If You Give A Boy A Fishing Pole…

He’ll probably want to fish with it!

When we told the boys that we would be staying at a lake and there would be fishing poles they could use, the excitement level was through the roof. All they could talk about for the next two weeks was how they would get to fish on vacation. (We hadn’t told them about Silver Dollar City – that was the “super fun surprise”.)

The first thing the boys asked to do when we arrived at the condo we were staying at was to go down to the lake and go fishing. We managed to hold them off until early the next morning.

This might be my favorite picture from the whole vacation!

Tyler, waiting for a nibble.

Chase, waiting for a nibble.

We did a lot of waiting for nibbles, but nothing was interested in our worms. We saw some fish jumping to get bugs probably 20 feet away from the dock though!

I was pretty excited to teach the boys how to fish, which surprised Nick. Apparently I’d never told him the story of how I won my division in a kids fishing derby when I was 13 or 14. This girl isn’t scared to tear a worm in half and jab it on a hook! While we only lasted down at the dock for probably 30 minutes before 2 out of 3 boys were bored and hot, it was a great time. The boys kept asking to go back down, but we just ran out of time. I’m thinking I need to find some kid poles and a place to fish here in KC so they can  try to actually catch something. (They have bamboo poles at a kids farmstead nearby, and the boys would catch something but they don’t seem impressed there – they want the real deal!)

(Random thought – fishing with the boys brought back great memories of fishing with my family when I was a kid. When I was young, it never occurred to me how much time and thought my parents put into what seemed like a random trip to the lake or ocean to fish. Thanks, Mom and Dad! I now know how much effort you put into making those fun times happen, and I love the memories I have from those trips!)

I do have to tell you about the place we stayed. After our family trip to Omaha last summer, and the experience of sharing a room with two full-size beds we decided the only way for this family to travel now is in a suite of some sort. A two bedroom condo works too though!

Any place that means Nick and I don’t have to share beds with kicking, rolling boys is a good place. The condo we stayed in had a fun fishing/bear/moose theme going on, which the boys got a kick out of!

Too bad it was too hot to have a fire in the fire place!

I mentioned on Monday that we got a sweet deal on our condo and tickets to Silver Dollar City, and here’s what the deal was and how I got it. Including the taxes, we paid about $480 for our two bed room condo on Table Rock Lake and our 2 day passes to Silver Dollar City. Not bad! I booked the deal through this site. There were tons of lodging options and if you wanted to do other things in Branson you could add that to your package too. Plus, as Nick noted on our way home, it was kind of nice to pay for our vacation a month before we took it – made it feel like we weren’t hemorrhaging money quite as badly.

The place we stayed on Table Rock Lake is called The Village at Indian Point. We were minutes from Silver Dollar City, which was nice. The resort had a couple of really great pools (one inside and one outside), including a zero entry section for small children. I already mentioned the fishing poles they give to kids for free, and look at this view from the pool area!

Total side note here, Nick and I could not get over how hilly the Branson area is! The lake really was not as far away from our condo as this picture makes it look – a very steep drive (or walk, if you’re brave) down a hill and you were at the dock.

Looking at these pictures makes me want to go back. Today! I think Branson will become a family favorite spot for vacations for us.

Branson, Silver Dollar City and The Village at Indian Point don’t know who I am, although they may remember “the triplets” they saw. All of these opinions are mine, and mine alone and I have not been compensated in any way for them.