. It was about 10-ft deep right here.