June 4 - Returning Home from Vacation

The next morning, we collected everything, ate breakfast, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, collected all the laundry to the downstairs area .... packed the car, and were checked out by 9:30am.

We stopped and ate lunch about 2/3rds of the way home.   We hadn't planned ahead really well, so used the lids from the storage containers for our plates.

I'm sure Tim could tell you where we were.

We pulled back into home mid afternoon.  Unpacked, ate supper and most of us crashed early - happy for our own beds and peace and quiet of the road being half a mile away instead of right outside our windows.

June 3 - Our Family Vacation

Since none of us slept really well during the night ... new location and the traffic noise - it was a very busy street, and a lot of large trucks (the kind that pull trailers and boats) and delivery vehicles.  Anyway, we slept until 10am or something like that.

The kids played with the toys they brought - Joel enjoyed having enough space to put together his new Lego kits.

This is the unit we stayed in ....  http://www.vacationrentalsinc.net/property/733-2/


Around 2:30 - we spent an hour or so at the lake.  Those rocks went right down into the water and were not kind to feet.   But the water was nice.  And it wasn't crowded.

See how clear the water is?!

Later, Tim and the kids went for a walk down through trails.   I took a nap.   We cooked supper, watched reruns of some shows we use to watch when we had cable several years ago ... cooking shows and such ... washed laundry ... cleaned the house .... packed everything .... and went to bed.

June 2 - First Family Vacation since 1999

We haven't gone on a vacation AS A FAMILY  "define vacation as an outing that requires sleeping not at your own house" since around 1999 ... and I'm not really sure about 1999, it might have been 1998 when we went camping for two nights thanks to a dear friend who loaned us a tent and arranged it all for us.

But anyway ... Tim wanted to take me to Arkansas, because I have never been.  I've been to the state line, but never over it.  Go figure.   He found a lake district that rented town homes and houses kind of like time shares, so it was cheaper than a hotel, but a lot nicer.

He picked us out a two story house down in the woods backing a golf course, and gave them two alternate locations... BUT when we arrived, they gave us someplace totally different... 

and it turned out to be a townhouse on a very busy MAIN road - we were around 50 yards from the road and maybe 100 yards from the intersection at the top of a hill.

The noise wasn't too bad during the day, but once the AC turned off for the night ... the noise from the road and the traffic was enough to keep most of us awake most of the night.   There was no yard for the kids to play, and no park nearby.  So they kept running up and down the stairs and up and down the hallway.

On the other hand, the house was VERY nice.   This was the upstairs deck ... the patio with the grill was under it.

Dining room table - really tall with extra high chairs.

Amazing kitchen - we hated to leave it behind.

Really nice living room.

Tim loved the TV.  There were 3 smaller ones in the bedrooms.

Map of where we were.

The room Joel and LaRue shared.    (I totally missed a picture of the upstairs room that Kendra and Vannan shared).

They used the closet as a dressing room.

This was the room Tim and I stayed in ... downstairs with a bathroom.  King sized bed.

The room upstairs was nearly identical, except the bathroom didn't open into their room.