Lake of the Ozarks Cabin and Holiday Break

The day after Christmas Heath went back to work at her new job. I got up early and loaded up the van. The girls slept in, had breakfasts and then we took off. Neither kid had shoes that we really wanted to get muddy so we stopped by the DAV and picked up hiking shoes for all 3 of us. We just about drove straight through to the cabin but stopped once for a bathroom break. We had skipped lunch and were too early for check in so went right to Pappo’s Pizza for a drink and a pizza.

I let the kids get a cream soda and I tried a couple of their beers.

Everything was great. Then we headed to cabin 6. Pumpkin and I had been to cabin 3 before and they are all in the same area. It was fairly deserted when we showed up but I was surprised that several other folks came. We parked and right away got busy.

You can just barely see our cabin down the path and the lake beyond it. I pulled a cart full of gear and everyone grabbed an armload.

I think with the cart and not needing some of our stuff we made it in 2 trips. The cabin was great

TOUR VIDEO

We took a little time to string lights and extension cords and put all our stuff in it’s places and explore the area around.

It was really nice out but overcast so the girls gathered some firewood and stashed it under the deck. Then we got out some craft projects and got started.

The girls wanted to be in the cabin but I was not sure how much of the weekend we would be stuck inside so we took advantage of the light outside. We cooked an easy dinner and then headed inside for games.

It was still pretty nice out so before bed we decided to do a little night hike along the road. We went past a gate and explored a closed group camp and then made our way down to the water and followed the shore back. It ended up being a much more intense hike then I expected but everyone was very high spirited and I liked the idea of wearing them out good before bed.

The upstairs loft has two 3/4 beds so the girls stayed up there.

They each had plenty of room plus their own little storage drawer.

I turned the futon couch into a bed, stoked up the wood stove and read until I fell asleep. I guess it poured during the night. I heard it rain but it must have really poured. IT was also a bit cold. Bean was up moments after I was and has a hard time being quiet so we headed out on the deck to make dinner.

Coffee and Coco was the first priority then we started cranking out the pancakes.

We did surprisingly good considering I forgot oil or butter or anything to grease the pan with. The last of the batter we dripped into a L that once done we decided was a foot.

After breakfast it was still cool out so we each started a project at our table in the cabin.

We got a bit stir crazy but were not quite ready to make lunch.I had thawed some chicken legs and thighs so stuck them in the frying pan and stuck the pan on top of the coals in the wood stove and closed the door then we went off on a little hike.

We found a pretty good little loop but there was a lot of water on the trail from the rain. Once back at camp we cooked up some shells and cheese and added in a can of chili beans then pulled out the chicken.

It was all really good and we stuffed ourselves and still could not finish it all. We cleaned up, packed a bag and started off on our big hike to town.

Osage beach is about a 30 min drive but it’s only about a mile or so away. In the car you have to drive way up through the hills to the main road and then over and around the lake. Hiking to town is way shorter and pretty exciting.

We followed the lake for a lot so there was lots of little streams that we crossed that were feeding into the lake.

We stopped a few times for drinks and I would read The Neverending Story to the girls as they rested.

Eventually we cut behind a neighborhood to get to the main road.

It was just a couple blocks on the road to our destination.

Man it was good.

After our snacks were gone we headed back. A few raindrops fell on us so we set a pretty quick pace but still stopped for drinks and reading breaks. We were all getting worn out when we got back to our side of the lake.

So we started a fire and read the last chapter of the book in front of it.

The rain acted like it may pick up but it didn’t.

It did get windy and dark

We kinda messed up dinner trying to cook in the dark, moving coals from the fire pit to the grill and I thought I lost the cheese in the wind.

The kids didn’t seem to mind at all. We played a bit of Monopoly and got to bed a bit earlier. In the morning we tried to eat up any leftovers from other meals and get packed. Both girls slept in a bit better and I had time to get started packing before they got up. After breakfast everyone joined in helping.

We got the cabin all cleaned up and our stuff on the porch. Bean ran up to get a cart a few times but could never find one. Also it had been 60F the day before and now it was 25F so they were cold trips. Eventually we found 1 family had both carts just sitting with their stuff on them as they did other stuff. We carried up a load by hand and then found another group was done with their cart. I got the car and girls warming up and loaded the truck with the rest of the stuff and we got out before the cart hog.

We listened to Brains On (Kids Science Podcasts) on the drive back. and stopped for lunch in Sedalia at Kehde’s BBQ.

Heather and I had eaten hear on our bike trip and I knew I wanted to try everything. We sat in a traincar and Pumpkin ate a giant loaded BBQ baked potato that was as big as her head.

Then we headed home with our full bellies.