Ar-Kansas

One of my favorite cousins, Derek, had been begging our family to make the road trip south to visit him and his wonderful family in Arkansas. Eventually, he talked to the right person and Grandpa decided that he could use his frequent flier miles and get us all down there!


So, in mid October, we all boarded the plane for the 1.5 flight south (much better than the 10.5 hour drive!). This was Victoria’s third trip in an airplane and Marlee’s first. Victoria was beyond excited to get on the plane. As we walked through the airport, she kept asking “where’s the plane?”, “where’s the plane?” When we got on the plane, she waived to the pilots, crawled into seat, buckled her own seatbelt and patiently waited for takeoff. Once in the air she kept saying “this is so fun!” She was a great little girl and loved going back and forth from sitting by Grandma, then Mommy and then Daddy. We were lucky that we were all sitting by each other, but all got to spread out to have open seats by us. Marlee was also fantastic, and played and played and finally closed her eyes, cuddled into Mommy and fell asleep.

On Friday, the boys played in a golf tournament and we girls went to this adorable nail salon that had a princess parlor. Victoria was lucky enough to get a manicure AND a pedicure. She chose the color blue and sat perfectly still as the lady trimmed, filed, lotioned and polished her nails. They didn’t stay perfect for long, but it was still a great experience and she LOVED it :) This salon also had an adorable boutique where Marlee modeled some items and was spoiled by Aunt Linda with fun little hat :)

Saturday night, with the girls in Grandma and Grandpa’s care, Ted and I got to go out and spend some adult time with my cousin Jody, my cousin Derek and his wife Hannah. We were toured around Dickson Street and enjoyed drinks, conversation and entertainment via Derek and Ted. Those two are pretty entertaining separately, but you put them together and you can’t help but laugh :)

We spent the rest of the weekend at Aunt Linda and Uncle Stan’s house relaxing, eating, and visiting. My cousins Derek and Jody each have 3 kids of their own, and the girls just LOVED all the attention that they got from all of them. The youngest ones, Sadie and Genna reenacted their Christmas skit, and Victoria jumped in to join their dance routine. It was ADORABLE! I wish I would have caught it on video, but I did get her standing “on stage” with them.  Aunt Linda and Victoria also played "make-up" and they both had a fun bath in the kitchen sink :)

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma we had a very fun-filled, relaxing vacation with family that we don’t get to see nearly enough. It was just what the doctor ordered :) Thank you G and G!!!