Monday, November 2

dad's week off


chris had the 23rd-1st off of work. originally we planned to go south to crater of diamonds park and dig for diamonds and go camping for a couple days, but there was nothing but rain in the forecast so we had to quickly come up with plan b. we decided to go an hour and a half north to bentonville and spend the weekend there instead. 
our first stop was at war eagle mill for breakfast and exploring around the river.we had to leave pretty early to make it there in time for a scrumptious breakfast of biscuits and gravy, but it was well worth it, not only for the breakfast, but for the beautiful fall morning.











our next stop was at the Amazeum, which is the new children's museum right next to crystal bridges art museum. it was pretty small, but still a ton of fun!








they have a science lab that is sponsored by hershey's and luckily the experiment for the day was mixing and taste testing various flavors of chocolate. definitely our kind of experiment. even owen was able to get in on the action.



after the museum we went to the movies! we don't do that a whole bunch, so the kids thought it was pretty exciting. chris took jack to see goosebumps because he reads the books and, duh, its halloween. and i took the little ones to hotel transylvania 2 even though we didn't see the first one. it was a good way to relax a little bit and let owen take a nap.

afterwards we picked up dinner at chipotle and went swimming at the hotel. then we ventured out for some andy's frozen custard even though it was getting late and it was freezing outside. totally worth it.



good to the last drop!



 we came home sunday after church, but then did something really crazy. we drove BACK to rogers the next friday to meet...


the pioneer woman!!!


i don't know who was more excited, chris and i or jack and ellie. those two LOVE THE PIONEER WOMAN!
we waited in line for 2 hours to meet ree drummond and she was so incredibly nice. and oh my goodness, she is gorgeous. her eyes are stunning. she was able to sign books and plates (we grabbed a couple from her line for the kids teachers christmas gifts because they are huge fans), and chat, and take pictures, and even told charlie that she loved his name because her favorite dog is charlie.

owen was pretty fussy waiting in line, but when we got up to meet ree, he just kept giggling and it made ree laugh so hard and she kept saying "oh my word. stop it! you can't do this to me! who let him in here?!". it was so sweet.

walmart was actually a pretty great place to stand in line because they passed out waters and snacks and chris and the kids walked around and shopped for a couple things. in fact, chris was pushing owen in the stroller down an aisle before the signing started and ran into ree and the walmart crew on their way out to the signing.


as we walked away jack said "my palms are sweating!" and i asked if it was because he was so excited and he said "yeah! ... and she's really pretty too".

other than those two things, the only really exciting thing we did while chris was home was celebrate halloween!

we had the ward party on wednesday night that the young women were in charge of, so i was pretty busy with setting up and games for the carnival. chris had the hard job of keeping up with the kids and entering his chili in the cook-off. man oh man was his chili a winner! he smoked some tri tip and added sausage and bacon to it. then on saturday night we went to the smith's house for their annual halloween mexican fiesta! we ate so much good food and then the dad's took the kids trick or treating while the moms stayed back with babies to pass out candy.  when they returned the kids spread out their loot and had a huge trading party. the kids were like stock brokers on wall street. it was a great evening.


i made a chocolate bundt cake for the fiesta and decorated it with little skull cakes made with a pan that chris got me for our anniversary on the 22nd... thats true love right there :) 11 years with this man i love. chris was thoughtful enough to see what type of gift you're supposed to give on your 11th and it was steel. obviously that translates into a skull cake pan.


four of us were lumberjacks (even though owen refused to wear his beanie or let me draw more than a goatee), ellie was a cowgirl, and charlie decided to be superman again this year. 


2 comments:

Rikki Faustini said...

Man, I wish they let you comment next to each picture. There's was so much great stuff packed into this post. I guess what it all "bowls" down to though is you and your family are amazing and down right adorable!!

Rikki Faustini said...

So, I went through and looked at the pics again (as I usually do multiple times) and I noticed that Charlie and I have the same chucks and I LOVE YOUR "BOOTS":)