Last week we went to Lesterville, MO (2 hours south of St. Louis) for our summer vacation. I had never really been to this part of the state before and it was very pretty and there was tons to do. We chose Wilderness Lodge instead of Colorado because it is 6 hours away instead of 12. We stayed at a 100-year old resort, called Wilderness Lodge, on the Black River. It was an old-fashioned vacation… we stayed in a rustic cabin, the boys fished, Nathan and Jack floated, ate lots of good food, took some hikes, played at the river, had a campfire and chased fireflies. It ended up being a great vacation, but poor Jack had some trouble on the way there. The drive was on very hilly and windy roads. We confirmed our suspicion that Jack does, in fact, get carsick after he puked a second time. He was pretty miserable the last hour of the drive. He didn’t really want his picture taken.
When we arrived at Wilderness Lodge I had my typical first few hours of freaking out that our lodgings were not adequate and we needed to cut the trip short. According to Nathan, I do this on every vacation. My hesitations continued until we had supper the first night. After tasting the delicious food, I decided we were going to be just fine. We knew breakfast and dinners were included and had read tons of great reviews about the food. Sure enough, Trip Advisor was right. Each night we had a wonderful three-course meal and each morning they served a different hot breakfast item, along with cereal and fresh fruit. Jack’s favorite thing of the whole trip was getting to eat Apple Jacks every morning (sometimes two boxes). The staff was very friendly and we got to know the owner, Tom, pretty well. We arrived on Wednesday, so for the first two nights they didn’t have that many guests. That gave us a chance to get to know the staff before the weekend crowd arrived. Henry and Jack were constantly asking where Tom was. Along with Tom, another constant topic of conversation at dinner was deer and why there were deer heads hanging on the walls.
On our first full day Jack and Nathan went on a three-mile float trip, while Henry and I stayed and played at the river and Henry took a nap. They had a great time in the canoe and both fished a lot. That night after supper the staff made a campfire and brought out s’mores stuff. The second day I realized I need to start taking pictures… That morning, we went to a nearby state park called Johnson’s Shut Ins. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a really fun place with lots of rocks and boulders in the river. You’re basically hiking and climbing huge rocks in a river. While it was fun, it will be a lot more fun when the boys are bigger and it’s not so hard for them to navigate without the chance of getting hurt.
They were both exhausted after our picnic lunch and promptly took naps and did not want to be woken up at all.
They perked up when we went down to the river and fished. Henry caught his first fish!
Jack also caught a fish.
And I made Henry take a picture with me.
On our last full day we went to another state park called Elephant Rocks and did some more hiking and exploring seeing some huge granite boulders.
After nap we checked out the tree house and zip line that was above the putt-putt golf course. The tree house was huge and the zip line was fun. Jack was a little too short to do it, and a lot too scared! Nathan and I did it though. Although there may have been some yelling and screaming involved during my turn; things like, “Nathan stop me. Don’t let me run into the tree.”
Then we went to the river again to swim; no fishing this time. They loved playing and splashing, throwing rocks and shooting their water guns. The water was shallow and pretty cold so they didn’t really swim.
We had a great time and it was nice to get away and relax and have fun. Jack says he wants to go back so he can eat Apple Jacks and Henry wants to go back so he can see Tom. He cried when we had to leave.
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