Hellobee

I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and I remember spending nearly every summer of my childhood at the Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri. My grandparents have a lake house there and my extended family loves to gather there on summer weekends and spend time together. I really can’t think of my childhood summers without thinking of the lake and our family lake house. So naturally I was very excited to take the girls down there for their first trip over the Fourth of July weekend!

The girls just turned one and they really had a great time, as did Mr. Starfish and I. We were worried about a couple of things before heading down there, the first being the long drive. From Chicago, the drive is about 7.5 – 8 hours depending on traffic and stops. We decided to tackle this by loading up the car right after dinnertime and right before bedtime in the hopes that the girls would sleep mostly uninterrupted as it was their usual sleep time. In the end, this worked out pretty well but definitely not perfectly. The last time we did this type of drive it was Christmas and so it was dark outside then when we left in the car; in late June/early July it stayed light out until about 8:30 and this kept the girls up later than we had hoped. Still, we have a couple of more long car trips planned this summer and we expect to repeat this strategy going forward.

The other thing we were worried about was how the girls would handle being out of their comfort zone. In particular, Lilly was going through some intense stranger anxiety a couple of weeks ago and we weren’t sure how she would respond. We tackled this problem by warning all of our family members to avoid approaching Lilly loudly and/or abruptly. In fact, we have found that the best way to approach her at this time is to have the new visitor play with her sister Audrey until Lilly gets a little jealous and wants to join in. We also were extremely careful to keep both of the girls’ routines as consistent as possible as we believe this helps Lilly’s anxiety – their bedtimes/wake-ups, nap schedules, and feeding schedules were kept exactly the same, right down to the bedtime books that we read each night and the cups and highchairs that they drank and ate from.

The Lake of the Ozarks’ main draw is of course the water, and the girls really loved it. We usually have our weekly swim class lesson on Saturday mornings and I think we somehow timed it such that their first splash into the lake was at our weekly swim class time. I learned a few things after that first lake session with them. First, SPF-rated rash guards and hats are awesome so that you can minimize the surface area on your squirmy toddler that you need to hit with sunblock! And second, even though each girl had her own life-vest, it was great to also have an inflatable raft for each of them that held them in by their legs to further reduce worry in the water and encourage a bit more independence.

Family lake swimming!

While we spent most of our water time with the girls at our family’s lake house and splashing around at our family swim dock, if you are making a trip with older children you may want to consider “coving”. There are several coves at the Lake of the Ozarks where people drive their boats, drop anchor and/or tie up to other boats, and relax for the afternoon in a more social environment. While my cousins without children will venture off to “Party Cove”, most of my family will head off to a “Family Cove” in the early afternoons. It’s fun to relax with a drink, turn up some summer music, socialize with some other families, and bob around the lake. The Lake of the Ozarks is a huge lake with so many coves that directing you to a particular family cove would be nearly pointless; still, they are widely known and if you are headed to the lake, I recommend that you just ask neighbors or your hotel to direct you to some good options.

Apart from coving, the Lake of the Ozarks also has plenty of family-friendly restaurants and attractions. Miniature golf courses and go-kart tracks abound, and these are great options for running out the energy of young children. My only warning is that central Missouri can really get scorching hot in the summer, so my recommendation is to save these outside activities for more mild overcast days or the evening hours. As for food, my go-to treats in my home state are Imo’s Pizza and shaved ice snow cones – yum!

Now while it’s true that you could plan a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks and pack it full of activities and fun restaurants, a part of me wants you to do none of that. Because to me, the magic of the lake is its pure simplicity. It is childhood lake swims overseen by a grandparent that go so long that your fingers and toes get pruney. It is feeding slow-moving ducks stale bread crumbs. It is swinging on the porch with an aunt or uncle and listening to the wind chimes float in the breeze. It is homemade ice-cream while watching fireworks burst across the water.

It is all of those things to me, and the Lake of the Ozarks will always have the most special place in my heart. Over the past week, it was so special to see the magic of the lake reflected in my girls’ eyes. And I can’t wait to see that magic and love for this place grow in those same eyes with each summer’s visit.