This post is going to be long - but something I want to remember and look back on FOR SURE. Just a heads up!
We booked a house in Clear Lake, IA for June 23-28. Emily told me that her sister took her family there last summer and it was awesome. So, I asked Elizabeth some questions about it and 2 weeks later had the very same house they stayed in booked for us to stay in. : ) We were wanting a different kind of vacation this year - and the looks/sounds of this place seemed to be 100% what we were looking for. We invited Ryan, Alisha, and their kiddos to come with us. We pay for the house - they just come have fun...and they accepted the invitation.
We spent the Monday before at home packing, packing, packing. Look at all this - you would think we were moving out! Haha. In my defense - we had to take our own towels and blankets...so it wasn't all MY stuff (this time)! ; )
We loaded mostly everything the night before we left and just added last minute stuff the next morning. I honestly still can't believe it all fit. We were loaded!
Bright and early at 7am we were out the door. We made a pit stop in Iowa City on our way there to get out and stretch our legs. We bought me a new pair of shoes (I purposely didn't pack any tennis shoes because I needed a new pair and this was the perfect time to do it). We also grabbed a new little cooler at Walmart and swapped our stuff out into it - leaving our old one in the Walmart parking lot. Haha. Your welcome to whatever homeless person found it. : )
Our pit stop aside - it was about a 4 hour drive. Really not bad AT ALL! When we first got to the town we were not impressed. It took us to the house in a way that didn't show the towns beauty. We got to the house and got in just fine and dandy. Once we looked around, we realized the set up wasn't at all what we were thinking it was and we had to do some rearranging to make it work for us - but it worked out just fine. We got that done right away so we could be nice and settled for the week. Next we went to the closest grocery store and bought some groceries. I didn't pack any food. I went with the attitude of not wanting to plan it or pack it - that we would just get it there. We wanted to be able to cook some meals (part of the perk of renting a HOUSE) to save some money. Anyone with little kids knows how much of a waste it can be to eat out. You literally leave money on the table every time because they usually barely touch their food. This would have been no big deal had we not went to a FAREWAY! Oh dear God...we didn't realize how expensive that place was! We spent WAY too much there. We came out and I said to Josh "can we do a restart?" Wasn't a great start to vaca...but, oh well.
We were feeling bad for having the boys in the car all day and THEN dragging them through a grocery store - so we decided to play a game with them and pay attention to just them for a bit when we got back to the house. Sorry is NOT a preschool game..and we so didn't play it the way that it is supposed to be played..but hey, we were working with the games they had in the closet there. It pleased the boys, so whatever works!
We ordered us a pizza instead of cooking the first night. The sauce on it was way sweeter than any other pizza sauce I had ever tasted. We had it delivered - because, ya know, that is a COOL thing to us small town people who don't have such luxuries!
I wanted some treats around all week - so my Chasey and I got busy making some rice krispie treats. I can't even tell you how special this little moment was right here. It was the sweetest ever. He was so happy (and so was I)!
Just for the record this 1 pan of rice krispie treats didn't even last 24 hours. Haha.
Our first night there was just us. I wanted to go up a day early to have a little "us time" and to get all settled in before having company with us. And I'm SO GLAD we did! I was overwhelmed/weird when we first got there. It takes me a bit to settle in somewhere new..but, once I did it was a nice cozy relaxing evening just us! Wouldn't have had those special moments if we hadn't. It was good for all of us.
Ryan and Alisha were to arrive early afternoon the next day. So in the morning we got dressed and took a walk around the town to check things out. This beach was about 3 blocks from the house we stayed in. Awesome! We came up with a couple more things we needed - so we looked up where another close store was because we didn't want to go to Fareway again. Come to find out - looking on a different app on our phones - there was a WALMART 5 minutes away! What?! Gah. We were annoyed. But, at least shopping trip #2 was more affordable. And, now we know for next time. ; )
Our company arrived safe and sound! We hung out at the house and let the kiddos play while they got their stuff unpacked and what not.
There was a little fish museum of the fish that are in Clear Lake. The museum was within walking distance - so we decided to take a little stroll there and check it out. Look at these good Daddy's! : )
Look, Mom! Fishy's!
It was a very small little place - but a nice start to vacation. Something to do and get the "party" started.
There was a nice patio with a grill and area for the kids to play in the back yard of the house. That is where we spent this evening. The guys broke out some coronas and we grilled brats and hot dogs and bacon wrapped asparagus, and had mac n cheese and baked beans. It was a charcoal grill so it forced us to slow down and enjoy the process of it all more. The perfect vacation grill actually. It kept smoking in Josh's eyes. Isn't he cute when he cries? Haha.
Find a seat anywhere!
Sand box next to the shed entertained all the kiddos the whole evening.
As we started gearing up for bed time I told Milo to go get his books and we would read. Him and I were reading away and next thing I knew Ms. Emi was over next to us too. Fun moment for me. : )
We stayed up and chit chatted a while - all of us. We thought we'd play games or have drinks...but in the real world of having little kids, that doesn't happen. We were all happy with how it went though. Here we are piled 7 deep on the couch. We didn't just do this for a picture...it was how we sat for a good while. Haha. We're cool like that.
I was the first one up every morning. I'd make coffee and get woke up in my own time. (I like it that way). My early bird woke up with me the 2nd morning so I got some awesome snugs.
He decided to fall back asleep in my arms. We had cots for the boys but when I went to lay Milo back down, Chase had snuggled up on the mattress next to Josh - so I just put Milo there too. Aren't they cute?!
After I put Milo back down I was texting Mom telling her I was waiting for everyone else to wake up. She said "start the bacon, that will wake them". So, I did. I started cooking bacon and slowly but surely everyone else started to rise. What a wonderful smell to wake up to! Haha. I made bacon, these breakfast sausages we got at Fareway, fried eggs, and pancakes (some with fresh blueberries). Mmmm, good!
The kids were hyper early because they knew we were taking the to the beach that day.
Splash pads at City Beach.
: )
It started off a little chilly but was nice and toasty in no time. That is how all our days there were. Started off fairly cool in the morning but was plenty hot by the afternoons and then cool again in the evenings. Honestly the PERFECT weather! Not a drop of rain either!
So this town has ice cream trucks that come around. Alisha and I got excited when we saw it. It plays the classic music and everything. So cool!
And of course we had to get some treats! : )
Haha Hayden is all about his food. This picture cracks me up! He is totally eyeballing Ryan's ice cream bar.
Watching Josh and Ryan play frisbee together for a while made my heart happy. Josh doesn't have many guy friends and those he does have he doesn't really hang out with. It was so good for him to have Ryan around. I loved getting to see him be a guy and enjoy himself. He deserves it!
So relaxing! The kids all thoroughly entertained themselves. They loved it!
Better bury Daddy's legs once before we go. ; )
We were there for about 4 hours and then we came back to the house to have lunch and get cleaned up. I made club sandwiches with pesto mayo. Josh and I are obsessed with them now and we wanted to make them for Ryan and Alisha. They were fans! We had 9 people to get through 1 shower...so that consumed most of our afternoon.
As soon as Josh and I got cleaned up and our kids bathed we took a little drive to give the boys a short nap. What is it about being in the sun all day and then getting cleaned up that just makes you feel GOOD? Ah, I did feel so good both mentally and physically! While we were driving we found an awesome little cove that was sooo dreamy looking. I wish I had gotten a picture of it. These houses could dock their boats right out in their front yards and then drive out into the lake under this little bridge. Very very pretty back there. Like nothing we'd ever seen before. We found a camp I think was probably for teenagers too. It looked like a ton of fun. The boys got a nice snooze and we got some nice peaceful us time. Perfect!
Thursday nights in Clear Lake they have "Thursdays on Main" and their whole town pretty much turns into a little fair. They shut down the road and there are little stands set up everywhere, a mini car show, food trucks, and activities in the park for kids. So cool! Felt very small town and super fun.
Chase found his dream car. ; ) He liked it because it was "all blacked out", of course.
Lining their streets were these flowers. How BEAUTIFUL are they?! It would take some serious maintenance to keep these looking this great..but they do a great job of it. Pretty pretty!
This train was operated by them pedaling it with their arms. Milo was having a hard time waking up after his nap and was a little out of it. Chase zoomed right along. Poor Emilee had to push Milo along because he wouldn't pedal his at all. Guess I should have had him sit in the front car!
We split up and got food at different places. I took the boys to the playground while Josh got ours. Most overwhelming part of the whole trip! I was trying to save a table right there for us to eat at AND keep track of the boys at the same time. Sounds simple, but when you're a paranoid Momma - it's stressful. I did purposely put them in bright yellow so I could spot them easily (I "color coded" them everyday and had them wearing the same color shirt so I knew what to look for quickly, Made life a lot easier, I must say!)..and that helped, but they got too far away from the table at one point so I had to get up and go get them...and then lost our spot for supper. Ugh. Oh well. They were having fun.
Diva!
I had a gyro. Never had one before. Yummy! The whole park smelled of "carni food" and we all know how good that smells!
Finally what they had been waiting for - the bouncy house.
Milo would get air coming down. I didn't know if he'd be able to get all the way up by himself - but evidently he didn't have any trouble. This got him awake! Haha. At one point Chase and Emi held hands at the top and came down together. My picture of it turned out blurry..but it was super cute! ; )
We played at the park a while as we waited for it to get dark so we could watch the movie in the park. They played the movie "Echo". Milo obviously didn't remember us doing this last summer because he got big eyes and excited when he saw it come on. : ) About 2/3 of the way through it Chase was wanting to fall asleep..and Milo was antsy - so we left early. The movie was awful so I didn't mind leaving AT ALL! Ryan and Alisha stayed. We had a big day and I was POOPED so we were all in bed and out by the time they got back.
Ryan made breakfast the next morning. We got ham, onion, green pepper and cheese omelets. They were delicious! Also - I have to say..I love my keurig for its convenience but I didn't realize how much I missed coffee by the pot. I thoroughly enjoyed our dunkin donuts coffee we had on vacation. I don't know how to explain it but it was more than just the flavor - it felt good too. Haha. I know I sound weird.
We didn't have any actual plans made for this day. There was a chance of rain so we didn't make any water plans. We ended up just being tourists for the day and had fun doing it! We took off on foot and didn't come back for hours. We found this huge chair and used it as the perfect photo prop. Some random guy who was turning the corner pulled up and got out of his car and insisted on taking a picture of all of us. It was awesome! And I couldn't believe the kids all even looked and everything! These awesome pictures seriously made my day. They just LOOK fun - and they were!! I think Nauvoo should get something like this as a photo prop/attraction for people up town that isn't temple focused.
We stopped and checked out the surf ballroom. There have been a ton of famous people play there. The ballroom and seating around it are still vintage - straight up from the 50's. I am actually glad Milo had to potty while we were there too because even their bathrooms were awesome. They had a powder room with huge mirrors and old fashioned lighting all around. Cool cool! It is still used today for a couple big shows a year. Would be fun to see a show there.
Historical place too. Last place Buddy Holly played before he died. Josh could name drop all day of the signed guitars, tickets, records..and all kinds of cool stuff that was on the walls. I am bad with names but there really are a TON of famous people who have performed there.
We walked on some more and found a park for the kids to play at. Wasn't hard..this town only had about a million of them..and they were all nice! Chase was pretty proud of himself for getting to the top of this. Quite the monkey he is!
We found a cookie store close by the park - so we stopped in and got us a snack. Such a "vacationy" thing to do - and I LOVED it! We walked the streets and went into some local shops.
We found one store that had a ton of random stuff in it. Leave it to my husband to find the most ridiculous thing there! Haha. We probably spent a good 45 minutes in this one store just walking around looking at random stuff. It was actually lots of fun. I was hoping I would find a Clear Lake t-shirt somewhere along the way that I liked, but I wasn't a huge fan of any of them. So, we didn't end up coming home with any actual souvenirs - but our awesome memories are enough. We had journeyed further than we thought - so our walk back to the house was a little longer than most of us liked, but we made it! We only had a single stroller with us - so little Chasey was on foot. Josh would give him a break occasionally and let him get on his shoulders - but he couldn't do it the whole way. I tried putting him on my back..but he didn't last long there. Him and I stayed towards the back on the last half of the walk. When we would fall behind I would grab his hand and say "lets skip!". He is really good at skipping, he likes doing it, and he covers some distance faster that way too. Made me feel warm and fuzzy. Love moments like that with my babe.
We just took it easy the rest of the day. Ryan bought stuff for bloody mary's - so we sat out back while the kids played and drank those. When Ryan came back from the store with only Clamato juice and vodka Josh and I were trying to figure out how we were going to dump it without him noticing because we thought it would be awful...but, to our surprise - they were AMAZING! We put pickles and lime wedges in it and topped it with some salt and pepper. Yummmm!!! I think I drank 4 or 5 of them. I was thoroughly relaxed. I kept saying how good it felt to be on vacation sitting down having a drink and not having anything to worry about. It was great! Life at home had been stressful before we left so leaving that behind and getting away from everything felt so good!
Josh and Ryan got their fishing poles ready for the next day while we sat out back too. After a couple hours of chillaxing, the guys took Chase and Zane with them and went to the local fishing store to get some bait and licenses. I texted Josh after they left and said once I got up and started doing something I realized I was a little tipsy. Haha.
Josh manned the grill for supper again. Ryan said since we had pesto he wanted to do some pesto chicken. So we marinated some breasts and thighs in pesto and then put them on the grill. They turned out amazing! Josh was pretty proud of himself. We have never done good at grilling chicken - so the fact that it turned out at all, let alone so GOOD was amazing!
We did oven potatoes, ceaser salad, and grilled corn on the cob too. Oh, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. We kind of divided groceries down the middle and just all put our ideas together and it worked. We had no trouble coming up with what to eat the whole time and it was ALL GOOD the whole time.
Chase likes to pick flowers and then "give them a drink" in the sink. He entertained himself with it for a good long time. To the point that I started to feel bad. I don't know why I am that way, but when my kids entertain themselves for SO LONG and are being good and quiet I somehow start to feel guilty or something. I don't know ...I don't know how to explain it. But, I do know that I'm fairly sure it is all in my head because they are usually being really good and using their imaginations to their fullest at those moments.
We had lots of plans for our final day there. Chase is NEVER the first kiddo up..but this day he was. And I so looooved getting his morning snuggles. Started my day of perfect! We did simple breakfast this day. Just fruit, cereal..whatever would fill the belly - because we had a 9am appointment to rent a boat. We packed our bags the night before so all we had to do was round up kids and pack coolers for the day.
We made our way to the boat rental location (on time I might add). This was my boys' first time on a boat and mine and Josh's first time in years. We realized right after we took off that we had to stop and lay down some ground rules with the kids. They didn't know - and it was our fault for not going over it before we left. But, after that it was all good.
The intent when we rented the boat was to do a little fishing. Myself NOT included. Haha. We stopped shortly after getting on the lake and got out the poles for a good little while. The kids lost interest quickly. (I figured this would happen but I let the guys dream and think it was going to be as relaxing as they dreamed). At one point a good song came on the radio so I cranked it up and then Ryan and Alisha were like "woah you're going to scare the fish away". They were dead serious. That was a moment that I wished it was just us...because WOW - who cares! I would rather enjoy a good song and the beauty around me. BUT, there were very few moments like that and mostly we were really glad to have some other adults along with us.
Anywho...after the kids got bored of fishing we let them each take a turn "driving" the boat. This was a HIT, of course! Mr. Big Stuff!
Milo giggled the whole time he got to drive. Haha - I love his smile! : )
We ended up just cruising around the lake and checking it all out the rest of the time we had the rental. I preferred that anyway personally. I got a good snuggle from each of my babes during the cruise. Thoroughly relaxed and enjoyed myself!
Cute right?? Those are Chases tootsies. He had to copy me. : ) Josh sat up front with me during this while Ryan drove all around the lake. I kept saying "this is seriously the life!". I was LOVING it! At first we weren't sure we were going to rent a boat or not because it was kind of expensive..but I am soooo glad we did. It was awesome to see the area from the lake. This was when I REALLY fell in love with Clear Lake. It tops Lake of the Ozarks in Josh and I's opinion...EASILY.
Boat ride put them right to sleep. I remember falling asleep on the boat a lot as a kid.
Right next door to where we rented the boat was a place called The Tiki Bar. They had outdoor seating and a little sandy beach. This is where we ate our 1 meal out as a group.
They had a bird that the kids were quite intrigued by. It talked but we couldn't ever get it to say anything. It's name was Boo.
Fun place. Loved the atmosphere. Really great with the kids too with it being outdoors. Just perfect! They grew their own tomatoes and their menu says if they are in season (which they were) and your order had tomatoes, that you would be served a home grown tomato. My sandwich had a tomato slice on it and I kid you not - that fresh tomato slice MADE that sandwich. Amazing!
We wanted to get the most out of our last day there - so we beached it up all afternoon. We tried out another beach this time. This was their State Park beach. When we first got there and saw how busy it was we were almost scared away...but once we got up to it we realized it was just fine. It is so big and spread out that it wasn't actually crowded at all.
Playing frisbee with Bubba was one of the highlights of the trip for me. It is important to me to be part of my boys' memories. Not just the Mom who takes care of them..I want them to remember DOING things with me too. It is hard to always make sure I do that when I get caught up in the every day busy chores...but I do TRY. That is more than some people can say..so I give myself a pat on the back for effort at least.
Look at this place! It was SOOO beatiful! My favorite about this picture is Emilee and Milo floating out together on the raft. : )
See how big it is?! There were boats outlining the shallow water. You could go out that far and only have water to your waist the whole way. It was AWESOME!!!! Such a worry free fun place to hang out. I could go back 5000 times. The campground is right next to the beach. (of course this is when Josh and I start day dreaming about getting a camper haha) There were people dragging their charcoal grills down beach side and cooking their supper. It was VERY cool. And alcohol is even allowed as long as it isn't in a glass bottle.
This guy right here made this all possible. How awesome is he?!
We are pretty confident that these guys had as much fun as we did. They had their hands a little more full with having a baby - but we hope they still enjoyed themselves.
Milo was playing so good to himself carrying tiny bucket after tiny bucket of water to the sand. : ) So precious to watch!
We spent ALL afternoon at the beach and none of us were sorry for it. It was a GREAT final outing for our vacation. I can't wait to go back!
I can't remember the name of this place - but we stopped at their local ice cream shop on the way back to the house. The building (as you can see) was literally an ice cream cone. Kids thought it was funny.
Emi and I got purple because purple is the bestest!
Josh laid down for just a second to "relax" and next thing he knew there were 2 little boys tackling him. Haha. I said "they so need that Josh" and he said "I know". : ) He's such a good Daddy!
We had our last sleep and wake up and then we were outta there...whether we were actually ready to leave or not. I can honestly say I could have stayed longer. I loved it there. But we loaded up, got the house put back together the way we found it, said our goodbyes to the Mason's, got some gas, and hit the road. It was about lunch time when we got out of there. Which worked out great, actually. We grabbed some food on our way out of town and ate in the car.
The boys ate and then did a little car activity I had put together to help entertain them. Chase got his all on. Milo focused so hard on it and did really good too. Simple but fun for them.
About 45 minutes into our drive they fell asleep. Not long after that so did I for a while. I woke back up because it was down pouring on us so loudly...but nothing severe - just rain. We both had to pee but we decided we would go as far as we could while the boys were still sleeping. Well, apparently vacation wore them the heck out because they slept the ENTIRE way home! I never dreamed we would drive straight through with 2 kids.
Josh and I are the same in that when we get home from going places - we right away unpack our bags and get everything back in its place so we can relax and have it feel like home again. Once we were all settled back in, I will say it was nice to be HOME.
This is a screen shot I took one morning when I was looking at the weather up there. I know I'm easily amazed - but I thought even the background for their towns weather on my app was really beautiful. One of our favorite parts about this place is that it is actually a pretty good sized place but it still has that small town feel. Who doesn't love that?! I am sure I'll think of more I wanted to say about vacation after this..but I suppose my post is long enough. Ya think? ; )
When we were sitting around after getting home I pointed out to Josh that WE just took OUR family on a REAL vacation. That is just unreal to me. It felt so good. We are really doing this. And I must say I think we are doing it well. I couldn't have had a better time and I don't regret the memories made at all. Happy family, happy life. I came home with a clear mind, a happy heart, beautiful memories, and a tan. : ) Life is GOOOOD!!!
Now we just have to convince everyone to move to Clear Lake...Haha.
