Arkansas Part 1

Gabby, Trish and Parker waiting for the red eye flight!:)

Eric and Parker

Tara and Oscar

Such a cute family!:)

So last Thursday Trish, Gabby, Parker and I took a red eye flight to Little Rock for Oscar and Tara's wedding! We left at 12:55 a.m and got into Arkansas at 8:40 Thursday morning.  It was quite the flight.  Parker and Gabby did amazing and slept most of the time.  Thank goodness for Melatonin!!:) Sherrie picked Parker and me up at the airport and we headed over to Genevieve's house to meet little Eric my newest nephew! He is just too cute and such a good little baby.  I spent the morning and some of the afternoon with them and then after many phone calls asking when I was going to see my own family, I went over to Marji's house.  There I met Ellie! She too is just too cute and the best baby...between her and Eric I was very jealous and worried about my little bundle of joy Parker. In case some of you forgot, he was what some may call a high maintenance baby and very demanding and short tempered until about 10 months old.  So being around all these well behaved babies was weird for me. Seeing Pam and Genevieve just put the babies down and they would be content not having full attention all day long...anyways back to the trip :)  Thursday night we had a sisters night out with Trish, Marji, Pam, me and J.P. of course our adopted sister:)  We went to a sushi bar in Little Rock and it was pretty good. Then we did some shopping.  Then I headed back to Genevieve's and spent the night there to be with Parker on his first night in a new place.  The next day everyone in my family was dying to see Parker, so we went and hung out with everyone and Parker had a blast. He especially loved seeing Winston (Pam and Micha's dog) Parker was really missing Biscuit.  He entertained everyone pretty well as usual.  Then Parker spent the rest of Friday and all day Saturday until about 8:00 p.m with Sherrie. She was sweet enough to volunteer to keep Parker for me so I could have a break. It was AWESOME!!!! I love my kids, but I love not having boogers, snot, food and who knows what else all over my clothes and never having a full moment to just do what I want to do. It was just soooo nice to have some me time! Thank goodness for Meme~Then Saturday morning I rode with the Baileys to Memphis for the wedding. It was such an amazing temple sealing and we are just so glad to have Tara in our family officially and couldn't be happier with our new sister-in-law. She is a great fit for Oscar and fits in great with us too! I am so glad I could share their special day with them!! Then we had a yummy barbeque lunch afterwards at the church and then headed back home. I went and got Parker from Sherrie, who informed me that Parker did not cry once and was a joy to have the whole time. This is one thing I love about Parker, he just loves anyone and everyone. He has never met a stranger.  Then Saturday and Sunday we spent the night with Mom and Dad.  The whole family came down Sunday for leftover barbeque at mom's house on Sunday afternoon and we of course played Settlers of Catan and had lots of laughs.  Monday we headed back up to Bryant  and went swimming (for about 30 minutes before the lightning started) I love Arkansas thunderstorms!:)  Oh how I have missed them. So we went and hung out at Marji's and watched the amazing storm and of course laughed a lot more at all of our crazy kids.  Then that night Parker and I spent the night at Pam's and I enjoyed a pedicure, massage and make over from Madison and Gabby. It was a great time for everyone!:) Then Tuesday morning Marji was sweet enough to take some pictures of Parker for me. They turned out sooooo dang cute and I can't wait to get them! Marji really is an amazing photographer.  Then we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, which I had been putting off because I didn't want to remember how dang good real southern Mexican food really is.  It was amazing and Trish and I had a hard time not eating all the cheese dip and soaking it all in.  Then we hung out for a little while longer and packed up our things and headed back to the airport to head out west again.  Gabe was our shofer the whole weekend and we greatly appreciated it.  We had so many laughs as usual whether it was all the kids picking on Gabe, having Gabe say "Seven" in his special voice, hearing Olivia get mad at Thomas and Matthew in her special voice or just good old saying from Mom and Dad. I always come back with a ton of great memories to tide me over until the next trip!

Marji, Trish, J.P., me and Pam eating Sushi

Marji, Trish, Pam, Ellie, Parker and me eating Mexican

On the flight home Parker was very cranky. Sadly we were on a jet and I had to sit next to some 20 something girl who did not have any patience with a one year old.  She was very frustrated with Parker and just kept putting her fingers in her ears and had an annoyed look on her face.  Parker would not calm down for me at all so Trish traded places with me and held him. After about 10 minutes he fell asleep. She told the girl sitting next to her that she was sorry that Parker was so loud at first. The girl did not respond and just kept looking at her kindle.  Trish was then just kind of looking at her kindle a little and the girl then proceeded to cover it so that Trish could not see it....awkward.  I think that Parker sensed her tension and that is why he had such a hard time, because on the flight after that he didn't make a sound and slept the whole way...don't get me wrong I probably wouldn't be too thrilled about sitting next to a one year old on a 40 minutes flight, but I am confident I would not have been so rude and immature about it all. Oh well!:)  Good memories! We got home that night and David was waiting for us at the airport with David and Maggie and Dr. Peppers, Sonic burgers, and chicken strips for our dinner! What a sweet husband. It was great to go to Arkansas, but it is always so nice to come home.  I keep telling David we just need to get a vacation home in Arkansas and every year go out for one full month...for some reason he just won't go for it...weird!:)