Lake Vacation (Saving Time and Money, Too)

When on a family vacation, I just can't see wasting a

huge portion of our short R&R time at restaurants.
(If it were just the dh and I we would probably just dine out, but several days
of that with 7 people really adds up--time and money!)

So I like to book a place that has a kitchen, make all of
our food ahead of time, and then sit back and enjoy!
I'll share a little more of the food part tomorrow.

We really loved this house, rented through VRBO.
So much better than a hotel!

It can be a real struggle to get a vacation worked out
with everyone's schedules, esp the more our family grows, 
which explains why we rarely do family vacations!
so we settled on just four days at Table Rock Lake.
About 5 hours from home, along the Missouri/Arkansas border

With all the prep work, vacations are rarely ever
an actual vacation for Mom.
Especially when I was also gardening and canning,
and still making regular meals.  I spent a LOT
of time in the kitchen the last couple weeks!

View from one of the decks--the lake through the trees

But a little sleeping in and great views,

boating and tubing,

fishing,

cliff diving and swimming,

game playing and just hanging out,

make it all worth it.

Oh, and, on the drive, I even finished sewing the

binding on the last 4 of 14 hot pads that I made 

last fall while my kitchen was being redone!

I made them all out of just scraps but the ones we've been using are holding

up beautifully--far better than any purchased ones!  It kinda motivates me

to me to do a little more sewing for the home!

Now that I have my every-day ones made, I can put
away the holiday ones I've been using since last fall...
except that it's about time to get those fall ones out.
Fall.
Coming back from summer vacation means
we can start bringing out some fall decor, right?