Five F's...Fort Osage, Flooding, Fish, Four Wheeling, Fourth of July

Let's talk about the five F's of our Missouri trip...

First, Fort Osage...

We went to Fort Osage the first few days we were there and it was really neat! Carey, his mom, Brenton and Bailey and I spent a few hours there and it was definitely worth it!

The outside of the Fort...
The view from the inside...

The kitchen...

The crew in the Fort and in front of the Missouri River...
Carey and me!!!! (you might see this pose alot...we are pretty good at taking pics of ourselves!)

Okay, so now we are on the the 2nd F, Flooding...

Apparently it was flooding horrifically back in Oklahoma but it also was flooding in Missouri and Kansas. Some town in Kansas got 21 inches of rain in 3 days! How insane is that? Back to Missouri, the spillway in Lake Jacomo was like a huge waterfall, so we loaded everyone up and took a little road trip to see what it looked like! (By this time, my family from OK had driven up to Missouri...my parents Rick and Jodie, Shane my brother and niece Jessica and two nephews Hunter and Mikey)

All six kids who were staying at Carey's brother and sister-in-law's house all weekend... Jessica, Caleb, Mikey, Bailey, Brenton and Hunter. They got to sleep in a tent inside! Boy was that a treat for them!

Mikey was a little cold...

Carey looking at the water and Bailey, Carla and Jessica walking up the slippery walk...yes, we had a few tumbles on the slope and even a piece of glass in my dad's foot!

Here are the kids being silly at the spillway at Blue Springs Lake...


On to the third F, Fish...

Blue Springs Lake has the wackiest fish I have ever seen! It is a bunch of humongous carp who literally crawl on top of each other to get to the fish food that you drop in at the dock! They will follow you from section to section once you have fed them with their huge mouths open wide...I bet there are thousands of them!

Here is a pic of them on top of each other...

Mom, Dad and Jess feeding the fish...

Dad, Mikey, Hunter and Shane's turn...

Shane and Carey making a game or competition out of it...

Carey and I feeding the mumbo jumbo fish...

Jess and Hunter "petting" the fish...
Shane wanting to get a "pet" in too...

Shane and I feeding these crazy things...
Awww...he can be so sweet...

Fourth F, Four Wheeling...

Everyone took MANY turns on the four wheeler! Carey or Shane was the chauffeur and hauled kids and adults alike through trails on Bryan's land and into the mud pit!

This is Bryan and Carla's beautiful house...well the back of it, front of it and then side view
Mom even got into four wheeling!!!

Go Daddy Go...
Carey and Mikey...

Carey and Hunter...He NEVER wanted to get off and always wanted "one more ride"

Shane and Mikey...
Carey and Jessica and she wanted to go fast...

Fifth and final F, Fourth of July...

We decided to have the Fourth of July with both of our families up in Missouri. My parents, brother and kids came up from OK, Carey's Aunt Jean and two cousins Kim and Caleb came up from TX, Carla's family (who lives in Missouri) and of course Carey's mom Linda, brother Bryan, sister-in-law Carla and their kids...that was the crew for our 4th of July festivities! Thank you to Bryan, Carla and Linda for putting up with all of us!

We had such an incredible time!

The whole crew loaded up in the car on Saturday and headed to buy fireworks. I don't know how it is where you live but in Lawton, you go to a wooden little stand (which never made sense to me considering it would all go up in one huge ball of fire if a flame got near it) and you buy a few bags of fireworks. Well, it is a different story in Grain Valley...we went to a warehouse!!! It had aisles and aisles of all sorts of fireworks...the aisles were even named according to what the fireworks did! There were tv's on the walls with videos of the big fireworks and fountains going off. It was crazy but I was loving every minute of it!!! (If you didn't know, this is my second favorite holiday!!!!) I was in hog heaven... speaking of hog...

Bryan bought a real pig for us to eat with an apple in it's mouth and everything!

At first, there were a few of us that were a tad leery about getting very close to it but in the end, we got a little TOO close!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom...

Dad...

Bryan...

Jean...

Linda...

Me...

Carey...
Larry (Carla's Dad)...

Brenton...Caleb...Bailey...The brothers...Hunter...

Mikey...he wanted no part of that pig! He thought it was a dead dog and he was going to have to eat it!!! Poor kid! He might become a vegetarian after that! Shane... Kim...

The girls...Carla, Me, Momma L, Momma, Aunt Jean and Sue (Carla's mom)

Throughout the day, the kids did all sorts of things to bypass the time until the big fireworks that night!

Here is Brenton and Hunter playing catch...

Shane, Hunter and Mikey fixing to get in on a baseball game with the other kids...

The kids playing baseball with water balloons...

Setting off daytime fireworks...

Catching parachutes...
Can you see it Mikey?

Jess, Bailey and me doing "worms"...

Brenton and Caleb having tank wars...

And then we had the best firework show around! Carey, Bryan, Shane and Dad went out to the edge of the yard and put on the best display! We oohed and awed until we couldn't ooh and aah anymore! There were all colors of the BIG fireworks and lots of loud explosions too!!!

What a beautiful way to end our vacation....

God Bless You! Happy 4th of July!