Day 1
I was definitely
too excited to sleep much! Despite going to bed around 11:30pm (don’t tell our
moms!) we got up around 3am. By we, I mean that I got up at 2:30am and Stephen
started waking up around 3:25am. Both of our boys were distressed. They knew
the kids had left. They knew there were bags out and preparations being made.
All of this could only mean one thing to them, we were leaving! Frank went
straight to pouting. Kaden went from a Class 5 Clinger to a Class 10 Clinger.
LITERALLY under my feet! Well, maybe not literally. He was definitely between
my feet. I tried to walk away but as soon as I stood still for 1 second, Kaden nosed
between my knees! Add to all of this, Kaden hurt his paw. My bad. I feel
terrible! However, he took it like a man until he got home from the vet fixing
it. Then he was all pouty.
It looks
terrible. But really it would be like you having that little bit of skin on the
outside of your pinky finger pulled up. Hurts like the dickens because it is
such a surface wound, but no big deal. To fix it we had three options. Judge me
if you will, but I went for the least involved and cost effective one. I was
there with him the whole time! The vet cleaned it, Kaden didn’t even start
breathing hard. She, the vet, took some surgical scissors and snipped like you
would for a hang nail. Kaden only looked at her and laid his big head back next
to me. No whimpering. No heavy breathing. Just looked at us. He didn’t show any
signs of stress until she cleaned the area again. He gave ONE whine as if to
say, “What did you just do?” Because it was a foot wound, she had to put lots
of bandaging on it. She also put numbing medicine on it for him. Those of you
who have puppies and have ever trimmed their claws a little too close know
exactly what I am talking about!
Anyway…oh! ….
HAHAHAHAHA! Every time Kaden goes outside, he has to wear this little plastic booty!
The first time I put it on him to go outside for a bathroom break, he kicked
back SO hard the door he was standing next to slammed VERY loudly into the
cabinet! Obviously, he is not a fan of it! I changed the dressing while Stephen
loaded the truck and we were off!
Interlude – I’d love to say I stayed awake and was a
wonderfully supportive wife while he drove, but that would be a lie!
Southern AR is….smelly….flat….dirty….not somewhere I would
ever WANT to live. However, if God sends us there one day I will deal with it
and have fun. Enough said.
North of Little
Rock, as in an hour or so, it starts to get much more to my liking! No joke! We
breathed in the fresh air and laughed! It was so much cleaner and more pure
than anything we have smelled in a LONG time! No humidity! Well, that isn’t
true. Comparatively, no humidity. MS delta has some killer humidity! Southern
AR has SEVERAL paper mills along our route. So, if you are from or live in
those areas, I am not insulting you. This Yankee prefers the fresh air of
Northern areas! After arriving here, at our wonderful little room we explored a
nearby stream. I am sure that those of you who remember me from days past are
wondering what in the world got in to Stephen that would make him think I would
ever enjoy fishing. I do horses &
dogs, I don’t typically do fish. When we were younger, our fishing sprees were
cane pole fishing. Believe it or not, I LOVE going fishing with Stephen!
Beginners Luck is still mine! He gave me a great rod with a smoother than butter
reel and a magic lure! Ok, maybe not magic. But I caught maybe four or five
little fish! Stephen even taught me to take them off the hook by myself!!!!
(Are you proud, Daddy?) We returned to our room and figured out the details of
the kids joining us for this trip. Don’t stress! There was a death in their
mom’s side of the family. We wanted the kids to be with her for the funeral.
(We are on Day 3 and I am SO stinking excited because they should be here in
about an hour!!!!!!!!!!! 😤
Day
2
I have never seen Stephen pop out of bed
so quickly in my life! Not even to get married! Now, you men chuckle and might
even say, “Come on, Elizabeth. Marriage is just a ball and chain!” Stinks to be
you! My husband is one of those that got so antsy when we got down to the wire
it drove me up the wall! I was excited to get married, but I was bride! I mean,
come on! There were so many details to get straightened out that if we had
delayed the wedding simply to get those details smoothed out, I would have been
happy! Don’t get me wrong, I was VERY excited to marry Stephen and for the four
of us to be a family! I mean come on, how many women get to pick out their
children BEFORE they get married?! Back on track, let’s get back to the story!
Stephen popped out of bed, downed
breakfast and was impatiently waiting on me to drink my coffee, put on
sunscreen, eat breakfast, and apply enough hairspray to HOPEFULLY hold up
against riding in the boat. Therefore, being the self-sacrificing wifey that I
am, I sent him to put the boat in the water, on the far side of the lake. Oddly
enough, I was done 5 minutes after he left. I got some SWEET photos of the
water and sky. The sky up here is just so beautiful! The clouds are huge as
they prepare to cross the Ozarks! Once again, Stephen set me up with my
fabulous fishing gear! I caught several fish! No keepers. 😢 However, my
Favorite caught four keepers! We debated the first two on the grounds of we
weren’t sure we wanted the hassle of cleaning fish. When Stephen landed a large
mouth bass, well, that fish is a game changer! We kept the next one we caught
as well wishing the whole time we had kept the first two! He dropped me off to the truck while he drove
the boat to our side of the lake. NERVE RACKING for me to drive the truck with
the trailer! No harm could have come unless I just went psycho and didn’t
think. I did think. I did not go psycho. But this is part of Stephen’s favorite toy! Around 12:30pm, we were back
to the room to eat lunch and then off to Mammoth Springs! We found a sweet
little spot on the river and started trout fishing! Some point between this
morning’s fishing session and the post lunch fishing, Stephen decided that MY
fishing gear was now his. The nerve of some people! However, I still hooked the
first trout! And I still let the first trout get away! Ha ha! Yeah, I didn’t
even think about how simple it would be for the trout to give a good flick of
its tail, flip a bit, and hop off my hook! If we (meaning me) had remembered to
bring the fishing net, we would have had 9 fish in about 2 hours. However, I
did not. So we had four fish! We tried two other areas on the same river but
none were as sweet as the first! At the last place, I did find a nest of
poisonous water snakes! I wasn’t bitten. I stepped on to a rock to get a better
angle for fishing. There were no snakes on the rocks above me, the rocks to my
right, but definitely to my left! About 5? I think. 3 of them shot straight
into their little hole, but two tensed up so I said, “Peace out!” and went back
down by my hubby.
Dinner was grilled trout, grilled corn on
the cob (slathered with butter and sprinkled with salt,) and some delicious
cold veggies!
Day
3
I woke up way too early! We didn’t go to
bed until 11 something pm. The prospect that my Kyle & Abby will be here in
the next hour or so made me wake up at 5am! Thankfully, their drivers are
responsible and following speed limits. I on the other hand, would love for
them to be here NOW! I want them to see this place! I want them to come fishing!
I want them to come hiking! I want them to go down to the little beach outside
of our back door and play in the water & sand! I want them here! They have
been gone a week and I get a little bored when they aren’t here. I love my
Stephen to pieces! We have had SO much fun! However, when you tell me my babies
are almost here….well, I sleep for less than 6 hours (I didn’t fall asleep
until after 1:30am) and have to exercise just to keep from bouncing off the
walls!
The coffee? Why the coffee you ask?
Because I LOVE the taste of coffee! What kind? Well, Starbucks pre-ground
French Roast drip brewed in a paper filter. I am sure that many of you are
snickering behind your hands at that. Elizabeth? Drinking drip brewed coffee?
PRE-GROUND drip brewed coffee?? HAHAHAHAHA!
My response to you is this: I am on
vacation. The nearest coffee shop is miles away. I am cheap and don’t want to
pay more than it is worth. Therefore, I will doctor it up with some Stevia and
Coconut Milk and be happy!
Day
4
Our
babies arrived and we immediately packed up for an adventure! If you ever get
the opportunity to tour caverns, do it! Granted we took the lovely scenic route…over
Green Mountain! It was hilarious! Well, looking back it was hilarious. In the
moment, it was terrifying because we were sliding down hills while Stephen had
the brakes fully engaged! Because of our new route, we were able to see a huge
black bear! It was GREAT! Shortly thereafter we spotted a beautiful spring and
stopped for some lunch. There were some absolutely beautiful butterflies! Once
we got to the caverns, the kids were SO excited they were bouncing all over the
place! It was absolutely gorgeous in there! Kyle & Abby were eating it up! Our
guide was very sweet and called on both of our kids for answers. I think today
was definitely a big hit! We took the less scenic and safer way back to the
condo where both kids flopped to the couches and were soon asking if they could
go to bed! They had climbed 700+ steps and walked 1.75 miles!
Day
5 – 7
The
rest of our days were spent in the fresh water springs, on the lake and in the
pool! We were all so exhausted at the end of each day that I was unable to
write down the specifics. If we had been able to stay for one more week, we
would have! It was so relaxing and perfect!
In
the days between June 6 and June 27, we filled every waking hour with playing
with friends, dogs, and being together. The time flew time quickly…too quickly.
This time around the kids were just as excited as ever, but there was a note of
sadness. They wanted to see their AR family, but we had been having so much fun
and we still wanted to do so much more together.
Judge
if you will, but the kids & I got up every morning and walked the river
front. After that we’d come back and giggle/talk over fruit smoothies, watch
movies inside of forts, do a few chores that usually ended up in games of tag
or spraying with the hose, read books (they actually enjoyed it after they
started their books! I had to MAKE Kyle put his books down sometimes!), play
Xbox with Stephen, eat more food….it was AMAZING!
Since
the kids left, we have just stayed busy. I still get up and walk the puppies.
Now I walk with a friend and it is nice to have an adult to talk with. LOVE my
babies, but conversations with adults were few and far between…except for
Stephen and he was usually wiped after work. My days are full of inside &
outside work, exercising, and napping. Ok, so not really napping every day.
Just on days after I’ve eaten a half of an 8x8 pan of dulce de leche brownies
by the Pioneer Woman. I miss them. I wish they could come home right now.
Tonight I got the surprise of going to dinner with a sweet friend. We laughed
and talked about everything. We got on the topic of Kyle & Abby. I miss
Kyle’s smirk when he tried to keep a straight face during a joke. I miss his
giant hugs that he had ready at the drop of the hat. I miss him coming in and
just rambling to me about whatever was in his brain. Anything from Legos, to
birthday ideas, to future aspirations, to new inventions he wants to try. I miss
Abby coming and asking me to spot her during her gymnastics practice. I miss
her doing yoga with me and praying at night that @beachyogagirl will see her
practicing. I miss her sweet prayers at night that Kyle have a good sleep so he
can have energy to play, Daddy sleep well so he can have a good day and be
happy at work, Nana & Papaw have good nights so that Nana can get stronger
and Papaw stay “happy and strong while he is showing Nana extra love,” Meme
Poppa & Mema have peace and love so that everyone can be happy. I miss
seeing her face when she knew her daddy had pulled into the drive after work! I
miss her evening snuggles and she tried to stay up later by asking to just hug
for a few more minutes.
Four
weeks and 22 hours and 17 minutes…..it can’t come quick enough….
