Weekend at Rend Lake

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were able to get away for the weekend. We stayed at the Rend Lake Resort in Southern IL. Scott's family met us there for a weekend filled with all kinds of food, fun and laughter.

We were so pleasantly surprised to find these cabins when we arrived:

We had adjoining cabins, which meant that once we opened up the inside door that separated them, we suddenly had two bedrooms, two baths, two kitchens (and I must use the term kitchen lightly), two living/dining room and two balconies. Talk about giving the kids room to run and spread out. The cabins had some pretty good distance between them, so this allowed us to not be so stressed out about all the running/yelling/screaming/crying/whining that kids who are 4 and 2 tend to do.

The kitchen consisted of a mini fridge and a tiny sink. The End! Luckily, my in-laws brought along a grill and a microwave, so all was well in the world. Trust me, we enjoyed some pretty divine meals.

There were more than enough fun activities to choose from in the resort. And these are some of the ones we decided to partake in:

We went hiking on one of their trails:

Yes, this would have been a much more pleasant experience had I not told the kids that we were going to explore and see what animals we could find. I was thinking birds, butterflies, squirrels, etc. Apparently Sam thought that there were all sort of wild animals lurking around the trails ready to pounce. So he pretty much spent the entire hike being held by Scott and telling us that he was scared of the animals. Way to go, Mommy!

We picked flowers:

Hmm,... in hindsight, I'm pretty sure this is exactly what they try to avoid with their huge "Take only pictures. Leave only footprints" quote poster at the beginning of the trail. Oops!

We rode our scooters:

And we rode bikes, and we played Frisbee, and we played with trucks and we did all of this in the cul-de-sac right in front of our cabin. Convenient? I think so!

We went to the playground. A LOT!

Luckily, it was so very close to our cabin and it did offer quite a few hours of entertainment.

We climbed trees:

For the very first time. With Daddy's help. He was so excited!

We went fishing:

We almost caught a big ol' whopper of a fish, but it got away. Maybe next time!

We went to the lake, twice:

And here I thought I was so very prepared since I called ahead of time to find out if their pool was open. Nope! Not until Memorial Day. So I came to the conclusion that there was no need for swimsuits. Once again,... I was wrong! Fortunately, that did not deter them from having a good ol' time.

So,... we played in the sand:

And we splashed all around:

And some of us even passed out from sheer exhaustion:

But all in all, I think it's safe to say we all felt happy. 

Really, really HAPPY:

And at the end of our very busy days, we were greeted by this:

I gotta tell you,... life was good!

The only thing we didn't get a chance to do was rent a pontoon boat. But we're not too worried,...I'm pretty sure this is one vacation spot we'll return to in the not too distant future. So we'll just have to save that for next time.