Arkansas Vacation - Part 1

We are back in Iowa! Our trip to Arkansas was: adventurous, nerve-wracking, frustrating, memorable, relaxing, delightful, exciting, and super fun.

We got off to a little bit later start than I wanted to last Monday due to a golf tournament Trace participated in. My intentions were to leave by 5:00 p.m., preferably earlier if at all possible, but needless to say, that certainly did not happen. In fact, we didn't leave until after 7:00 p.m. I was upset and the first half of the trip was fairly quiet. It did get better though for awhile before it got worse.

We were clippin along really well, Aubri was sleeping, and there was hardly any traffic because we were traveling so late at night and early into the morning. Then in the blink of an eye, we were stranded on the side of a very curvy road with no shoulder with a flat tire. Ugghhh...the car was packed to the brim so we unloaded the entire trunk in order to get to the spare and quickly got to work changing the flat so we wouldn't get hit. Trace did a great job taking care of this. We re-loaded everything and were ready to keep traveling. By the way, it is 2:00 o'clock in the morning and Aubri is now awake! As we began to go there was definitely still a problem...the car didn't want to go, there was a scraping noise, etc. Come to find out, the front rim was bent causing it to catch on the brake caliper. Trace drove ahead with it scraping until we found a place with a little more room to pull over to get off the road since we were probably going to be there awhile. This really stunk. 1 bent tire frame, 1 flat tire replaced with a spare, stranded in the middle of nowhere in Missouri. The dollar signs were rollin. I called my dad to let him know our dilemma and ask him to come rescue us. We were still about 1 1/2 to 2 hours from their house. While he started out, I called 911 to see if they could help us figure out where the heck we were. The dispatch lady, Charlene, was wonderful and got us a deputy right away. Long story short, this all took about 3 hours, deputy arrived; tow truck arrived; moved some tires around to get us to Paragould, and we were on our way again. We met my dad up the road a ways and followed him home. I think we got to my parents house around 6:00 a.m. It was a very long couple of days and we were wiped out (but thankful to be there safe and sound)!

This is where we finally pulled over; reminded us of a ghost town, a very old gas station with a barn to the right .

These are pictures in the daylight! We captured them on the way back

This was Aubri's 1st introduction to Matti, an English Mastiff. She was impressed and completely unafraid!

She wanted to give hugs and kisses immediately. It took Matti a little longer to relax.

The main reason for our trip to Arkansas was for graduation. My baby sis was graduating from High School. WOW!! I cannot believe it's this time already. We went for the week to be a part of everything, including commencement and her party, and to spend some relaxing time away from Iowa.

My family hasn't seen Aubriana since last October so they were excited to spend some time with her as well. We all had tons of fun together enjoying her and she put on quite a show.

Our week with my family was wonderful, filled with lots of food, fun, laughter, and enjoyment.

Tuesday, my mom, my sister, Aubri and me went to check out some of the sites down town and did a little shopping.

Me and Stacey

We stopped by Sonic for a quick snack outdoors!

Aubri has this new game of going "up & down", "up & down". Grandma was happy to ablige.

Next we took a ride on the trike. My parents have a Goldwing trike and are also memebers of CMA...Christian Motorcylists Association. It's too bad we weren't closer to be a part of the same chapter and be able to do events together.

Aubriana is on with us too, but you can barely see her!

Then Trace & I went for a little bit longer ride without her.

Aubri stayed close to Grandpa while we were gone.

Stacey has earings that fascinate Aubri.

More hugs for Matti.

This was an outing to Wings to Go for supper one evening. It was very good!

Trace is always showing Stacey new things on his phone...I can't remember what this particular one was.

Stacey, Aubri, and I went to get our toes done on Wednesday. This was Aubri's 1st time at a salon for this service. She did awesome!!

BEAUTIFUL!!

She loves to draw. Maybe she'll be an artist like her Aunt Stacey!

Grandma & Aubri enjoying the outdoors!

"Hello"

I love my little girl!!

There were a bunch of puppies across the street from my parents house so we went to visit them. Aubri absolutely loves animals, especially puppies and dogs.

...More to come