Arkansas Road Trip

Serendipity Trail =)

We had one last big summer adventure! We took a road trip to Arkansas with the Richards! Eric and I aren’t huge fans of driving, and absolutely all of our children used to agree. When they were babies, they cried in the car. I used to sing Old McDonald’s Farm until I was absolutely hoarse and I’d moved on from normal farm animals to Old McDonald had a camel, fish, and any crazy thing I could think of. But last year when we went on our road trip to Fantastico, all the kids loved it! They played games, got excited about visiting new states, and have been asking for more! So when Abbey’s son Brendan was finally getting his wish to see Crater of Diamonds state park I asked if we could go too. We rented an airBNB and met them in Arkansas! And it was a pleasant drive! =)

We met them (with absolutely magnificent timing) at the botanical gardens in Hot Springs. It was beautiful there, so shady that we could enjoy it even though it was hot! The children’s discovery area was a blast, filled with dozens of beach balls. The kids could have played there all day! The tree house was incredible, and we got to feed koi thanks to some nice people that gave the kids the rest of their food. SO fun! Plus free with our Tulsa Botanic Garden membership, yay!

I want this red leafy thing, whatever it is =)

The kids loved this little garden scavenger hunt! They found most of them, including the peacock which we found right as we left. It was female so it also worked as a brown bird ;)

We love finding things with Serenity’s name =)

Rock climbing!

They had some cool bridges. I was looking for the cloud bridge but this was my favorite =)

The kids loved their two day sleepover in the airBNB. There was an air hockey table, a basketball game, and a pool! Everything needed for fun with friends =)

Saturday we drove down to Crater of Diamonds park. We totally lucked out. It was cloudy and cool! I definitely thought that activity would last only ten minutes if it was hot, but instead we stayed hours! The kids dug for awhile but then they started engineering dams in the stream. So fun! I came home with several rocks, including some heavy ones for painting and for the garden. DZ found one rock that we’ve decided is a diamond… it’s clear at least ;)

We loaded up with tools from the dollar store… they worked fine and everyone had their own =)

The kids enjoyed crepes for breakfast… and having B around to finish off all the food my kids didn’t eat was amazing. People keep saying that my kids will eat when they are teenagers but evidently that hasn’t happened yet.

The last day we found a nice little hike on Serendipity Trail about an hour towards home. It was the perfect end to summer!