Monday, April 21, 2014

Our Short Weekend Get-Away

Late Friday afternoon we drove up into Arkansas for some family fun. I love driving in Arkansas....it's just so much prettier than this part of Lou-zee-ana (which I think is ugly.) While the fall gets lots of attention for all the wonderful leaves of every colors, the spring has some great colors as well.  I am totally in love with all the shades of green that's on display this time of year....from dark green to bright sour-apple green.  Just lovely!

 Friday night the kids were able to get some swimming in at the in-door pool at the hotel.  They had a blast! It's been such a long time since they had some swim time....possibly since last July 4th...or at least late July. No time for being "too cool" teenagers - they were just kids splashing around!

Our first stop Saturday morning was the Crater of the Diamond State Park.  While I would have loved for any of us to find a diamond large enough to pay for college, we just found some pretty rocks....and had lots of family fun.  I would go back. It's sort of smoothing and relaxing just digging in the dirt.  But I would NOT go in the summer!!  By the time we left at 11:15 the temperature was around 73ish...not that warm  - unless you are sitting in the middle of' an open field in long pants.  I can't imagine how hot it feels in the middle of the summer!

Our next stop after lunch was zip lining at Rowdy's Adventures.  This is our second time to zip line with the Rowdy crew.  We all had fun again. And, once again, I had a little trouble remembering/learning how to break at the end of the zip line.....But I did finally get it and, thankfully, I never knocked our guide off the woodened platform.  I'm sure he's grateful for that!

On our first visit two years ago, after we zipped over the river, we walked a bit then zipped back over the river.  But now the river is higher and the landing platform is not accessible, so we had to cross over on a rusted-out bridge.  Oh, my.  It's the stuff of nightmares!   We did not just walk about on the bridge, we were attached to a zip line.  I didn't ask, but I hope that bridge was inspected and found safe for  walking over....it's definitely NOT for a car! They had added lots of new wooden boards for us to walk on as many of the originals were no longer around. (We were told one story that Bonnie and Clyde had ditched a car at the foot of the bridge once long, long ago.)

I did have to laugh at the differences the harnesses we had to wear made us look. With Benjamin it just made his long thin legs look like pencils. With Drew and William it made their butts look flatter than ever. Then there's the girls....with our Jo-Lo butts.... Oh, well. Such is life.

I will say again, that while zip lining is lots of fun, I would not do this in the summer!  While this weekend it wasn't too hot, last time we went in May and it was almost way too hot!!  I would think that being in the trees it would be cool.  But no. This is the Deep South.  It's just hot.

We drove home Saturday evening so we could worship with our church for Easter morning.  Just a quick trip....but much needed. While the middle school is done with state testing, the high school is now looking at EOCs (end of course testing - a test that MUST be past to receive a grade), AP testing for college classes (William has two), and then finals (all classes - and there's no being excused from them if you have an A - EVERYONE takes a final in EVERY class).  Also, the high schoolers have a few projects to finish.  Drew's new job is keeping him busy, and I have am just about booked for all my available days to sub. It's like a mad sprint to the end of school. So, May is busy...the kids have camps in June....maybe in July we'll get away again.  Of course, by then we'll be looking for some cool temperatures, I'm sure. Summer is a-comin'!


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