Arkansas Trip pics part 2

Arkansas Trip

First day: Sunday, got there around noon. At at Arby's about an hour before, had the kids do jumping jacks :)

That early evening, we went to a live manger scene at their church.

Monday: Hung out, kids played. Selah slept horrible. She started out in girls' room since she's used to sleeping w Ariella at night but that ended at midnight w Leah bringing her down to me. (The rest of the days were bad too...she'd go down fine but would wake up crying or coughing for hours a night. Other kids went to bed perfectly. All 5 boys were in parkers room) Had Abi and her friend Gabby watch all the kids so John, Leah, Nathan and I could go look at a house. After, they drove us around Bentonville and saw some landmarks like the Wal-Mart headquarters, the churches where the Duggar kids got married, things like that :)

Tuesday: Leah and I went shopping. First to Hobby Lobby...which took 2 hours bc I couldn't make up my mind for stuff I wanted! Leah was a trooper thru it all :) then over to Wal-Mart to Christmas shop. It surprisingly wasn't that busy, even though it was the day before Christmas Eve.  Nathan did some work stuff with John and then they went to meet up w Johns fantasy football league at the bar/grill in BV. John won and they got home after we ladies went to bed.

Wednesday: Opened 2 presents after breakfast and played. went to Christmas Eve service at their church. It was hard to keep the kids from playing w the led "candles" that were given to each of us at the beginning.

Thursday: Christmas. Opened presents from Santa at 6:30am. Hung out & played. Got up to 60 degrees.

Friday: Nathan and I went shopping at Hobby Lobby again. Got some more stuff for the house. Got packed up and ready to go in the morning.

Sat: Left at 6:51am. Stopped twice. Once in Kansas City at BK to eat. Other in Ames to gas up and potty. Home by 5:20, made it in 10.5 hours. With 6 kids 9 and under, I'd say that's pretty good!! We had great roads and the kids did perfect.

All in all, it was a great trip!!

Never Again

We left yesterday for the big road trip to Arkansas to see Leah and family for cmas! Our plan was to drive a little over half way, stay the night at a hotel, and then finish up the trip the next day. Then do the same on the way back. Well, that second half has changed. We stayed last night at the Comfort Inn in Bethany, MO and NEVER again (until the kids are at least teenagers) will we stay in a hotel w all the kids. It was a disaster. To keep 6 kids ages 9-1 quiet after theyve been in the car all day is not exactly an easy task. Then on top of that, Nathan didn't want to bring Selahs pack n play bc my sister has one to use while we are there, which makes sense, but for last night, it would have been worth having!! We tipped a chair over and created a place on the floor against the bed and the wall where she couldn't get out of, however, she did not like being down there so she'd cry and seeing how there were people on both sides of us, we wanted her to keep quiet. It took a long time to get her sleeping and then she was up several times during the night. And then between T & A coughing, I didn't sleep much at all. The best thing of the night was when I woke up and smelled someone's coffee....yes! It's the morning!!!

To make things worse, we were planning on having a fun night playing in the pool so the kids could burn off some energy. I mean, why else would the kids be excited to stay in a hotel, right?  Well, when we first got to the hotel, I walked in while everyone else stayed in the car. They were doing construction on the parking lot and there were only 2 other cars. I walked in and it was real dark inside. No one at the front desk....hmmmm... I looked around, nothing and nobody. So I started heading back to the front door to go out and saw a sign on the desk that said "I'm in the laundry room, 2nd door on the right". Ok..... So I walked down the hall, opened the door, and there was a young man folding laundry. "Um, hi...I need a room?" Sure he says. Then he goes "2 of you?" Yeah well, 2 adults, then our kids... (I knew what was coming). "And how many kids?" "....6?....but they r all little" he just stares at me. After a few seconds, he quickly shook his head and said "I'm just going to put down 2 so u don't have to get a second room" sounds good :)

So back to the pool...We got in, semi settled, and the kids couldn't wait to go swimming. We all got changed into our suits and headed down to the pool. We went past the front desk, and the guy smiled at us. We walked into the pool area and.....what?? It's under some sort of construction!!! There was a mud/paste all over the floor, there were cans and materials all over, the pool was dirty and there was no heat!! We turned on the lights in there and we so disappointed. The hotel guy didn't even say anything to us! The older 4 jumped in the freezing cold, dirty water quickly and swam for about 5 mins, then we told them it was time to get out. So it was about 4:00 with nothing to do and 6 kids ready to do something!

This morning couldn't come fast enough! We will be driving straight thru back home. No more hotel stays for us!!!

Christmas at Grandma & Grandpas

We had Christmas at mom & dads today since we will be with Leah and John for the real cmas next week!

We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, yummy!

The boys got handmade treasure boxes with a lock and key! Made in their favorite color.

Grandma also made each kid a pillow case (with pillow) with their initial on it for the car ride!

Grandpa has a video camera in his shed window that he can view on his phone (so he can keep track of his driveway and snow depths when they vacation in Arkansas), so when the boys go outside, they like to have Gpa what them make funny faces into the camera. :)

(It was 52 degrees today...all the snow is melting!! Makes for horrible fog though :/ ...plus its supposed to freeze tomorrow night)