Family Get Away

For the last part of Erin's week off, we decided to get away and enjoy some time with our kiddos.  It was nothing crazy but just swimming in the hotel pool was exciting to them.  Our kids are big animal lovers so we headed to Omaha to check out the zoo.  We had been years ago when Luke was just a baby and enjoyed it, but watching the kids excitement made it a great trip.  It was a full day of animals and walking and the kids were troopers.  We saw it all!  It was a wonderful getaway for just a few days.

Luke's favorite animal, the lemurs

Lexi didn't know which monkey to look at

My Boys

Look at these monkeys!!

The girls crashed for a bit

Our Family

Hanging in the hotel

Beaver Lake Vacation

We were lucky enough to be invited for a little get away to Beaver Lake this summer.  We got to spend some time with great friends just hanging out and enjoying the water.    We shared many laughs and made great memories.

We started out the trip with doing a little camp out.  Although I was very nervous about this, the weather forecast was questionable and sleeping in a tent, it went great.

Excited faces for vacation

We then headed on to the lake for a couple days.  The kids loved getting to swim and go out on the boat, even all smiles on the tube.

This little lady loved the boat rides

The end of the trip was a little bitter sweet for us though.  Although we were all sad to have to leave the lake life, we were excited to get back to this sweet face.  We all missed her a lot, but know she enjoyed the attention she got from Grandpa and Grandma Beck :)

Branson Vacation

For the past two years since moving here I have heard from multiple people about their weekend getaways in Branson.  Its close, but can still feel like a vacation.  We hadn't had a chance to travel much so we were excited to go.  Erin wrapped up summer football on Friday so we headed out to meet my family for a mini vacation.

Everyone was able to be there for the weekend so we decided to try out Silver Dollar City for the first time.  The kids were all excited about the roller coasters and rides and the adults had some fun as well.  I was surprised how kid friendly it was.  There wasn't just the one token kid section that they had to stay in.  The older boys were able to ride a lot and then Lawson and Reese were able to do quite a bit as well.  Then there were the adult roller coasters which from what I hear were really good.

We got this 3 kid thing under control.

Love this picture :)

It was HOT!!!

We did a lot of swimming at the hotel and even just hanging out.  Sunday we were crazy and thought mini golf would be a good idea.  Lets just say we survived.  It was again HOT.  Not big break downs from the little ones or the big ones so its a success.  Luke and I both got a hole in one.  Erin got three, show off.  Atleast I know all that golfing this summer has paid off :)

Cade loves to hold Laney and always tells me how cute she is.  What a sweety :)

Erin drew the short straw and got to hang out with kids while some of us were playing cards. 

Monday we did the touristy thing and Rode the Ducks.  I had no idea what this was, but multiple people asked me if we were going to do it.  Our tour guy did a good job and made it enjoyable.  Not sure I will ever do it again, but glad to say we have done it.

Luke got to drive and was pretty excited about it.

Too much excitement for him to handle I guess.

Tuesday morning it was just down to my parents and our crew so we got out on the lake and had some water fun.  We did some tubing, swimming, fishing, and even cliff jumping.  Luke and Lawson were all about cliff jumping and to my surprise both did it without any hesitation.  It wasn't crazy high, but for two kids that haven't been off a diving board this summer I wasn't sure.  They loved it and would have done it for hours.

Lawson pretty content with just snacking all morning.

Giving us the thumbs up before they jump.

We had to stop for lunch at Lamberts on our way back.  I remember eating here with my grandparents when I was younger.  It made me so nervous when they throw the rolls at you then, still makes me nervous as an adult as well.  Everyone enjoyed it though and was a great end to the vacation.