Arkansas Adventure

We had a great time in Arkansas for Spring Break. We went to Lake Catherine State Park, where Robert and I had gone last October. While we loved going by ourselves, we found ourselves saying more than once, "the kids would love this", so we decided to take them. This trip was very different from our romantic get away, but it was wonderful in it's own way. We took a LOT of pictures (I think 600 or 700!), but I've narrowed it down to about 20 or so - still a lot for one post, but that's just the way it's going to be.

Day 1 (Sunday): After spending the night Saturday night with MeMe and CeCe, we headed into Arkansas. We stopped for lunch at a great Mexican place that Robert and I had found on our last trip. As you can see from the pictures, everyone was in a good mood.

We arrived at Lake Catherine around 1:00; after checking in, we enjoyed feeding the ducks and geese, skipping rocks, and just hanging out by our cabin.

That evening we toasted marshmallows in the fireplace and had s'mores.

Day 2 (Monday): We started the day with a 2 mile hike that took us to a small waterfall.

After our hike, we rented a boat and enjoyed the afternoon on the lake. All three kids got to take a turn at driving the boat.

Day 3 (Tuesday): We drove to Hot Springs (about 20 minutes away) and hiked up to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower to look down on the city.

On the hike back down, we stopped for a picture. The kids couldn't resist making silly faces.

That evening we attended a St. Patrick's Day parade. It wasn't much as far as parades go, but the kids enjoyed it.

The highlight was getting to meet the Grand Marshall of the parade, John Ratzenberger (Cliff from "Cheers" and the voice of a bunch of Pixar characters). It was hard to get a good picture, but you can see part of all three of our kids in this one - he shook each one's hand.

Day 4 (Wednesday): We spent most of the morning packing up, but did take a few minutes to get some family pictures by our cabin: