Cerneka Family Adventures: Happy Trails! Part One: Roughing It, Holiday Inn-style

Last week we finally got a chance to go camping as a family! We love to camp, and have been looking for an opportunity to go all year. We finally got it last week, as I was starting a nine-day stretch off from work and Shannon was mid-travels with Oddwalk. I came home from work Tuesday morning and let Shannon run into work for a few hours. The kids and I went shopping for our groceries, and washed clothes and got packes. The forecast said "cloudy, chance of rain on Tuesday, cooler and cloudy on Wednesday". So Shannon comes home, we pack up and head for Lake of the Ozarks State Park, about an hour away. I have been up for almost 24 hours at this point, and literally pass out as soon as we get on the highway. I don't fully regain consciousness until Eldon, about 45 minutes from our house. I notice it's starting to rain. That's fine, we can deal with a little rain. We stop at Target in Osage Beach for a couple things I forgot, and when I come out, it's pouring - I'm talking cats and dogs and other small animals. We discuss our options - setting up camping in the driving rain while trying to entertain/keep safe two small children, find a hotel for the night and camp tomorrow, or see if the state park has cabins available. I really really really wanted to camp somehow, so we decide to see if there are cabins. After wandering through the park for 15 minutes looking for a ranger or cabins or something, and it's still raining super-hard, and the road is really twisty, and I'm tired and half-sick from the loopy road, we decide to bag it for the night and find a hotel.

The first one we came to was a Holiday Inn Express, right across from the outlet mall and right next to Miner Mike's (which, unfortunately, is only open on weekends in the off-season). We got a really nice room at a decent rate. We ate dinner out and went back to the hotel to swim with the kids. We watched one of the last Cardinal games of the season and spent the night in nice, comfortable beds and had breakfast in the morning. I was disappointed not to camp, but the stay turned out to be relaxing and fun. After all, the point was to hang out as a family. Here are pictures from our hotel camp-out:

The very first thing Noah found to destroy was the box of tissues in the bathroom. I have absolutley no idea why Madeleine has tissue in her mouth.

Noah on Shannon's lap at Bandana's. He loves drinking straws. He toots on them like they're skinny, tiny horns.

Madeleine loves to "stuggle" (she has problems pronouncing "sn" together, and it comes out "st")

Splashing in the pool. It has taken Madeleine all of her three years on this earth to get used to and enjoy a big pool like this. I've taken her in before, and she was scared and clingy. Not this time!

Shannon starting to teach Madeleine to swim. Notice the bubble butt. I forgot to pack swim diapers, so we had to make do with regular Huggies. Wow, do they get puffy.