Our trip to Arkansas, Part One

Most of you know that we traveled to Arkansas two weeks ago. Arkansas was "home" for us before we moved here, and all of our immediate family lives there. We usually see our family a couple of times a year, but we haven't made a trip to Arkansas in the summertime since 2004...and that seems like forever ago.

This is a recap of our trip. It will probably bore you to tears, but since I like to document family stuff on the blog, here goes.

After a long day of driving we arrived at John's parents house. Our kids love going to Mimi and Papa's house for many reasons, but one of the most fun things about spending time there is the presence of their cousins! John's brother and his wife were there with us, and their daughters are our kids' only cousins! Will, Sarah, and Abbey adore M & M, and the time they spent together was full of fun.

The first day we were there, we took them all swimming at our friend's pool. Thank you, Mrs. Becky!



After a full afternoon of swimming, we went to dinner at the local catfish restaurant. YUMM-O! I've been craving fried catfish and hushpuppies FOREVER, and we've yet to find a good place to eat it here in Colorado. John's parents took us to this same place when we were in Arkansas last November, but when we pulled in the parking lot, the place was closed. I almost cried. They remembered that I was still craving it (I'm sure I've reminded them few times) and took us out for a delicious meal. John got the all-you-can-eat plate, and he ate about 15 pieces of fish. No joke. Well, actually, he shared a few with Will and me, but he ate a LOT. And loved every single bite. See...




We spent quite a bit of time laughing at the guys trying to unearth a 20ft pole from the backyard. The previous owners had a martin house sitting on top of it, and they had buried it about 6 feet in the ground with concrete. John and his brother and dad worked like mad to get that pole torn down. I have some fun video of them working, but I don't think they'd appreciate me putting it on the world wide web!

Our sweet Sarah had a birthday while we were there, so naturally we had a celebration for her. After cake and presents, we all headed out to the movie theater to see Kit Kittredge, the American Girl movie. She loved it!

After the movie, Mimi and Papa took all the kids to the mall and sent the grown-ups to Shogun for a japanese steak dinner, which was delicious--thank you! We met them at the mall afterwards and all the kids had on new clothes and were filling up on Chick-Fil-A. Abbey and her cousin were prancing all over the mall in their brand new, matching Hannah Montana jackets. They were so stinkin' cute, and I learned later that my six-year-old was on her knees giving Mimi and Papa the sad puppy eyes and begging for that jacket. There may have even been a few tears involved. It wasn't my proudest parenting moment for sure, but aren't they CUTIES???


On Sunday, we all went to church together. John's dad is a pastor, and he preached a sermon just for Sarah (about Sarai/Sarah) because it was her actual birthday. It was the first time that all of the grandchilden had heard their Papa preach, and it was special for them that we were there.

After a delicious lunch, we had to pack up to head to my mom's house. My kids always spend the first 10 minutes after we leave their house crying...they love their Mimi and Papa so much! We had a wonderful time there, and we're trying to talk all of John's family into spending Christmas in Colorado!