Visit to NWA

On the weekend of May 21-23, we drove to Guy and Julie's house in Centerton. Mitch took the afternoon off and we hit the road around 1:30. Julie is having knee surgery in a few weeks and we knew it would be awhile before we were able to see them again. We made pretty good time and the kids were doing fine on the trip, but we were getting hungry, so we stopped in Alma at Braum's to get a bite to eat. We got the kids a chicken strip meal and let them share it. As usual, Ainsley did most of the eating, but we offered some to Will. We were not paying much attention to him, when suddenly Will said "I want a tator tot" and reached for a chicken strip. We didn't correct him, but he put it in his mouth and took a big bite (big for him). Mitch and I looked at each other, amazed. Will continued to take several bites of the chicken strip throughout the meal, even after the rest of us had finished. We had to let him keep eating. This was a very big deal for Will, who has major eating issues (we called it the "miracle at Alma". That's a whole other post. Anyway, after he finished, we got some ice cream similar to a DQ Blizzard and got back on the road. We got to Guy and Julie's house around 8:30. We kids were very active after a long trip, so they danced and jumped around, did flips, and generally burned off some energy. They were both very sweet to Shepherd. Ainsley is still very interested in him and you definitely see her "mothering" tendencies come out. She even shared her beloved Brownie Bear with him.



Shepherd is 5 months old now, but here is one of my favorite pictures of him - when he is about 3 months old. It looks just like my dad to me here. I know he would just eat Shepherd - and Will and Ainsley - up!

Shepherd looks a lot like Julie's brother and nephew Elliott, but looks a lot like Guy and my dad at other times too.

On Saturday we got up and went to the Farmer's Market that is held in downtown Bentonville each week. Mitch got some sugar snap peas. The kids played in the fountain and then we headed over to a nearby park.

We had packed a picnic lunch and took turns eating while the kids played. They had a great time and were not ready to leave, as usual.









That evening, we went to Julie's nephew's birthday party. William was turning 3. They had a huge bouncy castle. For most of the party, Will, Ainsley and William were in the bouncer. They had so much fun! Those things are worth their weight in gold at a birthday party! We had hot dogs and a yummy birthday cake and they played some more. It was nice to visit Julie's family and they always treat us and our kids like their own. Mitch got in some snuggle time before bed from 3 very tired kids.



On Sunday we went to church with Guy and Julie. We left Ainsley in the nursery's 2 year old room. She was not too sure about that at first, but the couple who was keeping that class had an older daughter - maybe 7 or 8 - who kind of took Ainsley under her wing. She ended up doing fine. Will came to the service with us. We found a seat on the back row near the door, just in case! The service that day honored their graduating seniors. Their youth choir sang lots of numbers, they had a slide show with pictures and videos of each senior (along with some video from their parents) and then had 3 seniors speak about their testimony. I enjoyed all of the special things, but the service ended up being very long. Will did really well, though. I was very proud of him. After almost 2 hours, Mitch took him out to the playground and a few minutes after that, with more of the service left to come, we all decided to leave. We went back to their house, ate lunch and packed up to leave. It was a busy but good weekend!