Arkansas trip part 3

It was a cold Sunday morning in Little Rock.  My phone said it was 24 degrees when I checked at church that morning.  That’s cold.  We really enjoyed their church and getting to meet some of their friends.  After lunch we spent the rest of the day back at their house.  The kids got a little (very little) rest but mostly just had fun playing together.  The cousins love each other so much and make the most of their time together.  There were some rough spots but there’s a lot more good than bad.

I’m jealous of people who get a lot of good natural light in their house and yard because we get pretty much none because of all the trees in our yard.  The trees are great but make taking pictures a challenge.  Late in the afternoon I went on a little black and white photo shoot.

Yeah, I’m pretty jealous but glad that I was able to get a few good shots.

Of course Caroline isn’t old enough to get involved in all the fun but she did get some lovin’ from Aunt Sissy.

On Monday we went to downtown Little Rock before heading out.  We’d considered trying to drive the whole way home on Monday but after lunch and playing at a park we didn’t leave until 2:30.  We stayed at the same hotel in Vicksburg and the girls did great again.  Caroline slept the entire way and Taylor was happy to watch Cinderella and a few other things.  On the way home we saw an amazing sunset and I had to pull over.

Wow.

The next morning we had caught in the middle breakfast then hit the road.  The girls did great until about the last 20 minutes of the trip.  By that time they’d had enough and both kinda lost it.  But considering that we spent about 16 hours in the car and only the last 20 minutes were rough, we’re not complaining.

We had a great time seeing the Crooms and loved their house.  It was also good to get away from our normal routine for a few days.

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Arkansas trip part 2

Saturday was a fun day.  Caroline was the last one to wake up and the rest of the cousins were super excited to go see her.

We stayed around the house until the late afternoon at which point we went to horse farm that the Crooms had been to before.  I thought that we’d just look at them through the fence but the lady who owns the horses was working  and she let us in to see them.

This big guy walked right up to us when we got out there.

I don’t know much about horses but he was a Belgian.  As far as I’m concerned, Belgians are the most intimidating of all the horse species.

It was really pretty out there.  I think there were 9 horses.  A lady bought them a few years ago and loves to show them off.  She was great to take us through the land where she keeps them.

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Arkansas trip part 1

Earlier today we got home from a road trip to Arkansas to visit the Crooms.  We hadn’t been up there since the moved up there earlier this year and were excited to see their new house.  At the same time though we were a little scared because we didn’t know how the girls, especially Caroline, would do on such a long trip.  Taylor has never been a great road tripper and we had no idea how Caroline would do.

We decided to break up the trip and stay in a hotel Thursday since I had to work that day.  I was able to leave work a little early so we got on the road around 4:45.  Our plan was to stop for dinner in Hattiesburg, MS and then stay at a hotel in Vicksburg, MS.  Caroline had a full belly when we left so she fell asleep within 10-15 minutes after we left.  Taylor started to watch a DVD a little while after that.  We made it to dinner (about 90 minutes) without a problem.  We ate fast food and Caroline hardly woke up at all.  We thought she’d be hungry but hardly ate at all.  We got back in the car to leave and Caroline fell asleep right away.  When we got to the hotel we were very pleased that the girls did so great.

We got there pretty late and Tay Tay was so hyped up (as she says) to be at the hotel.  She had been calling it “the camp-out.”  She had a pretty rough night and didn’t fall asleep until probably midnight.  She was just too excited and couldn’t calm down to quit squirming in the bed.

I love a good continenal breakfast so I’d been getting Tay excited about it too.  Except she calls it “caught in the middle breakfast.”  Whatever you want to call it, it was very good and we were back on the road by 8:45 ish.

The drive from Vicksburg, MS to Bryant, AR took about 4 hours and was mostly on highways, not interstate.  I wasn’t looking forward to this since we wouldn’t make that great of time but it was such a pretty drive, especially for the first hour or two.  It was mostly through wide-open farmland that we just don’t get to see much here.  One of the highlights, or possibly lowlights, of the trip took place at a gas station in Arkansas.  We stopped so that Robyn could feed Caroline and while we were parked in the back of the gas station a truck came within about a half inch of backing into us.  Robyn noticed the guy and started screaming so I laid on the horn.  I stormed out of the car and was glad to see that he didn’t hit us.  The other dude was happier than I was.  All the commotion freaked out the girls but they calmed down soon.

The rest of the ride was great.  We couldn’t believe how good they did.  Once we got there the kids got right to playing.  The Crooms kids got a trampoline for Christmas and a lot of jumping took place on it over the weekend.  The cousins all love each other so much and have a lot of fun together.

Sorry for any typos but I don’t feel like spelling-checking all that!

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