Thanksgiving in Arkansas!

On Tuesday, November 16, I left our home early in the morning to drive 15 hours to my parents home in Arkansas with the kids. The kids were SO great that day! We made several stops to take some breaks and were going to stop for the night after driving several hours, but they were so good that I just kept going and we got to my parents close to midnight. Tom flew in after work on Friday night and I was VERY happy to go get him at the airport...we got to stay at my parents' until the Saturday after Thanksgiving and had such a great time with them! The kids had a blast and we loved having grandparents to watch them overnight so we could get away for a little bit. Here's many, many pics from our trip: Taylor got to help Grandma cook almost everyday...she also loved getting to go grocery shopping with her. Here they're making whole wheat bread...yum!

playing at the park in my parents' neighborhood...

Christmas pajamas from Grandma...they've worn these tons since Thanksgiving!

Tom took this pic in my parents' front yard...

We got to go on an overnight date to Hot Springs. I actually surprised Tom with it...he just thought we were going on a date for a few hours, but I packed a bag for us and planned it out. It was so nice...grandparents are SO wonderful to have! We spent a few hours walking around downtown. They have this 'bathhouse row' with all these old bathhouses and one had been turned into a visitors' center/ museum and it was really interesting to see what the bathhouses were like!

this is where they would sit (with their heads sticking out) for the steam portion of their bath.

a bathtub...there were at least a 100 of these in just this one bathhouse. Can you see how grimy it is?

this was the gym...I was so fascinated by this and all the things they used to use to workout!

this is a rehabilitation center in Hot Springs...it was gigantic!

our breakfast the next morning at the bed and breakfast we stayed at...

the B & B, the 1890 Williams' house Inn

this was the outside of our room which was in the old carriage house where the carriages used to be parked...cool, eh?

on the front porch of the B & B

my parents bought this sailboat for $600 (my dad is very into sailing) and they wanted to take us out on it...it was a gorgeous day and a lot of fun. We bundled the kids up though (figured it'd be windy on the boat) and the poor things couldn't move an inch b/c of all their layers and life jackets.

We got a lot of laughs from our poor 'beached whaled' kids!

my dad's sweet potatoes...can you tell that he used the big marshmallows? ;-)

and my mom's delicious blueberry pie...

playing the hammer dulcimer

Taylor got into Grandma's markers and drew all over the walls, hardwood floors and her little brother! Thankfully it all washed up really well (the above picture is her cleaning her mess)...little stinker! ;-)

on our trip back we stopped overnight at a hotel in Kansas...it had this fun pool with a huge water slide. Max's outfit cracks me up b/c we only brought a swim diaper for him.

they went down the water slide lots and had so much fun! It was a long drive home but it was such a fun trip and so nice to have a week and a half with my parents and sister!