BIG CEDAR LODGE

if you have never been to big cedar lodge you MUST go! it is right outside of branson and we had a great trip there this weekend! this was the sorell family vacation, and was the first (of many to come!) where almost all of us were able to go. we sure did miss our sorell's who are in korea, and of course baseball playing ryan, but to get 16 of us together for a weekend was truly a success.

and boy did we have fun!
as we were making the 3.5 hour drive down there friday afternoon, i was already thinking the trip wasn't going to be long enough. but let me tell you, after packing in over 10 activities into two days, it was plenty!

we each had an amazing cabin to stay in, so we had space to spread out and not have to be all over each other from morning to night. this allowed the little kids to take naps when needed, and to share some large family meals together. colette really planned it all, and it was fun from the moment we got there.

friday night we cooked out and got to bed late. saturday morning we were up early, having a quick breakfast and heading out to the pontoon boat. everyone was able to be on the boat together, including james! we did some fun tubing off the back of the boat and got a lot of sun. some of the small kids went in for naps, while the rest of us swam in the lake and perfected our tubing skills. 'granny c', as colette calls herself, showed no granny signs at all, getting on the tube by herself, showing off and eventually being kindly thrown off! abbie and her cousing mia had a great time on the lake, and really wanted to tube by themselves. so uncle matt started with them and then slipped off. there is one photo of them giving each other a high five on the tube, since they were on it with no adult! there were some fun memeories made!

we went to dinner that night and then attempted to take a large family photo... in the 90+ heat. we did get a few good shots, and i'm thankful for everyone sticking it out in the heat to get the image.
later that night, james and i took our kids to the pool, where they were showing 'alvin and the chipmunks'. we floated around and watched the movie and then were exhausted and ready for bed.

on sunday we had breakfast together, went to a different pool with all the kids, and then sent abbie and mia off to kids camp for stable day. they did a variety of horse activities from 12-3 and had a great time. i got to go jet-skiing while they were there, which was another fun time. i got thrown off by daredevil matt, but it was a blast.
later that afternoon we had sno-cones at frosty's and then went to the fishing pond. abbie caught her hook in some bushes, so we gave that rod to asher and he was so happy just throwing the line in and reeling it back. i think he really thought he was fishing! it was so hot, which made it really hard to stick it out for too long, but we did get close to getting a fish... maybe next time.

we had a great italian dinner at our cabin that night with everyone and then put all the kiddos in bed. the ladies all tried to go to the pool for some late night relaxing, but because of lightening, we weren't able to do that for long. even the indoor pool was closed! it was a funny adventure to share with all the girls!

monday morning we had breakfast together at fiords cabin and after packing up went to the main lodge for an arts and crafts time. we did so much in such a short time, but really got to have a lot of fun and make a lot of memories. thank you so much, brian and colette for a great trip! enjoy a few photos from the adventures!