A Missouri Mrs. : Fourth of July Weekend at the Lake

I absolutely LOVE the 4th of July!

I think it might be my favorite holiday (sorry Christmas!).

The weather is amazing.

The food is amazing.

The company is great.

The scenery is beautiful.

There's nothing better than a 4th of July at the Lake!

Our 4th started last Wednesday when Kyle got off work. As soon as he got home the weather alerts started rolling in. Tornados and flash flood warnings for our county...scratch that, our CITY! So Kyle did the typical man thing and went outside to look as soon as the sirens started going off. It was sunny directly over our house, but behind us some nasty clouds were rolling in.

See the wall cloud??

A tornado touched down just a bit north of us. Fortunately, it wasn't a strong one and didn't do a ton of damage. We didn't realize that was round 1 of 3. Sirens went off again and this time the rotations were moving towards us. We headed to the basement with the Charlie man! The amount of rain was indescribable. Torrents perhaps?

We got the all clear and came upstairs. Kyle noticed a lot of traffic through our subdivision than normal so we decided to check it out!

The road outside our subdivision was completely flooded. The intersection was underwater and cars were being redirected through our neighborhood. Crazy stuff...

Thursday morning Laura and Kyle got to our house bright and early and we loaded the car up with a crazy amount of junk. Two sets of golf clubs, two coolers, three suitcases, tote bags, etc. Who knew we could fill a Jeep Grand Cherokee to the brim for one weekend?

The weather was rainy and overcast so we dropped our stuff off and headed over to the Outlets again to do some shopping. J. Crew never disappoints!

Blazer for $20? YES, please!!!

Sperry flip flops!

I didn't buy these, but how cute would they be for Mizzou Tailgates?

A trip to the other side of the lake isn't complete without Rizzo's for dinner.

This was easily four meals for me over the weekend!

The Lake was pretty flooded from all the rain. It was up about four feet I believe. It had risen over most docks electrical boxes making it unsafe to go on the dock or be in the water at all. We were super disappointed. The Water Patrol set the entire Lake to "No Wake" meaning we couldn't make waves. We couldn't even get to our boats anyway. Friday was spent hanging out on the deck.

See how the ramp is underwater?

Kevin is a fisherman statue that sits on the seawall...he never gave up trying to get that big fish!

The water went down enough for us to get to the boat late Friday afternoon so we took a ride to one of our favorite bars, Coconuts!

Saturday the Kyle's played golf that morning and didn't get back until about 1. Laura and I tanned on the dock. The rest of my family was coming over on my dad's big boat. They had 15 people with them. That's a tad overwhelming for me. Linda had a fish fry on the dock and lots of amazing frozen drinks! About 3, the Kyles, Laura and I headed two houses down for the 10th Annual Drink Contest. Kyle was a judge and it deserves a separate post. It was hilarious!! Teams earn points for taste, creativity, presentation, etc. They go ALL out. We left feeling pretty good (10 shots/drinks later!) and had a huge meal of ham and pasta for dinner. The big group left and we settled in for cards and fireworks from the deck.