A Trip to Arkansas

Matthew, Molly and I decided to make a trip to Arkansas this past week because Richard had a busy week at work. Usually the trip takes about 4 1/2 hours when I am traveling with the kids alone, but this time it took an extra hour...a very long extra hour! We were all quite ready to get out of the car when we finally arrived. Matthew was ready to run around outside and had a great time pulling out all of the ride-on toys, swimming in the pool and picking blueberries. Unfortunately our sweet guy is very allergic to mosquitoes. The first night we were there he got a bite right above his eye and woke up the next day looking like he had been in a fight! Poor thing...his eye had swollen shut and stayed that way for a few days. Now he just has a lovely red mark above his eye...I guess that's better than a swollen eye. Here is Matthew on his worst eye day...

While we were in Arkansas we got to visit Matthew and Molly's great grandparents in Little Rock. Mamaw Ann and Papaw Don were excited to see how much Molly had grown since they last saw her in March! She was very interested in papaw's glasses and had a great time playing with both of them! Mamaw had to speak up to pry Molly away from papaw! Matthew enjoyed "exploring" the house, playing with mamaw's canes, and telling them about what has been going on in his world. After visiting with them for a while we went to visit their other great grandparents, Memaw and Papa Harrington. It was fun letting all of them see Molly army crawl, "talk", and play with her big brother. Matthew's favorite thing to do at memaw and papa's was ride on memaw's walker and in her wheelchair...he thinks she's got it made! I am so glad our children are getting a chance to know their great grandparents...what blessings they are!

When we got back to Nana and Papa Doc's house, Nate, Zac, Ben and Aunt Kara were there waiting for us! Matthew and Molly had a great time playing with their cousins. Papa Doc had a special surprise set up for them when they got up from nap...a big waterslide! Those boys had the best time playing on that! They played for over 2 hours and were not happy about having to stop for the day! The next day Matthew had another special treat...he got to go to Nate and Zac's school. They invited him to attend a special event at their school. The kids played on the playground, rode bumper cars inside, ate pizza, watched a movie, and learned about our country's birthday. While the boys were at school, Kara and I had fun catching up and playing with the babies! Molly and Ben are still trying to figure each other out!

Later that day we got to see a dear friend of mine from growing up. She has two precious children and I had not gotten to meet them until that day. They are absolutely adorable and have the best mommy in the world! I think they had a great time riding on the four wheelers. They wore their mommy and daddy out trying to keep them from running into things! Thanks Abby for coming to see us!

After our friends left, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Jim arrived from Louisiana. They are so wonderful to Matthew and Molly and love them like their own grandkids! Richard let us stay a day longer so we could spend some time with them. We even got to see their son Josh the night before...he stopped by on his way back to Little Rock. After dinner they took Matthew to one of his favorite stores...Atwoods. When they got back Matthew had a cool new boat to play with in the tub! Thanks Mar-Mar and Jim! I think he enjoyed his special time with you!

We had a wonderful trip and look forward to our next trip "home"! Hopefully we will get to see some of our friends and family we didn't get to see on this trip!