Mountain Home: Day 5

Wednesday morning we got up and drove down to Blanchard Springs Caverns. Crew loved the caves, mostly because of all the water, but it was a fun excursion.

Besides the water, the other highlight of the cave was the ship formation made in the limestone. Crew thought that was pretty awesome!

After the caves we went down to the spring. It is such a beautiful area.

From there we ate some lunch and played in the stream. Oh all the rocks! My boy was in heaven.

This area of the country is honestly so beautiful!

Mountain Home: Days 3&4

Monday Crew got to discover the amazing lakes of Arkansas. They have two huge lakes within 20 minutes of my grandma's house. They are the size of Lake Powell, but in the middle of northern Arkansas so nobody is really on them. They are warm and surrounded by beautiful trees which make them heaven for me! Crew had to concur. We just went swimming on this day. Crew wouldn't get out the entire 2 hours we were there. He loved it!

We finally convinced him that life jackets are good and he swam all over with us.

The next morning we had a great thunder and lightening storm! Crew and grandpa sitting on my grandma's porch watching the storm come over, pointing out lightening strikes and talking back to the thunder. It was a cute interaction to observe.

Crew also found time to get acquainted better with the John Deer Ride-on lawn mower.
You will notice in many pictures from this trip Crew is not wearing a shirt or shoes. I told you he felt right at home in Arkansas.

Tuesday afternoon we went bowling with the cousins.
Crew is so hilarious to watch. He loves it and bowled two games. He just doesn't wear out!
I had some amazing streak of luck! See the S row three down. See the 4 strikes in a row! Yeah, I'm looking into a career since my 170 was all talent and no luck!

The gang after bowling.

Crew spent the rest of the afternoon playing with some of his 2nd cousins in the yard. Nothing like an otterpop to finish of a fun day of play.

Mountain Home: Days 1 & 2

Saturday morning we caught a 7 am flight to Phoenix, where we met up with my parents and left at 9:30 for Tulsa, Ok. We got in about 2 their time, got a rental car and started our 4 hour drive down to Mountain Home, Arkansas. This is where my mom grew up and where I spent about a month of all my summers growing up. It is wonderful and it was so good to be back and introduce Crew to his Arkansas roots. He was right at home and had a blast this trip. Since there is so much to include from our week, I will break it down a bit. After we got into town the first night we went to the local firework show. It was sooooo hot and humid but the fireworks were amazing! This is my Grams with them. She is the reason we get to come here! Crew LOVED the fireworks! He was laughing and woohooing the entire half hour and it was honestly one of the best shows I have ever seen!

Got to love this face

Just a glimpse of what all the fuss was about!

Another fun thing about our first night there was Crew discovering fireflies. I wish I could have caught it on camera but they are everywhere lighting up all the field and grass. Crew thought they were pretty cool but wasn't too sure about holding one yet.

The next day after church, we drove down to Bull Shulls State Park by the White River. It was a mush cooler day so it was great to be out seeing all the beauty around us. Not a great picture of mom and I but it is rare both photographers are in one together!

Crew loved playing down by the river. Nothing like throwing rocks, playing with sticks and watching the local fishermen!

It was a great start to the week and just be prepared for a lot more to come!

Grandma and Grandpa Come to Play!

We have been so excited for Grandma and Grandpa Allen to come out and visit us! They got here Sunday evening and we completely wore them and us out! Most of these pictures are from one day but I will post more when I get some from their camera. Anyway, Wednesday we went to the Getty Center. It was such an amazing place! Here is our favorite fountain.

Another pic with the fountain. The only kind of bad thing about this place was Crew was seriously being red flagged everywhere he went. Not entirely kid friendly but it didn't help that he was touching paintings and throwing rocks in the gardens! Whose kid is that anyway?One of the highlights from the whole experience was taking the tram to and from. Crew loved it.

After the Getty we took them to Malibu to our favorite Zuma beach. It was pretty overcast and chilly when we first got there but after about a half hour the sun came out! Thank goodness! It was still a bit cool but a lot of fun.

Crew's new favorite thing is being buried in the sand.

He also still loves jumping the waves and just running in general on the beach.

Matt and Dave did some pretty intense body surfing! Check out this wave! It looks like a tsunami is coming!

After a few hours on the beach we went up to the nearby tide pools at Point Dume. It was really fun to find all the star fish and other sea life. Matt found this dead starfish. Poor guy!

Crew even got brave enough to touch the starfish.

The week went way too fast but we had a lot of fun! We love visitors especially grandmas and grandpas! Thanks Allens for such a great week!

Christian's Visit

Christian and his buddy Ben came over Sunday to spend a couple days with us. We loved having them! Sunday night Crew and I took them to the Observatory while Matt was at meetings. It was a fantastic night!


Crew actually asked me to take this picture of him with Einstein
We saw this hawk in a tree right by the Observatory! It was so beautiful

The boys

Monday we went to Chinatown and ate at Yang Chow's.

Crew was really good at eating his fruit snacks with his chop sticks

Christian ordered for us in Chinese which was really fun. It was pretty good but Christian swears the slippery shrimp was the best shrimp he has ever had. I will just take his word on that one.

Exploring Chinatown After Chinatown we hit Santa Monica beach. It was a great day and we did some serious sandcastle building!

Pretty impressive huh?

The boys showing off their muscles

Matt, Ben and Christian did some body surfing. Crew and I are all about jumping waves but the water is still pretty chilly to get totally in! Christian couldn't find his swimsuit so he had to borrow Matt's which was way too big! He tied Ben's shoelace around it to keep it up. He looked pretty funny with his hobosuit and could barely keep it on in the waves!

I look supper nasty in this picture, but check out these gorgeous purple trees in the background. They are everywhere right now and I love them! This was saying goodbye to the boys this morning. We really loved having them and miss them already!