Just what we needed…..

We started off this break (from school and work) with a trip to Montelle Winery with some great friends. Minus the kids. I was pretty excited about this!

I don’t know what was said here, but it was pretty funny, for sure. This was after the winery, and you can see that Shea was ready to have his Mommy back.

Do we look like we’re enjoying being kidless for the afternoon?

We also went to the Magic House, here in St. Louis. Check out Shea’s hair!

After all this fun, it was off to the yurt in Lake of the Ozarks! We went without the phone and internet for 4 days and it was awesome. I’ve always known that these things are a distraction, but you don’t fully realize how much time is spent wasted on these things until you don’t have them.

A bathroom with shower, kitchen sink, microwave, mini-fridge,and grill. This little yurt had all we needed.

 

We are big proponents of yurts now. You feel at one with nature, with all the comforts of home. Camping is just such a hassle, in my opinion. At night, it’s awesome because you can hear all of the sounds outside, just as if you are in a tent. And, my favorite thing about the yurt was the tall, dome shaped ceiling. I have a thing for tall ceilings.

So, while on this trip to Lake of the Ozarks we hiked, swam, fished, hung out by the campfire, and just enjoyed the nature around us. We saw an owl, deer, huge fish (carp), turtle, a dead skunk on the road, as well as an armadillo (also dead on the road). I took so many pictures and I want to post them, but for some reason I’m having trouble. I think it’s because I post too many pics on here. The computer told me I had exceeded my bandwidth, whatever that means. Jared knows and was shocked when I told him what it was saying. I’m a picture person, what can I say?! So, it looks like I need to add a flicker link on my blog so that I can put all my pics there for all of you fellow picture people to see.

Okay, I’m really ticked now. I am very hard-headed and just spent the past 45 minutes posting pics in this area right here and writing captions. And, guess what, GONE! Don’t know what happened, but I really do give up now. I’ll try again later. Be looking for an album on here soon!

 

So, we had a great trip to the yurt and then we returned home just in time for a visit from my parents. We had so much fun with them, although I think we probably wore them out! We enjoyed some time with them on Saturday by ourselves at a winery (yes, we spent 2 Saturdays in a row at a winery….please don’t worry!) and then out to eat. A friend came to babysit, and that was wonderful! Then, on Sunday, we took them to church with us and we were so happy for them to meet our new church family and hear an awesome sermon delivered by our pastor and friend, Sean. After church, we headed over to Grant’s Farm and had a great time visiting all of the animals. (the guys liked the free beer, too!) Anheuser Busch offers some great attractions to folks here in St. Louis! On Monday, we spent the day at Missouri Botanical Gardens and it was beautiful. My favorite was the fountain area where the floating glass by Chihuly is displayed.

Okay, I’m done now! Enjoy!