I took some pictures. But again, as we got busy... I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. :( Some things we did have no pictures at all, so I will try to re-cap from memory. :)
We headed out on Sunday, June 1st. It was a little over a 5 hour drive, but with kids and stops, it takes a little longer... We made it!
Trying to get the kids to hold the baby... comical!
Family Selfie (Fail) - I cut off Barrett's head and George isn't facing the camera:
I finally decided to use my new camera that I got for Christmas, but the date was wrong. We didn't go in January and I don't know how to remove it.
I tried to take some pictures of the beautiful mountain scenery, but through the bug-filled windshield, it doesn't look quite as pretty.
We made it to our hotel and the view from our room was so nice!
George was happy to be out of the car!
The kids and I played around while Bonham unloaded the car
After we got our stuff of the car, we headed to the Mountain Tower to look over Hot Springs. The kids loved the glass elevator
(George slept)
It was so cool up there and we were the only ones, so the kids could run around and scream at the top of their lungs! Haha!
We shouted, "hello's" to family in Texas. Not sure if you heard us...
There was our car... way down there....
Little group shot once George woke up:
The views were amazing! We went at the best time for temperature and greenery
Overlooking Hot Springs:
You might remember from my last post that we have started branching out on our food selections, so I decided that while we were on vacation, we were not going to eat at any chain restaurants for dinner. We drove around and we found this restaurant called "Blue Monkey Grill". We weren't sure what kind of food they served, but we went in and it was a hit! They had a wide variety of choices for everyone. The kids kept asking if we could go back there. After dinner, we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few items that we had forgotten and then we got some ice cream from a local ice cream shop called Scoops. They had homemade ice cream and it didn't disappoint! We were on a roll...
We went back to the hotel and got ready for bed, because the next day we were going to dig for diamonds and go to a "water park"
When we got up the next morning, it was overcast and the forecast called for rain, so we had a change of plans. I was doing a little work before we headed out, so Bonham and the kids headed down to feed the ducks:
Because of the rain and needing to do something indoors, we decided to go to the Mid-America Science Musuem in Hot Springs. It was AWESOME!!! We spent the majority of the day there and the kids were so sad when it was time to go...
They had so many hands-on things to do....
Pulleys and levers
Things to balance:
Electricity:
We went to the Tesla presentation to learn about all of that stuff. I kept thinking about the movie the Prestige, so I was really distracted waiting for Hugh Jackman to appear! ;)
After the presentation, they let the audience get up and try the conductor thing.
This is the one time that having thin/fine hair is cool....
Sorry it's blurry, but you get the idea:
(George slept)
I think it looked better in person than in these pictures based on the reaction from the people in the room. When I saw the picture, I was like, "big deal. My hair does this all the time!"
Haha!
This was some kind of mirror that blends the faces of people sitting on each side.
This is what Jayna would look like with Bonham's nose:
George is awake now! :)
More mirror tricks...
This thing was cool... you could pump water to make rivers and then you could pump air through another section and form mountains to divert the water. I think the kids and I could have done this all day...
There was a section about the Amazon and we let the kids crawl around with snakes....
not real snakes. ;)
I was thirsty...
Read this...
Dinosaur dig! Jayna loves, loves, loves this part of museums!
My little scientist!
Maybe a doctor?
Barrett found a nice place to relax... inside a tunnel that was set up like the inside of an earthworm - yuck!
He wanted to take his baby brother down the slide...
They had some other cool things that I didn't take pictures of, but I would say it was definitely one of our favorite places and we will have to go back sometime!
Jayna and Barrett crashed when we left! That place wore them out!
Since we knew that we were going the opposite direction the next day, we decided to head down town to tour bathhouse row and get some spring water.
Jayna was exploring everything...
By this point in the day, it was hot and humid, so we took a break and got a snack...
So sweet: Jayna and Daddy
And then me and silly boy...
Have to get a selfie with George!
He looks cross-eyed - I just noticed that. He was probably really confused!
Fortune teller on the street... the kids had never seen this kind of machine before.
These always remind me of the movie, Big.
That night, we really went for something different... we went to a restaurant on the water called Fisherman's Wharf (seafood)!
Bonham ordered Frog Legs and I ordered Crab Legs.
These are the Frog Legs:
Jayna ordered chicken strips and Barrett had a corn dog (not much branching out on their part, but that's okay). Jayna wanted to try my crab legs...
She loved them and now asks for them when we talk about going out to eat... we explained that they are treat. The girl has good taste, what can I say? I hope she ends up being a rich scientist!
Not sure how these got out of order and I'm too tired and lazy to move them....
These are pictures from downtown Hot Springs from that afternoon:
(ignore the date - now it has July 1st, but these were June 2nd)
On the third day, we were able to go the Crater of Diamonds State Park. It was kind of overcast and we thought it would be perfect, but it quickly got hot. And even with the rain from the previous day, the ground was dry... making it hard to sift through.
Barrett lost interest first. We were advised to wear clothes and shoes that we wouldn't mind throwing away... so that's what we did.
The boy loves the mud
After you gather up a bucket of dirt, you take it to these water bins to sift it through the screen boxes
That water was so dark because of all of the sifting that you couldn't see anything.
I didn't touch it. Jayna quickly got bored with it too and joined her brother in the mud...
They graduated from the small mud puddles to this big one...
Their shoes kept getting stuck in the mud and then we would have to pull them out...
George was really enjoying watching them...
Jayna, taking a mud bath.
The other diamond diggers were laughing at them and talking about what a memorable time this would be... I was snapping pictures and laughing (and hoping they didn't pick up any amoebas in that nasty mud/water)
Soon, a few other kids started playing in the mud too... my kids are real leaders! ;)
Muddy buddies!
They make mud look good!
After I hosed them down and got the layers and layers of mud off of them (and we threw the shoes away), we ate some lunch outside and then went to the Crater of Diamonds "Water Park". I say it like that because it was really a large, shallow pool with a few slides, playground like things, etc. It was perfect though! You could be anywhere in there and see the whole place. The water was never more than 3 1/2 deep and the kids had a blast! George was able to take a nap while the big kids played. We got back in the car and headed back to Hot Springs. It should have been about an hour drive, but I was on the phone and pointed the wrong direction for Bonham to turn. :(
By the time we realised that we went the wrong way, it would have taken more time to turn around. I will say that one of the problems with Arkansas is the cell phone reception and GPS location on the phone. Anyway, an hour and a half later, we got back to the hotel. We got some tennis shoes on and went to eat hibachi! It was the first time the kids had ever been and I think they really enjoyed the show! We took PB&J for Barrett because he doesn't like meat as much as Jayna. She tried the fried rice, chicken, steak, and shrimp and she liked them. We were the only ones in the restaurant, so we received great service! This place was kind of off the main roads, almost in a residential area... I imagine the next time we visit Hot Springs, it won't be there. I didn't take any pictures there, but we had a great time! That night we stopped at Scoops (again) for dessert that night.
The next day, we headed home. I wished we would have stayed one more day.... Bonham said that we stayed the perfect amount of time. I enjoyed this vacation so much! I am now addicted the vacations and need to earn more money so we can take more vacations! ;)
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