January 14, 2014-Key West

(click here for today's pictures)

Once I went to sleep last night, I slept really well.  I was too busy going over my to-do list in my head to get to sleep or maybe I was too busy wondering how I could convince Robby that HGTV was worth it.  He actually said that it was a good thing we didn’t have cable or I would never get anything accomplished.  But all of those cable shows would be so educational for the kiddos!

While I got ready, Robby went to get breakfast downstairs.  After I ate, we loaded up for the airport.  We filled up the car with gas for the first time on this trip.  We couldn’t remember not having to fill up the car multiple times on a trip.  The airport was nearby and I enjoyed looking at all of the places on our way there.

Returning the car and even the security lines were a breeze and soon we were waiting on our plane. I could hardly concentrate on reading my magazine as I was too busy listening to all of the conversations around us.  Then I started wondering who I would rather sit near for my in-flight entertainment-the noisy kids, the crazy old man returning from a cruise with his dysfunctional family or the mobster.  I didn’t see the large lady waiting to board the plane but boy, oh boy did I see her when I walked up to my seat.  There she was sitting half way in my seat.  One of my new year’s resolutions is to smile more-smile at the kids when I am crazy frustrated, smile as I am waiting in line, smile at the lady sitting in my seat and her seat on my 2 and a half hour flight.  So smile I did as I sat closer to Robby than I ever have before-he was so smashed that there is probably an imprint of the side of the plane on his cheek.

Ha, it wasn’t that bad and the lady was very nice when I had to get up and go potty.  Seriously, at home I can wait all day long before going to the restroom.  But as soon as I step foot on a plane, I have to potty.  I really debated on asking the lady to move so I could get to the restroom-I thought surely I could wait but Robby said that we had well over another hour in flight.  So when I asked she graciously got up and Robby jumped up too.  And what did we see in the back of the plane-seat after seat of empty seats!  It was too late to move so I just smiled and went back to half seat for the rest of the flight.

The flight was uneventful-yet boring.  I really can not do anything for more than a few minutes at a time or I get bored.  So I just jumped around on what I was doing-Bible study, magazines, book, game on my kindle, eavesdropping, looking out the window.  We eventually made it to Chicago and found ourselves something to eat.  I had a hamburger and Robby had pizza.  I was really hoping that a Sonic would be in one of these terminals but alas there was not.  I will just have to forego getting my cinnamon snack on this trip and wait for another trip.

I did however find a cinnamon pretzel to munch on while we waited for our next flight.  Our wait was around 3 hours so we were ready to get on the plane to get home to see our babies. The flight to Little Rock was smooth sailing and even though it was a small plane we were able to spread out a little bit.

Pops was at the airport to pick us up and everyone else was at our house waiting to see us. As soon as the door opened, the kids were everywhere hugging us. They had all made many signs and were so proud to show them off to us. Reagan was even working on a scavenger hunt for Robby and I. My Keaton just wanted to be held by me and then later by Robby-well, that and she wanted some coke. And sweet Whitman had fallen asleep but I certainly did wake that boy up so he could see everyone. I think that he was probably the most excited to see Campbell-she sure was the most excited to see him!

It was a good trip but I am certainly glad to be home-despite the to-do list and loads of laundry.

January 13, 2014-Key West

(click here for today's pictures)

We survived our scary-ish hotel and slept perfectly.  I did wake up a few times during the night but quickly went back to sleep.  Robby and I were both pretty surprised that we slept as well as we did while sharing a tiny little bed but segwaying around South Beach is pretty tiring.

We watched our bit of HGTV this morning while packing up.  Then we went to the car-one of the reasons that Robby picked our hotel (other than the 100 dollar price difference) was the free parking.  The parking lot was actually 6 spaces that 20 cars crammed on.  Thankfully, only one car had to be moved for Robby to back our car out.  If I had driven there (or if we had our big van) I would still be pulling forward and scooting back trying to get out of that parking lot.

When we were on the rental car shuttle the day we arrived, we heard a family suggesting House of Dogs to another family.  So we thought that today would be the day that we ate there.  It was very near the hotel so we had about an hour to kill before the place opened up.  We drove around South Beach and it was pretty different this morning than it was last night.  

We parked at a playground (can leave the kids at home but can't take the parents out of us) and then walked to the House of Dogs.  They opened at 12 and we were the first customers.  Apparently, here in South Florida things are a bit later than at home-the hotel lady even said that rush hour will be around 10 tomorrow.  I had mango salsa and sweet chili sauce on my hot dog.  We both ate every bit of our hot dogs and then enjoyed walking them off on our way back to our car.

About 45 minutes away was the home of the Gator Boys at Everglades Holiday Park.  The boys love watching that show and I had envisioned it being a tiny little place.  I was wrong, there were more air boats than I had ever seen before.  Buses, people, boats, concession stands, gift shops-it was pretty crazy.  The boys would have absolutely loved it and we would have taken a boat tour and seen the alligator show if they had been there.  Maybe next time we come down to Disney we can make a 3 hour detour down here.

It didn't take too long for us to cross back over to Ft. Lauderdale and find our hotel.  We checked in and were saddened to discover that we didn't have HGTV-that was going to be my plan for the rest of the day-just laying in bed watching HGTV.  But since we didn't have that channel then we had to find something else to do this evening.

We were near the water front and Robby quickly booked us a cruise.  Hmm, maybe he didn't really want to watch tv all evening.  We went on a 6 person sunset cruise around Ft. Lauderdale's canals.  It was pretty amazing seeing all of the mega mansions around the water ways.  The average house that we saw cost 10+ million.  And that is not even including the boats that we saw-big boats like Steven Spielberg's yacht.  

There were 2 other couples on our boat ride and I think seeing those houses made them a bit envious.  I can easily pass on all of those luxuries but two things I did take away from our boat tour was that we need more lamps in our house (like all of the houses that we saw) and we need to eat outside more often (only need more south Florida weather.)

The boat was a little thing and pretty cute.  If I were to get a boat, that would be the kind that I would choose.  Robby still wants a 4 wheeler over a segway or boat.  Anyway, this little boat was electric and just kind of hummed as we floated along the calm canals.  It was a pretty perfect evening out on the water.

After our boat ride, the other couples were going out on the town but I had my heart set on Sonic.  Every time I take the kids there for happy hour, there are some cinna-somethings that are just calling my name on the menu board.  But I never get them and had my heard set on getting them while on our trip.  And would you believe-we have not seen a single sonic on this trip?  I found one that should have been just a few blocks from where we went on the boat but we couldn't find it so my cinnamon snack will just have to wait.  

We did find a restaurant called Lime that was a burrito/taco place.  It was absolutely delicious and we were stuffed by the end of the evening.  This was a pretty perfect ending to our little vacation. 

January 12, 2014-Key West

(click here for today's pictures)

We woke up this morning and quickly packed up to head north. Don’t be surprised but we ended up missing the hotel breakfast but we did manage to finagle some orange juice before hitting the road.  It is quite a drive to Key West and we enjoyed the leisurely drive back up the keys.

We stopped once for breakfast at Burger King but they were out of biscuits and since it is hard to have a sausage biscuit with out a biscuit, we passed and drove on.  A bit later we picked up lunch at McDonalds on the road.  We ate as we drove and drove and drove.  Seriously, it doesn't look that far on the map but we never went really fast.  We did enjoy the trip though while trying to listen to church both hours but all of the power lines near us distorted most of what we heard.  We eventually found something to listen to on the drive and were soon back to Miami.

The first thing we did was to drive by our hotel (much more on that later) and then we found where tonight’s Segway tour left from.  Next was a quick drive by the beach and wow, there are lots and lots of people along South Beach.  This is a pretty happening place.  Then we checked into our hotel-it is a different little place….

Our hotel tonight is one of the less expensive ones around here.  It was built in the 40s and very eclectic (doesn't that sound like a nice word?)  It reminds me of going to Mexico and staying at an old lady’s house.  Words can’t really describe it but I will try to take some pictures of the place.  And we are in the smallest little room-the lady asked if we wanted 2 beds and we probably should have taken them since the bed we are sitting on now is more like a large twin! Ha!

After settling in to our room, we headed out for the night. We had a 6'o'clock segway tour but had plenty of time before that to explore. Man oh man was there a lot to see! So much so that when I am finished with the blog I will have to wash Robby's eyes out! He, he! We saw flags on the beach representing certain groups of people and in my personal opinion there should have been flags warning you of men wearing speedos!

We did walk on the beach some and then sat to watch folks go past. It was pretty interesting to say the least. After a while, we started to look for supper. Every restaurant that we passed was full with people eating inside, outside and every where else. We finally found a perfect spot for us-a pizza by the slice place. The pizza slices were crazy huge-like one of the pizza's couldn't even fit in my oven. The pizza was delicious and hit the spot.

Then it was time for our tour. We found the bike/segway shop. We were a bit early but we were the only ones who had scheduled the tour so we were able to leave early. First we picked out helmets and made sure they fit-that was easy enough. Then we had a segway lesson-Robby did very well on his lesson. I managed mine and it really didn't take too long to become comfortable with them.

Well, there was that one time when my segway did try to kill me. I could not get it to slow down-I would try to lean back to slow down and the handle bars kept coming toward me. Eeek! It took a second but I was able to get things under control without having to use my helmet!

So back to our tour-we went everywhere-down alleys, on sidewalks, down the middle of streets, through a park, through grass, by the dock, through crowds of people, down a hill, crossing streets at a crosswalk-you wouldn't believe. At first, I was a bit nervous having to dodge cars and people but our guide was good and since we were the only 2 behind him things were alright.

We did learn a lot about Miami Beach and art deco architecture. Always makes me wish that I knew more about things-like architecture. We did see the famed Versace Mansion that is supposedly the 3rd most famous home in the US (after the White House and the tie for second place Graceland and Hemingway's Key West home) When you start looking at the architecture here (and stop gawking at the people), it is really beautiful.

Robby guesses that we went at least 6 miles on the tour. We went to the bottom of South Beach and then even up near our hotel. We did see the Lincoln Road Mall which is 2 and a half miles of restaurants and the Espanola Way which was a street with spanish restaurants.

We so enjoyed the segway tour but our feet were a bit tired from just standing for so long. Now by the end, I was still gripping my little handle bars tightly but Robby was mimicking our guide waving his hands in the air. So after our tour, we did make our way back to Espanola way to grab some gelato-before the walk back to the hotel.

Our hotel was pretty close so soon we were inside drinking our cokes from the fridge and watching Downton Abby. It has been a pretty perfect (and adventurous) day.

January 11, 2014-Key West

(click here for today's pictures)

Last night I had noticed the ceiling of the bathroom. It had big bubbles in it and I had thought to myself that that would be the result if Robby or I were to ever try to re-do some of the ceilings in our house. In the middle of the night, Robby woke me up to tell me that the ceiling in the bathroom was leaking.  He said that it was a constant drip and said that we might even have to change rooms.  I was sleeping pretty good during this conversation and imagined a half of the bathroom ceiling in the floor so I was a bit surprised this morning when I went into the bathroom and there was just a towel drying water and a trash can catching the water.  We didn't say anything about the drip because we sure didn't want to leave our pretty perfect room.  

We started off this morning like we always wanted to at home-sleeping late!  We woke up a few times and then just rolled over.  We did watch a bit of tv and then finally decided that we should drag ourselves out of bed to go and see the town.  Oh, but first I did heat up our pastries that we bought last night for breakfast.  

Our first stop this morning was about 3 blocks from our hotel-the southernmost point in the continental US. There was a bit of a line for pictures and Robby asked the couple behind us to take our picture.  She tried and tried and Robby tried to re-explain how to do it ("look through here, push this button.")  Finally she thought she had taken one and we smiled and said thank you and walked off.  Of course, she didn't really get one at all.

We just walked to a nearby gift shop to look around for a minute so we could give that couple time to leave so we could get back into the line to take a picture.  This time the line was much longer but it was in the shade so we didn't mind.  We really did want a picture together so Robby did ask the person behind us again hoping for better results.  Um, nope!  This man tried and tried and Robby tried to re-explain how to do it ("look through here, push this button.")  So the man tried again and thankfully we did get some type of picture.

Our next stop was the public beach that was right near our hotel as well.  We had read that there were few public beaches here and many beaches were rocky.  We even had on our bathing suits for the beach but were quite surprised to see that this beach was about 100 feet long (oh, maybe longer than that!)  It was pretty crowded so we just walked along the dock for a bit.  Then we headed back to the hotel pool.

The pool must have been heated because it was a perfect temperature.  We swam for a bit enjoying the beautiful weather.  We only had one towel so we sat outside for awhile to dry off.  Robby forgot his hat on this trip (actually he wasn't the only one unprepared-I forgot trash bags, a bag to carry our stuff to and from the hotel and one other thing that I can't remember right now)  So he had our towel laid over his head so he wouldn't get sunburned as we sat in the sun drying.

Back in the room we changed and then Robby got side tracked finding our attractions for tomorrow and I got sidetracked watching a marathon of House Hunters.  Soon enough though we were back out walking down the street on our way to our next stop.  

It wasn't too far to the Hemingway house where he lived while here and to see the Key West light house.  The light house was moved 4 blocks inland when once damaged by a hurricane.  They had the coolest statues around the light house-statues of people in fancy clothes dancing, statues of little kids-they were just really neat. 

Now then we walked and walked and walked on our way to Truman's Little White House where he spent lots of time in Key West while president.  On our way there, we walked through a beautiful neighborhood and then walked near a state park.  We finally found the Truman Little White House and walked around the gift shop and the grounds for a bit.  They were having a huge fancy dinner on the grounds and we really enjoyed watching the 20+ people rushing around getting ready for that dinner.  

Next up was walking down the the pier where a huge cruise ship was docked.  We were nearby when a couple rushed on to the ship-the onlookers from the ship's balconies clapped and the workers quickly shut the boat door as they boarded.  We watched for awhile and then were further down the boardwalk when we heard the ship toot and stopped to watch it scoot away.  Pretty neat to see.

Then we walked back down Duvall street, stopping at a few gift shops and then stopping to have some chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick.  My Anderson would have really loved this but it was tart, tart with key lime and dark chocolate.  Our next stop was a few more blocks down the street at Circle K for a drink. And then back near our hotel, we grabbed sandwiches at a little local convenience store.  We ate on their deck and watched people walk up and down the street.  I think that we could have watched the folks all evening long.

Soon though we headed back to our room to check on the kids and pack up a bit before leaving Key West in the morning.   

January 10, 2014-Key West

(click here for today's pictures)

This morning started off with us waking up around 8:15.  We hadn’t moved at all during the night-we were pretty tired from the day of traveling.  Robby had a shower first and then went downstairs to get breakfast and bring some back for me.  When he returned I was ready and ate my cinnamon roll.  Speaking of cinnamon rolls-that Holiday Inn Express gets a C- on theirs.  Breakfast was almost over but these rolls had still been sitting out for quite a long, long time.  And no orange juice-blasphemy!

Our hotel was right in the middle of the two National parks so it really worked out perfectly.  And when we stepped outside today, the weather was perfect.  Exactly what we would want Disney weather to be like-well, really I would want this weather pretty much all of the time.  

We were only about 15 minutes from Biscayne National Park.  It is a National Park in need of some tlc.  Hurricane Andrew passed right over it and did quite a bit of damage.  The park used to have boat tours but their concessionaire went out of business.  We quickly walked through the visitor’s center and then walked along the boardwalk.  The boardwalk lead to a jetty.  It was a beautiful walk with the water on each side of you.  There were people kayaking around and it really made me want to get a kayak-the water was so peaceful and calm….about 30 minutes later, I completely change my mind about the whole kayak idea.

When we were walking along the boardwalk, we kept seeing this huge plane circle slowly overhead. We couldn’t figure out what type of plane it was.  My guess was a weather plane but once we were at Everglades, we saw a sign about a nearby military base.  Then we saw a few more signs about missiles and finally remembered the Cuban Missile Crisis.  

So Everglades National Park was the next stop.  Their Visitor’s Center had more to see and we even set down for a few minutes to watch the film.  The ranger told us about a nearby trail that was a must see and we headed that direction.  When we turned down the road for the trail, we saw a sign with a picture of a panther on it.  Hmm, we debated not getting out of the car after seeing that.

Then when we pulled into the parking lot for the trail, at least 8 cars were covered in blue tarps.  We had no idea what that was about and then we saw a huge sign on a box “Tarps inside. Use tarps to protect cars from vultures.”  What in the world?  Since we are rule-breakers and the majority of the cars didn’t have tarps and because this is a rental car, we opted for no tarp and walked to the trail.

The trail was the Anhinga trail.  Anhingas are birds that can swim to catch fish.  We even saw a few-pretty weird seeing a bird come up for air.  And then they sit in a tree drying their feathers.  The trail was crazy packed with school kids so we went one direction at a split and they went the other.  Most of the time on wildlife trails, we see a few animals but nothing too magnificent.  So I was already pleased when we saw the anhingas.  

After walking just a bit we saw some big turtles setting on a few logs.  And then just a bit further we saw a huge alligator swimming around.  We walked by it and when it came near those turtle, they jumped in the water to avoid the gator.  After that sighting, we continued seeing alligators everywhere.  It was pretty amazing (and scary-the reason that I no longer planning on kayaking.)

We were relieved back at the car to see that the vultures had not destroyed our vehicle.  And instead of heading further down south towards mosquito, we went back to the main road to head down to Key West.  We did stop at a fruit stand that was a happening place.  It was called “Robert is Here” and their specialty was key lime pie milkshakes.  Robby had one and he said that Anderson would have loved it.  I had a strawberry mango smoothie.  

The fruit stand had every single fruit that you could imagine-even fruit that we had never seen or heard of.  During the weekend, they even have live music.  We didn’t buy any fruit but we said that if the kids would have been with us, we would have spent quite a bit of money there between milkshakes and fruit.  

Our tummys were full from our drinks and we headed down south to Key West.  The first 40 miles flew by with plenty of blue water to see.  We have never been to the Caribbean so blue water like this was all new to us.  Sometimes there were lots of business and houses and other times we could see water all around us.  It was all a narrow strip of land that we were driving down-just sometimes more narrow than others.  There was a 7 mile bridge that was pretty interesting.

About half way there, the traffic started to pick up-a lot!  Like we were at a crawl.  It was fine since we had plenty of drinks and snacks to keep us busy and were listening to some Disney music (yes, second time to mention Disney in this post.  Robby had debated us driving up there for a day but we didn’t know what we would do since we really were just there this fall.  Just being this close to the magic makes us nostalgic.)  

We drove and drove and finally found her hotel-the Blue Marlin Motel.  Cute little place and we have a pretty neat room with windows on each sides.  We checked out our room and then headed down to walk down Duvall street.  When we first found it, it was a quiet little street with lots of stuff happening on it.  A few more blocks down the road and it quickly came a cross between Beale street and Bourbon street.  Wowzers!

We walked to the end of the street-about a mile-and made it to a pier.  It was about sunset and people were everywhere.  There were people, street performers, kids, dogs, pigs.  The view was gorgeous with the sunset and the boats out on the water.  Oh and I did say “pigs” but what is interesting is that there are chickens that just roam free in this area.  I saw a few when we were walking away from our hotel.  

Somewhere along the way, my hands started itching-like crazy.  This has happened before a few times but I do not know what triggers it but it was pretty bad tonight.  The trigger tonight might have been all of the people blowing cigar smoke.  I guess Cuban cigars are a bit thing so there are lots of “Domican Republic” cigars around here.  I don’t know if calling them “Domican Republic” is a code word for Cuban or not.  Either way, my hands were red, swollen and itching.  I was getting close to scratching my skin off when Robby saw a little shop that might have some benedryl.  Thankfully, they did and it was even liquid (remember I can’t swallow pills)  As soon as we sat down to eat, he opened it and poured me a dosage.  

I will go ahead a finish my hand itching story before I mention supper.  But within 5 minutes, my hands were better and I was back to my old self.  But on our walk back to the hotel, I started feeling a bit tipsy.  I think my benedryl swigging caught up with me.  And right now, I am actually fortunate that I am able to make complete sentences to finish this blog.   

We had read about Sloppy Joes Bar and we chose to eat there.  We were near the door and had a pretty perfect spot.  I had cheese fries with the sloppy joe mix on top and Robby had a sloppy joe quesadillas.  They were both very good but our favorite was the black bean dip that we had with our chips-like smashed, spicy, warm black beans.  I will have to find a recipe for something similar.

After eating, we walked back down the street.  I was in a much better mood because my hands were not itching.  We ran into the post office for a minute to put some postcards in the mail.  Then we saw the coolest tree ever (click here for a picture) - the roots were massive flat walls that went together to form the tree.  It would have been an awesome tree to have in the yard because the kids could have set up little rooms on each side of the roots.  

Then our next stop was a pastry shop that said all pastries were half off after 5.  It was well after 5 and we knew we were going to need a snack tonight and a bit of breakfast tomorrow morning.  Breakfast is downstairs in this tiny, tiny room so who knows what that will be but never fear we have chocolate croissants and chocolate cinnamon roll type things to eat.  

Grannymom and the boys went to Rock Creek this morning to play and Nonna, Pops, Jason and the girls went to Larry's pizza tonight.  And from everything that we hear, the kids are continuing to have a really big time.  Tomorrow is the kid switch so I am pretty sure that they are all excited about that.  It also means that our vacation is nearing an end-well, I guess we still have 4 more nights counting tonight so I shouldn’t get too depressed yet!

January 9, 2014-Key West

(click here for today's pictures)

Even though our flight was much later this morning, it still took a few alarm clocks to wake us up. The first thing we did was to look outside, turn on the tv to see about the roads and double check our flights.  Everything was on go so we got ourselves ready and then waited...with no kids in tow, it didn’t take too long to get ready and then when we were ready, there was not much to do!

Soon Grandpa arrived for our ride to the airport.  The boys had his house had woken up early, early-5:45 but had all slept well.  The trees were pretty heavy with ice but the roads seemed fine and we were soon walking through security.  We flew with the kids 2 years ago and Robby and I haven’t flown alone for about 3 years.  Wow, what a different experience the security line with kids and without kids is.  Our kids would have done perfectly but it was much calmer with just us to worry about.  Just for grins-if we had the kids we would have had 7 backpacks, 7 roller suitcases (5 of those child sized), 2 laptops, 8 coats and 2 shoes to put on the security belt.  All that said, I am getting pretty ready to take them on a flight somewhere and my big ones are starting to ask when they can fly again.  Maybe we should buy a few more lottery tickets!  :)

The security line was non existent and no one really was around our gate.  We were there a bit early and Robby bought breakfast and chatted with a friend.  Soon we were boarding our flight-Robby read the newspaper on his ipad and I did one page of my bible study, read a magazine and started on a book (I, by far, was much more productive)

Flying is just amazing to me-dark clouds and rain everywhere in Little Rock and the little plane windows were caked over with ice but in just a few minutes, all you can see is the beautiful sun shining bright.  I can see why people love to fly.  Since we were near the back of the plane, we just waited to be the last ones off.  It was a good thing because we had to wait in the jet way for our suitcases.  It was so cold in there that you could see your breath.  Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait too long and we were soon on our way to find our next gate.

We ate some crazy priced sandwiches for lunch-they were delicious though.  And then a bit of a wait for our next plane.  Nothing like standing on a crazy cold jet way trying to get into the plane.  I was shivering by the time we found our seats.  This plane was absolutely full.  And apparently Robby and I have grown since the last time we have flown or the seats are smaller.  I was careful not to crowd the lady next to the window but that meant that I was crowding Robby.  

Before we left the gate, we had to be de-iced.  That was pretty exciting-imagine a plane full of adults oohing and aahing at sound of liquid being sprayed onto the plane and the orange liquid flowing over the windows.  We then had to join a pretty long line for takeoff so we left about 45 minutes late.  Robby had thought that our flight was less than 2 hours but he forgot to account for the time change so it was nearly 3 hours plus the time that we were sitting on the plane before leaving.

The flight was uneventful and soon enough we were landing in Ft. Lauderdale.  When ever I hear Ft. Lauderdale I think of the Golden Girls but I don’t even know if they were from here or not.  We then boarded the rental car shuttle with a zillion other folks-I do not remember that last time that I have been to a rental car place because Robby usually fetches the car while I wait with the kids.  

After picking our car out and figuring out how to start it, we were off….except the silly gps takes forever to find a satellite so we did make a few loops before heading on our way….heading on our way to continue my Ikea tour of America.  

We only had about an hour in this Ikea before closing so we started with supper.  I had meatballs, mashed potatoes and butternut squash with apples soup.  Robby had chicken fingers and fries.  It was all pretty delicious or maybe we were hungry after a long day of traveling.  We quickly walked through the store spending a whopping 4 dollars.  Oh I did see plenty of things that I would happily purchase but just couldn’t get them home-like the dollar wrapping paper.  

After Ikea we had about 60 miles to drive to get to the hotel.  The silly gps gave again gave us a bit of difficulty but we figured it out and headed in the right direction.  On the way, there we talked to the boys-having already talked to the girls earlier.  The boys did their school work early this morning, played on their kindles, made paper airplanes and even got to play with Lilly and Cash today.  The girls were no less busy since they watched tv, ate lots of snacks and played with Jason tonight.  Jason and Grandpa even sent us a few pictures of the kids from the day.   

Our drive flew by and soon we were stopping at Walgreens and walking around grabbing a few things for the rest of the week.  It was like we were 12 and our momma said that we could get whatever we wanted in the store.  Then just a mile until we got to our hotel and listen, we parked and then walked right in.  Seriously, I didn’t have to wait in the car, we didn’t have to clean the car and now I am already unpacked a finishing the blog in record time.  I miss my kids but traveling without them sure is different!  Tomorrow’s plans are a few new national parks and then on down to Key West.

January 8, 2013

(click here for today's pictures)

Enjoying Pop's fire!

• This was the first real day since our holidays that we actually had to get up on time-Bible study day.  I was one of the first ones up and even managed to do a few things before having to wake everyone up.  And no, no one was awake this morning before 7-or at least they didn't get out of bed.  No one wanted to write more sentences.
• At Bible study, a little boy in the class next to Keaton's was having a fit going in. I could feel her grab my hand tighter and I prepared myself for a fit but that sweet little thing walked right on in to her class.  The boys were next and they practically knock each other down trying to get inside of their class.  And Campbell didn't want to go in her class, then she was about to walk in happily when I called her back out to fix her pants (they really needed fixing).  I was pretty afraid that she wasn't going to go in at all after that but she did walk right in.
• Of course Whitman and Reagan went right in their classes-Whitman must like Bible study even though his class room is tiny, tiny-there are usually only 2 babies in there (counting him) and 2 workers.  When Bible study was over, we battled the light sleet and went back to the car.
• Once in the car, I tried to figure out our plans-were the roads ok enough to go to Haskell and Benton?  The vote from Pops and Robby was that they were and we headed down the road to Haskell to pick up something from Craigslist.  We did stop to pick up McDonalds on the way and then I started seeing wrecks-3!  Eeek.  But soon I had picked up my stuff and was heading to see Beebee.
• I had questioned going to Beebee's place after seeing those wrecks but again Pops and Robby said I had made it that far, so on we went.  She was surprised to see us since she had called and said not to come because of the weather.  Earlier I had told the kids that we wouldn't get to see her and Campbell cried saying "but I want candy."  But my Anderson said "it is really a bummer when we don't get to see Beebee on the days we usually go."  
• The kids talked to Beebee today and told her about their Bible study classes.  Of course they had some candy and then she passed on dollar bills for everyone.  Anderson, that sweet, sweet child, gave me his money and said "I don't want it."  I told him that I didn't mind holding it for him and he explained that he didn't want it.  I am always saying that we do not go to see Beebee for candy or money.  I explained to him that Beebee had plenty of money and giving him that money made her happy.  That appeased him and he stuck that dollar bill back in his pocket.
• Heading back home was uneventful and when we almost made it home, Jason called saying that church was cancelled.  And really that was the very best thing that could have happened to us-gave me more time this afternoon to work, gave us more time to drop off the kids and we even had a few more minutes after dropping everyone off tonight.  Of course that winter weather has cancelled our early morning flight for tomorrow morning but we are already rescheduled on another one so hopefully that will all work out.  If our flights work out tomorrow it is probably a good thing since the early morning flight would have been difficult.  And with just us (and not the kiddos) tomorrow, we aren't stressing about the unknown.  
• This afternoon, I worked and the kids played upstairs and watched some tv.  Unfortunately, Whitman and Keaton didn't sleep that long but everyone was a in a good mood and I was able to get most things done that I needed to.
• Robby was soon home and we decided to eat pizza at Nonna's house before dropping the kiddos off.  Pizza was good and the kids were excited to start their vacations from us.  My Keaton wasn't too happy when we left-she was just had her hands over her eyes and acted all pitiful.  I am pretty sure that most of it was show!
• Then we dropped the boys off and they cared a lot less about seeing us go.  I think they were anxious to get out their paper airplane books-this was the first activity that they wanted to do on their vacations.  Anderson did want to watch the Razorbacks play basketball so they probably squeezed that in to.
• Back at home, Robby and I packed our bags and then sat on the couch like always finishing our nightly routine-but tonight we didn't have to worry about anyone calling us upstairs-I guess that our vacation has already started!