We have another FIRST for our family. Allen and I decided that we were ready to try a family vacation on our own -- no grandparents or other extended family travelled with us this time. It was our first trip without help, but with all four kids.
Yesterday, we drove to Hot Springs -- a total of about four-and-a-half hour drive, but broken up by a lunch-stop about halfway. The kids read or slept most of the way, but Will played 20 (or 50+) Questions with Allen. The game started out sort of like this:
Allen: Okay, I have something in mind.Will: Is it a squirrel? (No)Is it a pine tree? (No)Is it a magazine? (No)Is it a blue shirt? (No)Does it have a favorite color? (No)Is it a school bus? (No)Is it a gray squirrel with a bushy tail? (No)Without a tail? (No)I give up. This is just too hard!
If Will gave up, Allen got to go again, so Will began to get grumpy. Allen and I started working with him on breaking down the categories, and soon the questions progressed to:
Will: Is it natural? Is it alive? Is it man-made? Is it bigger than a person? Can a person go inside it? Does it move? Does it have wheels? Does it have four wheels?
He was actually getting somewhere... then the trouble began. Will got to answer while Allen asked, but Allen gave up at about question #50. The answer? A super-bionic chicken express gun! Allen quickly learned and started all his question-rounds with "Is it something you made up with your imagination?"
We rented a three-bedroom cottage on Lake Hamilton, and got there mid-afternoon after a quick stop at the grocery store for the few things I didn't feel like packing from home. Allen unloaded the car while I set up the kitchen and unpacked the food. The kids explored inside for a few minutes (it doesn't take long to look through about 1100 square-feet,) chose their rooms, then played outside on the swing and with the horseshoes. We had dinner at a German restaurant downtown, and the kids impressed me with their appetites for new foods (Jager Schnitzel, Pasta Bolognese, Sauerbraten, and some sort of Roulade.) Everyone had a different favorite, but I was surprised how eagerly the kids devoured the marinated red cabbage. We topped it off with dessert ... just because dessert everyday means we're on vacation.
Bedtime had some challenges. The kids were sharing beds, kicking each other, pulling covers, giggling, getting up to go potty fourteen times -- all things we expected. They finally were all dozing around ten. We were surprised to wake up at THREE IN THE MORNING!! Ben had turned on the light, woke Will, and the two of them started their normal morning wrestling match on the king-sized bed. They didn't understand that it wasn't anywhere close to wake-up time, and they kept trying to get up for the day again and again. Around six thirty, we gave up on sending them back to bed.
We were out the door by 8:30, and we headed to Crater of Diamonds State Park. It was a beautiful one-hour drive through the edge of the Oachita National Forest. At the park, we went through the visitor center just long enough to get a vague idea of what we should look for -- yes, you really can find diamonds at the park. We rented some basic equipment for mining the gems and headed out for the dirt fields. The kids started off a bit cranky -- there was only one shovel and all of them wanted it. It didn't take long for them to start filling their bags with rocks. Though their finds were not gems, by my standards, they were excited at their growing treasure. Ben and Will soon took off to make piles of big rocks, Allen and I looked for the little shiny rocks that could be worth something, Jon filled a bag with pretty rocks, and Maddie filled hers with all pink and purple stones. Maddie got bored before the others, but all three boys could have been in heaven -- we were encouraging them play in the dirt ... and dig ... and gather as many stones as they wanted! Allen and the boys headed for the water to try sifting there, while I stuck around and put up with Maddie's tantrum. Sadly, she decided to make her point by dumping her rocks. When I didn't react, she tore up her bag. When I still didn't react, she wadded it up and threw it. I had to do my own sort of meditating to not lose it myself. So... all the boys came home with sacks of pretty rocks, and some other little girl will be delighted to find a pile of all pink and purple rocks out there in the field. I put the ripped sack in my pocket and Maddie sobbed until we sidetracked her with lunch.
After lunch in the car we headed back to town. We got back to Hot Springs two hours later (we took a few scenic detours to make them sleep a bit longer,) just in time to spend the late afternoon at Garvan Woodland Gardens. This place was gorgeous and only the early bulbs were in bloom! I'd love to see it early summer when lots more are blooming. It was fabulous for the kids even if the train garden didn't have the three trains going while we were there. There is a neat garden created just for kids -- lots of neat bridges, endless places to climb and hide, even a few waterfalls to get wet in on a hot day. The gardens have several interesting structures -- my favorite was the church (see bottom photos), but the half-moon bridge was a close second (probably because it reminds me of a painting I did that is handing in my parents' home.) The kids all had a great time, but I didn't get too many pictures of them. Ben was constantly running, so all my pictures of him are blurry. Will still doesn't like looking at the camera, either, but Maddie and Jon cooperated plenty.
The kids requested pizza for dinner, so we had pepperoni and pineapple pizza at place with a train that drives around all the rooms of the restaurant. At dinner we each told what our favorite part of the day was -- Ben loved collecting rocks, Will enjoyed climbing rocks, Maddie liked the flowers, and Jon liked the train at the pizza place.
We INTENTIONALLY wore the kids out so bedtime would go smoother, but it still seemed to take longer than we planned. We discovered a challenge to having only one bathroom with four potty-trained kids -- all of them have to do #2 when we are trying to get them all to sleep... maybe next time we need to stagger bedtimes so there isn't such a long line at the john.
