Ozarks Family Reunion

We went to the Ozarks for a family reunion last week. It's about a 9 hour drive, so we decided to go down in 2 days. The reunion started on Wednesday so we drove to Springfield on Tuesday. We took the boys to the zoo...it was a little smaller than we expected but it was nice not having to fight the crowds or pay for parking! Isaac enjoyed seeing all the animals and being able to run around. It was interesting staying in one hotel room with all 4 of us. Dan and I ended up going to bed at 8:15 with the boys since there really wasn't anywhere else for us to go! Overall, the boys did well there. We got down to the Ozarks on Wednesday. Isaac was thrilled to see all the water and rocks. That is definitely one of his favorite things to do...throw rocks in the water. We shared a unit with my brother John and his family. It was a little snug in there with all the kiddos stuff, but it was worth it. Once the boys went down to bed at night, we stayed up and played Pinocchle. The first night we were there, we had mac & cheese and pbj sandwiches...we ended up running out of time and made do with what we had brought. I must admit, it was pretty tasty :) Later that night, the weather was bad and the sirens were going off. There was a tornado warning for our area so we had to go to a unit that was underground. Unfortunately, we had just put Levi and Jay to bed, so we had to wake them up and go out in the rain. We had a nice time seeing everyone and catching up with family. The last night we were there, we went to Mom and Dad's lakehouse for a cookout. It was delicious and fun hanging out at their place. We drove back on Saturday in one shot. I was dreading the 9 hour drive, but the boys actually did pretty well. Since we had kept the boys up late the night before, Levi actually slept most of the way. Isaac was content watching his DVDs!