Arkansas!

     The end of May Eldon had 2 weeks off work and we had a trip planned to Arkansas to visit friends and to host my family reunion in Missouri. We left our camper behind for this trip which meant we got to spend a night in a motel, much to the children's delight. We discovered that Comfort Suites offer a room with a hide-a-bed and a full breakfast for a decent price so we were happy! Our overnight was in Omaha, NE. Eldon's travel company is based there so he was happy to finally meet his boss and go out to breakfast with her the next morning. 

We made good use of the pool!

We were given the option to go with Eldon but these guys weren't about to miss a motel breakfast 😂

     We have dear friends who ever so kindly let us stay at their home even though they were gone most of the time. We ended up being there much less than anticipated but loved relaxing on this porch every chance we got!

Betty Jane kindly hid money in the toys for the children to find. Michael made it his mission to find every single bill!

     Saturday afternoon Eldon helped his previous boss, and neighbor load hay. The children and I dashed around town going to as many thrift stores as possible. Their reward for being so good was ice cream sundaes.

We walked around the square and admired the many flowering trees and bushes while eating our snack.

     Sunday was a busy day. After church, Calvin and Judy invited us to their house for lunch, along with several of their children and families. It's always good to catch up with friends!

These 4 year olds were perfectly happy playing in the their own corners.

We had lunch by the creek.

Emily was a bit leery of the water once they started catching crawdads.

Good times!

Wearing out.......

Makayla was delighted that Shohreh came by, especially to see her!

     Eventually we headed to another friend's house for the evening. With 4 young couples there was children everywhere!

They even set up a bounce house!

So fun!

     We had a lovely evening, despite the mosquitos being so thick. Around 9:30 we were thinking about leaving, but we didn't. As it goes sometimes with friends, the conversation just gets good.....then crazy. At midnight the guys fired up the grill and made the rest of the hamburgers and hot dogs. We did end up at home sometime after 2 a.m. The children were astonished that we would let them stay up that late! It was well worth dragging them (and us) out of bed the next morning!

By midnight the mosquitos had cleared out so we moved our party back outside.

     Monday we headed over to Huntsville to visit my Aunt Barb and Uncle Ken. She prepared a lovely meal for us. It was fun to get a tour of their new place and see some cousins again too. Eldon and my cousin Doug (also an RN) could hardly get done talking.

It was a little breezy!

Barb had Makayla help her water her many flowers. 

      Tuesday we had a very sweet friend offer to babysit so we could go on a date. The children were SO excited to go to Angi's house again and had a great time. Eldon and I had a leisurely lunch then went grocery shopping 😃.
     Tuesday evening our previous neighbors, Henry and Loretta, invited us out for supper. Again, we had a great meal with great friends!

The children loved the new swing set!

Ethan was surprised to discover that he liked watermelon!

 

Only one of Loretta's many flower displays!

Michael being a great entertainer to his friend Hudson!

     So yes, our week ended up being much busier then we planned but it was a good busy! Having lived in Arkansas for the first 8 years of our married life (and 2 years before that), we have lots of memories and friends here. A huge thank-you to all of our friends who took time to spend with us!