Dwyer family: Kabekona Hills Vacation

Our family vacation with Grandma Cheryl & Grandpa Kermit took us on a few twists and turns this year. We'd planned to visit a brand new resort similar to Watermill where we went in 2020. This Serenity Shores resort was set to open this summer and we were excited to go! Unfortunately, Mom got a call just a few weeks before we were set to go, saying that it wasn't going to be completed in time :( This left us in a bit of a bind, trying to find a place that could sleep our whole crew on short notice. My sister/magician travel agent somehow found us a VRBO outside Rolla, Missouri, that looked AWESOME! Now, before we get to the actual destination, we had one stop to make on the way. Last year, we visited 10 state capitols on our big New England vacation, and I was afraid that we wouldn't get to any this summer. When I mapped out our route to Rolla, I realized we would go right through Jefferson City, a capitol that we've somehow never been to! We had Kyla with us in our car, so here are the kids once we got out to begin exploring the grounds on the outside of the building. There were several cool statues.

We met up with Joy, Scott, and Syd to see the inside, which was really beautiful!

I loved the Bible verses included in the architecture in the center of the dome.

There was an interesting Missouri history timeline that included all the way to the Chiefs Superbowl win in 2020.

Next up, Oliver's favorite: the antique elevator! (He has a serious elevator phobia that we are trying to help him overcome.)

We found more pretty views from the higher levels.

We couldn't get in the House or Senate chambers, but we could peek through the windows and see the beautiful marble columns and colorful stained glass.

Check one more Capitol off the list! (And Kyla and Evie continue to be the sweetest cousins ever.)

The church across the street was really pretty as we were walking back to our car.

The next stop was our home for vacation this summer: Kabekona Hills! The views of the house and lake as we drove in were gorgeous!

This place was HUGE! Syd and I got comfortable outside for a bit until it was time to go in.

Heading inside, it was so pretty!

There were beds to sleep 35, and we only had 17, so there were plenty of options for people to choose their perfect sleeping quarters. The little girls decided this looked like a fun place for their bedroom; it was actually a ridiculously-large bathroom that the owners had converted to a bedroom. You've heard of bedrooms with an en suite bath? Well this was a bathroom with an en suite bed!

And the boys decided they'd rather just all sleep in the loft (even if it meant a couple of them were on sofa sleepers) so they could have a big screen to watch basketball games on. It didn't take long for their space to look like teenage boys lived there!

There were so many bedrooms, not to mention 3 kitchens and multiple separate spaces for relaxing or hanging out. There was also a piano with plenty of hymnals. The owners had spent several years as missionaries in Russia and now host trainings and retreats here, so there were plenty of Bibles, hymnals, and books in Hebrew! We were there on Trinity Sunday so after we watched church on Zoom, we sang "Holy, Holy, Holy" around the piano as Mom played. I sure love singing with my family!

And all of this was just INSIDE the house! There was so much fun to be found outside. We checked out the private lake and our dock and boathouse. The boathouse was well-supplied with all of the floaties and lifejackets we could possibly want.

There was another building next to ours, called the "Barndominium" that sleeps 12-16 upstairs and is used for wedding receptions on the lower level. The owner was kind enough to give us a tour and it was really nice! (It was empty while we were there, so Syd took advantage of the rockers on the porch.)

We spent the majority of our time on the water, and it was awesome having the pontoon to use anytime we wanted. Violet especially loved the boat, and thankfully everyone was always willing to take her out.

Violet wasn't the only one who loved to take rides, though.

Another huge perk of this place was the private 9 hole golf course! There was also a disc golf course in the same area, but our men stuck with the traditional golf. Well, almost traditional. It was technically a Scottish-style chipping course, so really great for those who don't love putting. The boys golfed everyday we were there, so this was a great bonus for our vacation home!

Oliver and Calvin driving their ball:

The view from the island in the lake:

Love these 8 guys so much!

One of the best parts about golfing? When you got done and were all sweaty, you could just jump in the refreshing lake!

In addition to the pontoon, this place was very well-outfitted with kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards. The girls especially enjoyed the paddleboards, and paddled all over the 37-acre lake.

The place advertised some great fishing. We didn't get any dinner out of their catches, but our fishermen had fun anyway.

Did you notice the white in the water in the above picture? When we got up the first morning, it was a beautiful surprise to see water lilies in bloom all around the lake! I'm pretty sure I'd never seen these gorgeous flowers in real life and I couldn't get enough of them!

They were SO pretty! We discovered that they closed up by 3:00 each afternoon and then bloomed again each morning. We took a couple inside so we could continue enjoying their beauty.

Violet was spoiled by Jack on this trip, not only with pontoon rides, but with kayak and canoe rides as well. They actually flipped the canoe (when Violet was in clothes and shoes), which she thought was hilarious, of course.

You could tell when Jack was letting Vi drive the boat by the serpentine pattern it made on the water. ("Do donuts!" Thankfully, it was just a trolling motor, so no worries about it going too fast.)

Calvin, Oliver, and Ty took out several of the watercraft also during our stay, sometimes for a relaxing ride. . .

. . . and sometimes to provide entertainment as they tried to knock each other into the water.

We enjoyed some gorgeous evenings and really stunning sunsets.

And while the hot tub got some use during the day. . .

. . . it got LOTS of use once the sun went down. This was a great place to relax after a long day of playing!

Speaking of playing, Aunt Becky and Uncle John always bring the best games.

And Aunt Becky is the Puzzle Queen of the family for sure! She led us to completion of this 750-piece "Violet-themed" puzzle in record time.

We had so much fun around the fire pit each evening, and all of the firewood was even included! Uncle Scottie brought his speaker and DJ Jackson kept the tunes flowing until the wee hours of the morning. So many laughs when we're together!

As always, we ate well on our vacation. The best dinner had to be Uncle Scottie's smoked meat night with brisket and pulled pork and all the best sides.

Also in the evenings, we took advantage of the huge living room with TV to watch some movies. One night the stars were our kids as we brought some really classic home movies. The "Lightswitch video" is definitely a crowd favorite (where 18-month old Ty and 23-month old Calvin duke it out over a light switch), and one of these days I'll get it uploaded to YouTube. Another night we watched "Encanto" because the little girls couldn't believe Aunt Joy hadn't seen it!

Another really unique and fun part of this property was the massive expanse of it. It was on 342 acres of scenic land to explore, which is definitely something our family loves to do! There were a few trails for hiking/biking laid out, but it was all available to be explored, so my boys were in heaven!

They came back after a long hike the first day and told us we had to go with them to see the waterfalls. As we hiked along the rocks and creek, it felt like we were back in Tennessee or New Hampshire!

We made it to the bottom and then started on our way back up. But we didn't rush! The views were so pretty.

We made it out of the water and walked across a steel I-beam bridge to continue on the hike. There were several scenic look-out areas from this high up. (If you look closely in the lower right, you can see the dock in the second picture.)

This hike kept our heart rate up the whole way. It was a lot of fun!

At one point, we felt like we were in Narnia when we came upon a lamp post in the middle of the woods. I asked the owner about it and he said they removed two of them from the patio and the groundskeeper thought it would be fun to put them in random places on the property. He also said there is a huge flat boulder that looks like the "stone table" and an old rock quarry that looks like the ruins of Cair Paravel in the Narnia books. I'd say this was fun, for sure!