a getaway with mom

being with grandma is fantastic!

but being with my mom is the best!!!

chris had the first week of school of from work, just because. after the kids were in their school routine, chris let my mama and i have a little getaway! we headed up to bentonville for an overnighter and boy oh boy did we have an adventure!

we had plans to go to crystal bridges art museum the first day, but it was raining hard and the exhibit we wanted to see was outside. so after some soup and crepes at crepes paulette, we went shopping, naturally. then we headed south to fayetteville to go to Hugo's for burgers. mom was a fan!

after dinner we went back to bentonville, saw spider man, then grabbed some andy's. if you're keeping track, thats the second time we had andy's while she was visiting ;) we got to our hotel kinda late and watched a few episodes of good mythical morning before going to sleep. not having to tuck anyone in or tell anyone to brush their teeth or make lunches for school was heaven sent!

the next morning we went to crystal bridges to check out the dale chihuly exhibit!!! he has been my favorite artist since i was a kid. my mom and i watched a documentary once when i was about 11 or 12. his sculptures blew my mind and i was in awe. my mom on the other hand, hated him. he was in venice during the documentary and if a sculpture wasn't turning out the way he wanted, he'd take it behind the studio and smash it in the river. that didn't sit well with her. BUT she has put up with me liking him all these years and now we got to go see his exhibit together.

seeing chihuly was so fun! the only other time I've been able to see one of his complete exhibits was way back in february of 2010, while chris was in grad school.

we went inside and walked around the permanent exhibit at crystal bridges too. for some reason i only took pictures during the more abstract time periods.

this was a fun piece above a staircase. 

it was string in the color of the rainbow and changed with each step you took around the staircase.

we both enjoyed this drawing. it had all sorts of hidden oddities throughout it. i would have loved this as a kid, trying to see what i could discover!

this was a pile of candy on the floor that the artist wanted everyone to partake in. 

don't mind if i do!

these two sculptures were so real it was quite creepy.

we hit up a taco truck after the museum to fuel up for our next stop. also, i got stung by something while eating. not sure what it was, but my elbow sure swelled up!

war eagle caverns

we had a really great time! the cave was awesome and we had a fun and knowledgable tour guide. if theres one thing I've learned from the multiple cave tours I've been on over the years, its that tour guides definitely make or break a cave tour. we really liked ours at war eagle. i wish jack wasn't terrified of caves, because at different times of year, there are so many bats in here that you have to duck during the tour or else you'll brush your head against them! so cool! our kids would love that.

afterwards, the gps took us on some pretty sketchy back roads to get home. like, so sketchy that we couldn't stop laughing... hysterically... to keep from crying...

we got to one point and there was this really, really low bridge. the water came up right to the edge on both sides and the water was moving super fast. it just fed our hysterical laughter!

we finally made it back to civilization, made one last stop in fayetteville for some andy's hahaha (for her third and final visit), and then went home to 5 adorable faces. it was such a great time to be with my mom. she is my best friend and i love her more and more!

a day or two after our return, we watched the solar eclipse! because we didn't have glasses, we both tried to take a peek, were blinded before even getting close to the sun, and decided to watch it on tv instead. that was pretty boring so we made an amazing pan of nachos and said, "we'll remember this total eclipse for the rest of our lives because these nachos are out of this world!"