Arkansas

We took a nice, long trip to Arkansas to visit Ryan's side of the family. I think we spent 10+ days down there.

The night before we left I hurt my foot. I have no idea how. I didn't have any "accidents" that I could remember. I just spontaneously started hurting. It hurt so bad that I couldn't walk on it. It sure made packing and getting ready fun. It was back to normal in a day or two. So weird.

We arrived down in Rogers, AR to visit Ryan's dad and sisters. I was a little irritated when we got there and no one was home and discovered they were out at a graduation party and wouldn't be home til quite a bit later. My irritation was quickly turned to my husband when I found out that he had only called them THAT morning to inform them that we were coming. Of course they had plans! They had no idea we were coming. I was shocked at Ryan's lack of communication.

We left and drove quite a ways to where Ryan had reserved us a room. It was LATE and raining and we were tired. The room was NASTY and we had different opionions about staying. I decided that Jaimee, the dogs and I were NOT staying at that hotel! Ryan was not happy but he came with us on the search for a new place to stay. It was a very tense period of time but we were both happy to find a very nice hotel for not much more than the other place a lot closer to Ryan's dad's house. The woman always knows best, right?! LOL

We ended up having a very nice visit with dad's family. One of Ryan's nephews and cousins had just graduated medical school and had a joint graduation party that we all attended. I think all but 1 of Ryan's bothers and sisters from his dad were there and many other family members that I had either never met or met only once before. Ryan was a very proud daddy and enjoyed showing Jaimee off to everyone.

We took an afternoon and drove over to Siloam Springs, AR and met up with our friends Luis and Nicole. Luis' family is from there and his nephew was celebrating his 4th birthday so we drug Samantha and Shannon along with us and crashed the party. Jaimee really enjoyed "trying" to interact with the other little kids and eating some yummy cake. After the party, we pulled out Wii Fit and it was hilarious watching the adults hulu hoop and ski, etc. Us girls broke away and enjoyed a competitive but fun game of Phase 10. Poor Samantha and shannon were bored to death but Ryan, jaimee and I had a great time.

Before we headed further south, we all took Jaimee to Chuck E. Cheese. Shannon took off with Jaimee and taught her the Chuck E. Cheese ropes lol  They had a blast and earned tons of tickets (thanks to a broken basketbal game that Jaimee loved). The aunts picked Jaimee some very nice prizes to spend the tickets on. They also showed us a "ride" where they take your picture and print it on a plastic card so you get your own Chuck E. ID. Jaimee LOVED them and called them her "D's"- carried them everywhere with her the entire rest of the trip and still plays with them.

It was such a nice visit with his dad, Merlin, Samantha, and Shannon.

We then headed further south. Stopped at Ryan's grandma and Pap pah John's. Had a nice visit with them. Its so funny that Pap-pah John is a very gruff looking and sounding man but he just loves Jaimee.

The next stop was DeQueen.

Jaimee and I spent a lot of time at the motel pool swimming. She really enjoyed jumping off the side of the pool into the water.  See www.youtube.com/rpharr21

We were lucky enough to be down there at the same time Angela had her piano recital. She did such a nice job. We also were able to hear her play the piano at church for special music. See www.youtube.com/rpharr21

We got to visit with Jonathan and Joy and their 2 girls. The girls LOVE playing with Jaimee and it was fun to let them "mother" her while I visited. Those little girls are so sweet and gave Jaimee a car that kind of looks like a VW beetle and you power it with your feet. Jaimee loves riding and pushing around that car. It was a great gift.

We had a very nice, long visit. Definitly made the 13 hour drive down worth it!