Zoo day!

When we went to the Omaha Zoo earlier this year, 

It was cheaper to buy a year pass to KC Zoo and get in to the Omaha Zoo

As a partner for free.

Weird right?

But now that we have a KC Zoo pass, 

Feels like we should put it to some use!

And ALL SIX of us could go today!

We checked out the aquarium

(Although we all agreed Springfield’s was better)

But it was pretty cool to get up close and personal with the elephants

And gorillas

And tortoises 

And ESPECIALLY the stingrays!

But the real highlight of the day?

Tucker got to try Dippin’ Dots for the first time.

Of course food is the big attraction…

 

Vacation harvest!

We leave town for a week,

And look what we come back to:

BLT’s and caprese, here we come!

 

Making the most of the week

With only.a few days left,

We were determined spend them well!

We headed up to clearer water near Barry Bend

And got in a lot of waverunning—

Even Dad! 

We got in more fishing

And had some luck!

Lots of surfing

Even Mom finally got up!

Tucker was the first Reed brother

To try out wakeboarding!

He looks pretty good for his first time!

Before we knew it,

Mema and Pappo were back down!

We took the SUP out and about—

Mema paddled by 3 boys!

She didn’t need them—

Mema is a paddling expert

Klusmeyers were back too—

And so was the Elevator Game

Up

And down

Beckett was kind enough to take Cooper on a waverunner ride

And then, of course, Thea needed one too

It’s been a great week—

This picture about sums it up:

Waverunner, water sports, fishing…

It’s been a well spent week!

A lake worth the drive

The Council of Coffeewalkers was out again this morning, 

Checking out the wildlife and making decision.

We’ve seen so many owls this week—

And Beckett spotted one on our walk this morning!

Decision today?

Try out a new lake—

Let’s go to Stockton!

It’s about an hour drive from the cabin

But wow, is it pretty.  

Might be worth the drive!

Look at how clear the water is:

Hard to see in the pictures,

But we can easily see over 6 feet down!

Smile everyone!

We had some luck with fishing

And some great water for sports

Beck made long-rope surfing look easy

And look who else got up????

YES, TUCKER!!!

We swam in a couple different places,

Including here—

It’s over 100 feet deep!!!

To finish the day,

We headed to a marina for a drink and a snack…

But apparently, they don’t stay open late on random weekdays.

Boo.

Next time!

Thanks, Stockton!

We’ll be back!

Worth the hype

We go for coffee walks nearly every morning at the cabin—

It’s a pretty great way to start the day

Ranger is a big fan too

On our walks,

The Council of the Coffeewalkers talks about a lot of stuff

And often makes some family decisions.

Today, we decided we should take a break from the heat

(It’s been nearly 100 degrees all week!)

And head to Springfield.

Grandma Phyllis gave us money to go to the 

Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium

And today we’re going to do just that!

There was a LOT of taxidermy 

A few lives animals like beaver, crocs, bats…

And more taxidermy

There was a lot to see.

The aquarium was really cool too.

The fish were awesome—

There were some REALLY big ones

They had some pretty cool tanks too

Tucker enjoyed his Happy Hour drink in one

It was much larger than we expected

We wandered for nearly 4 hours!

Seeing all those fish made us thirsty for some tackle shopping.

It was like Christmas!

Thanks, Grandma!  That was great!

We finished our trip with dinner at Black Sheep

For burgers and shakes.

You haven’t been there?

You HAVE to try it!

It was too cheesy to pay $10

But too good not to share the screen shot:

Wow.  Just wow.

Lots of memories on that trip!

A whole WEEK at the lake!

We have time to squeeze in one more vacation this summer.

What better place to just relax than at the lake?

We kicked it off by staying until sunset with Klusmeyers

So we could get a cove sunset like this:

The next day was filled with more floating

Including Ranger in his happy place

We found some fireworks that needed to be used too!

Day 3 brought a trip to the Cheese Factory

And an obligatory boys picture:

Oh, how times change!

And then we were back on the water for a day full of water sports.

There was a lot of kneeboarding:

Mom

Tuck

And Beck

Jack continues to make surfing look easy—

It was so “easy” for him, he started riding the wake

Back and forth behind the boat.

Show off.

Weston got up this time!

And both Dad

And Beck

Managed to surf for quite a while without the rope

There was some fishing 

And of course, some floating

What do you think, Tucker?

All this time on the lake is awesome

And so is all the family time!