A few weekends ago, Jamie and I made the trek up to Sulphur Springs, AR to spend some time with Jamie's Meme and Papa. Jamie has always been really close to his grandparents, and it has been such a pleasure and honor to get to know them as well the past few years. They were so excited to spend a weekend with us and get some quality time with their first and only great grandbaby.
We woke up at 4:00 in the morning on Friday and started our trip. It was early but good, because it allowed Lucy to get in a few hours of uninterrupted sleep on the road.
We were not short on lovies or entertainment our whole car ride.
I brought toys and even a few DVDs when I got desperate!
After about 10 hours, we finally made it and this kid was READY to get out of the car and play. Meme and Papa pulled out all the stops at their house! They got out the kiddie pool, a tent, bubbles, a little play box and more.
Lucy's first stop was the tent.
She had never been in one before so she was all excited to play in something so new and different.
This was the trip where Lucy learned the word "bubbles", because Meme was the bubble queen.
Hey cutie!
Lucy taught daddy how to blow bubbles too.
Hey Papa!!
He thought Leia needed some Papa loving' too.
Papa is a good bubble blower too.
I'm telling you...she is still obsessed with those bubbles!
Meme and Papa live on a lot of land up in the Arkansas mountains, so there was lots of running room for my girls.
When Lucy got tired, she found a stoop to rest on.
She does this at home, too. She loves sitting on "Lucy-sized" steps.
Words can't describe how much I loved being there. I was born and raised a city girl, but I think I'm a country girl at heart.
Friday evening, Meme made pot roast with all the fixin's and a homemade kiwi pie for dessert. We had a very fun evening and decided to crash early since it had been long long day.
Saturday morning, Meme made a "cowboy breakfast" per Jamie and Papa's request. Eggs, bacon, waffles, and more! Delicious! It was so nice to be cooked for all weekend. I love to cook, but sometimes it's really nice to eat other people's cooking.
Meme had planned on us going to a drive through wilderness safari in Gentry, AR, and I'm so glad she thought of it. Jamie grew up going there when he was little and remembered it being pretty fun. We take Lucy to the zoo about once a week, so we're big animal people. This safari was a hoot!!
There is a zoo part where we just walked around and looked at animals.
We even touched a few of them--like the pigs.
I was SHOCKED how closely Lucy got to the animals! She put on her brave pants that morning!!
She was so funny touching the pig noses. She scrunched up her nose like the pigs do and made snorty sounds. I love this stage that she's in!
The goats were less than friendly since we didn't have any food for them.
Lucy LOVED having all this space to run around.
We're not used to this in Lafayette.
She also learned how to say "cluck cluck" the week before we went to Arkansas, so she was loving these chickens.
Lots of clucking!
Needless to say, Meme and Papa were absolutely loving their time with Lucy girl.
Next was a demonstration on how to feed cows. Meme showed Lucy the ropes.
This baby cow was so cute and Lucy loved being eye to eye with it.
Meme showed Lucy how to grab a handful of grass and feed this sweet baby:
Yet again, shockingly, Lucy was all about it! She was all about feeding this baby.
Bye cow!
Hand in hand with Meme and Daddy.
I love photo op statues :)
This is probably my favorite picture of the whole trip.
After a while, we met Jazz the bird.
Lucy was totally mean mugging this bird! So unamused.
She didn't wince or grin or anything. Just her classing Popeye look.
Before we got in the car to do the drive-thru part of the zoo, Lucy did a little pony ride.
She started to whimper when she first got on the pony, but she relaxed after a little bit, especially since I was holding on to her the whole time.
Her pony's name was "Thunder" and he was very sweet.
Now we headed to the car for the safari.
Lucy loved that she got to ride in the front seat out of her carseat. She thought she was big stuff.
This was a hoot! There were zebras, emus, buffalo, camals, wild cats, lions, bears, monkeys, antelope, and more! The dangerous animals were in cages, but most of them were out and about and could walk up to the car.
Hello, mangy buffalo.
Lucy, take the wheeeeeeel!
It is exhausting work riding on daddy's lap in the car.
Aaaaand she's out.
She got a good nap on dadd's lap, Such a sweet baboony.
After our fun time at the wilderness safari, we grabbed a little snack at McDonald's then headed back home to relax and play before we had dinner.
For dinner, we headed to Doe's Eat Place.
It's one of Jamie's favorites, and it was delicious! We had steaks and shrimp and biscuits and fries and potatoes....and I'm still full, 3 weeks later.
When we got back home, Lucy had to get some energy out before bath and bed time.
Night night, Lucy girl!
Sunday morning was Father's Day and this little girl got some help by her daddy to get in Papa's boots.
It's a good look for you, Sweet Pea.
It was pouring cats and dogs outside, so Papa was having someone on one time with Lucy, showing her the country rain before we headed out to lunch.
We made it to lunch early, so we sat in the cat and watched the rain for a bit before heading in.
We had lunch reservations at Monte Ne Chicken in Rogers, AR, and it was heaven! All you can eat corn, green beans, bread, fried chicken, bean soup, mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and then blackberry cobbler for dessert. Oh. My. Fatness. It was heaven! So much delicious, country food! We woke up hungry and ready for a yummy meal, and that's exactly what we got!
Lucy was happy with this tasty meal too.
Post-lunch smiles :)
When we got home, the rain had stopped, so I went on a long, country walk. I loved the hills and the open space and the cows and beauty of Northwest Arkansas. So glorious!
It's kind of creepy to have a whole field of cows staring at you...
After a while, Papa had to put out a bale of hay for the cows, so we all got to help out. The city girl in me was way excited to watch how all of this went down. Jamie grew up helping Papa around the ranch and he was so in his element all weekend. And honestly, it was pretty attractive watching my country man help out.
Lucy liked helping her daddy too.
I love this picture of Lucy looking through the gate. Such sweet innocence.
Daddy's girl in the making.
Papa in his tractor.
My sexy cowboy.
Hey, Papa!!!
Mommy and Lucy selfies...
Hungry hungry cows!
This is when Jamie explained to me the difference between a cow, a heifer, a steer and a bull. I still get it all confused, so I'll just call them all cows.
Every time one of the cows "moo'd", Lucy would "moo" too. It was so cute!
Papa took Lucy on her first tractor ride.
Such fun!!
Back at home playing before dinner.
Our last adventure at the ranch was a drive around Papa's property. We saw lots of animals, drove through hills, over creeks and just enjoyed the beautiful Arkansas lifestyle. I LOVED it!!!
We were going to play in the creek because Jamie grew up playing there, but then we saw about a trillion snakes!!! Mama don't do snakes!!! So we opted out of the creek and enjoyed our nice long drive instead. Much better.
It was the perfect weekend, and I hope we have many more years in the future heading up to Arkansas. We love you so much, Meme and Papa and I'm so thankful for these memories with you. I know Lucy will cherish this time with y'all! Love you!
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