Arkansas Weekend

The boys and I went to Bella Vista, Arkansas with my parents, sister and niece for the weekend.  It was such a nice get-away - except that Ben couldn't come with us.  He needed to save a vacation day for our upcoming trip to Illinois for Thanksgiving.  So, the rest of us took off on Friday morning.  I quick long 5 hour drive later we arrived at our destination.  

 We got right to work playing football.  The house we stayed in didn't have much of a yard.  Most of it was on a steep downhill slope and all of it was covered with rocks.  Noah was just about in a crying fit when I finally got him to hear me saying, "There's a grassy area just down the street.  We can go play there!"  Phew!  We played LOTS of football - hours worth of football over the weekend.

My dad worked with Noah on learning to tie his shoes (or in this photo the drawstring on his pants).  The difference in the size of their fingers is pretty amazing.  My dad has fantastic big farmer fingers.

 The leaves on and off the trees were gorgeous.  The weather was absolutely perfect for spending every possible hour outside and we did our best to enjoy all of it.  

 Saturday we walked on the nature trail, checked out some lakes,

 the waterfall and tried to take in all the small things that we so easily pass by without noticing.

 I let Noah walk with me right next to the waterfall, where the rocks were slippery and the water splashed on us - he thought it was "really cool!"

 We made and ate wonderful food, we laughed, told stories and spent good time connecting and relaxing together.