As a kid, I remember roaming the grounds of the Bass Pro Headquarters in Springfield as we were on our way to or from summer vacation. It became almost a tradition to hit Bass Pro. 5 year old little girl that I was, I remember being so full of anticipation to go to Bass Pro.

I’ll admit, being an adult doesn’t give you quite the excitment of visiting Bass Pro as that young child had, but we enjoyed our Sunday afternoon there anyway.

Robby designated yesterday as Family Fun Day, which I shortened to FFD. I frequently give people, places, and things (“Vanna, I’d like to buy an A”) abbreviated names. I think we’ll try to do more FFD’s in the future.

Now, Olivia is just 6 months old and I know she’ll never remember it and I know she really probably didn’t enjoy herself anymore than she does scooting across our living room floor playing with her rattlers.

But, here’s the thing. Robby and I have a bad habit of working our weekends away. Okay, he does more of the work but all his work really wears me out! We are on the go most of the days, feeling like staying home is wasting time. Robby has this thing about him. He has to do something productive literally all the time, or his increasing anxiety and jitteriness (if that’s even a word), gets the best of me him. And that’s about the point that I wanna lock him in the coat closet.

What was great about our impromtu trip to Bass Pro (mind you, we only went as far as Columbia. The one is Springfield kicks Columbia’s butt anyday), was that we left all our worries of the world at home. We just went, without purpose, and enjoyed ourselves!

We looked at boats we knew we didn’t need.

We have the mind to sell our Bass Tracker and upgrade to this sweet ride (or a much cheaper version, anyway)

We looked at kayaks that we also don’t need. And camping supplies we don’t need although we wish we did but we don’t make near enough time for camping. We sat in UTV’s we have no place to ride.

If you missed my last Festival Friday (first of all shame on you!) I mentioned that Bass Pro was hosting a Kids Challenge Weekend. One of the events was casting, which I’m sure they used their beautiful lake for. We weren’t there in time to watch the festivities, however.

The fish tank houses a record-setting crappie, caught by a man from my hometown of Fulton. Nothing exciting ever happens in Fulton, so I’m kinda stoked by this.

Robby and Olivia checked out things from the other side. Although she didn’t know quite what was going on, she enjoyed watching the fish anyway.

What I took away from our FFD, was simply this. It’s ok to not be productive, as long as you’re not being productive as a family.

Happy Travels (even if they’re small time travels)! Pan, The Gravel-Roadin’ Guru