Girls night to cook......

And when it is the girls night to cook........

Yes, I know that I said the guys are normally the ones that do the cooking around the camp.  But today it was the girls turn to cook..... so we went to Pizza Hut!  Grin.  Gotta love that kind of cooking!

We actually had a different kind of day at the lake today.  It was cool (around 75 today) and cloudy here with a pretty good chance of rain.  So we all piled in the trucks and headed to the outlet mall in Branson today.  And when I say "we all", I mean all 13 of us!  We got to the mall and it looked like a covey of quail scattering as we went to the various stores.  :)  

After quality time there, we went on to the Coleman outlet store and then, of course, we HAD to stop at the Bass Pro Shop.  Let's just say that we all contributed to the Branson economy today.

Anyway, right now we are sitting around the campfire -- comparing ring tones on our phones.  :)  Amazing how time have changed.  

Did I mention the great food?!

I know that I've mentioned on previous lake visits how awesome the food is when we are camping..... But it bears repeating!  We started the day with bacon. eggs. and biscuits.  Oh yeah, and some fruit, just to balance out the healthy menu.  :)  The best part?  The guys are the chefs.  So we girls get to be the gofers and then, of course, the diners.  Not a bad trade-off, I think.

After that hearty breakfast, we finished setting up the campground.  I've learned with this group that there is a fair amount of outdoor decorating that goes on when camping during the holidays.  I'll try to remember to post some pics of our outdoor living area later this week.  

And then of course, we tooled around and floated in the lake.  It was nice.  And it was tiring.  Amazing how just floating around in the water can wear a person out.

This evening, it was dinner for 13 people on the grill.  We each created our own sausage and vege packets that the guys cooked on the grill -- they had to have 3 grills going to accomodate all of the food.  We even grilled corn on the cob.  Dang, it was good!

Ron O and Max manning the grills this evening.  There might have been some alcoholic beverages involved.....  Grin.

The next adventure.....

This is what adventure looks like to the Johnson girls.  :)  Notice Gabi in the background.....

Getting ready to go on vacation is just exhausting, even for retirees and their furry kids.

We picked up the fifth wheel on Wednesday and started the loading process.  That is a tiring process, even in the best of weather..... but the last couple of days have hovered just over 100 degrees.  And humid!  UGH.  Of course, all of that hot weather brewed up a pretty intense line of thunderstorms yesterday afternoon.  Now normally, storms don't bother me much, but when there is a very expensive truck and fifth wheel sitting in the driveway, I start to fret a bit.

So Max jockeyed the Terrain around in our two car garage, to move it to the side of the garage behind where the trailer is parked.  He moved it around INSIDE the garage, NOT by backing it into the driveway (as it was occupied!) and then pulling back in the other stall.  You would realize what a feat that was if you could see our garage.  It isn't one big opening, but two smaller openings.

Anyway, once he got the Terrain moved over, we were able to diagonally park the truck on the "small side" of the garage.  Whew!  Of course, we only got a little bit of the rain and no hail after all that, but better safe and dent free!  :)

So after a day and half of loading, we set the alarm at 5am to get started this morning.  Sheesh.  I'm here to tell you that retired people should NOT have to get up to a 5am alarm clock.  It is just wrong.  :)

We were hooked up and on the road by 6:30 this morning.... meeting up with our friends in Augusta for the drive.  So where are we headed?  To Table Rock Lake, of course!  Gotta get in some floating time over the next week or so.

So now you know why the girls are so worn out.......