Arkansas

The kid’s are eating honey suckle in the picture just below! Oh yummy honey suckle!

So this is what we call a picture overload…I just couldn’t stop adding the pictures to this post!  We had a last minute trip to Arkansas from May 11-19th.W  David’s sister Genevieve and her husband Robert were getting sealed on May 18th. They decided just a week before, so we decided that we would make the 24 hour drive and be there for there special day.   David kept telling me we couldn’t leave until the Monday before, but then surprised me on Friday night and said we could leave Saturday morning.  I knew he would cave and had thankfully been preparing all week to leave as soon as we needed.  So Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. we started out.  We made it to Dardanelle (where David’s parents live) at about 8:00 on Sunday morning, which was actually Mother’s Day.  We didn’t tell anyone in the Torgerson family that we were coming at all except for David’s Dad. So we drove up to the Torgerson’s house and honked the horn. Sherrie couldn’t here the horn and then we saw Dave come in the kitchen look out the window and say, “Sherrie!” Sherrie then turned around and stood there shocked for a second. Then they headed outside and just stood there in disbelief.  Sherrie then said, “Am I dreaming?!” It was fun to surprise them! Then we rested for a little bit and then headed another hour and a half to Bryant to Pam and Micha’s house, because they were the only ones in my family that knew we were coming.  Then we waited until all of David’s family was at his Aunt Jennifer’s house and headed over there.  We were walking up and Uncle Chad said, “Hey there’s Jen!” (There are 2 other Jens in David’s family, so they just looked at him like, duh!) Then they heard the door and saw us all! It was another fun surprise. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then headed back to Pam’s house to surprise the rest of my family.  We knocked on the door and Pam answered and then we walked back to the living room, where all my family was and Mom stood up with her mouth wide open! My family knew we were coming, but they thought we wouldn’t be there until Wednesday. It was a great day full of surprises! The rest of the week was spent going from house to house and eating as much mexican food as possible and having lots of laughs! The kids had such a great time with all their cousins.  They all get along so much better now that they are all older. The only ones that had issues were Parker and Averi (Marji and JIm’s youngest daughter.)  Averi likes to find someone to pick on sometimes and saw fresh meat, but she wasn’t too happy when Parker fought back.  They had quite a few fights and were not the best of friends…Maggie, Kaylee, and Olivia were just all too cute together! David loved playing with Thomas and Matthew and all of there fun video games.  Parker did get along really well with little Eric. They were just too cute together! They shared food with each other and Parker loved giving hugs to his little cousin. 

We went to Larry’s Pizza one day for lunch and let the kids go crazy in the game area, while we enjoyed tons of yummy pizza.  We also took the kids to this church called Rock Creek. They have this big play area for kids. The nights we spent playing games and catching up.  Then Thursday night I went out with Pam, Marji, Mom and some old friends J.P. and Kristen. It was great catching up with them.  I was excited to see my brother Oscar and Tara’s new house. They were busy most of the week getting stuff ready for there new place and so I was so sad not to be able to see them like I wanted to.  On Friday morning we headed to Memphis, Tennessee.  In my van was my 4 kids, me and Sherrie. David rode in the other van with the rest of the clan.  We got there around 1:00 and got checked into the hotel. Genevieve was getting her endowments Friday night, so all of the other adults were there from about 6:00 to 10:00. I took the kids swimming and we had a great time with that.  Then Austin and Eric came and hung out in our hotel room until the family got back.  I was exhausted by the time everyone got home. Then the next morning we headed over to the temple for Genevieve and Robert to be sealed for time and all eternity! It was a little crazy before. I didn’t have anyone to watch the kids. I wasn’t worried about David, Maggie or Elizabeth…it was Parker I knew would be the challenge.  I didn’t want to torture anyone by making them watch him even for just 20 minutes, but I was so sad that I was going to miss this special day for Gen and Robert.  Genevieve so sweetly asked one of her visiting teachers to watch Parker for us. She was amazing and said she would love too. I was very hesitant.  The poor lady had her hands full with Parker. As we walked back to the sealing room she was walking Parker outside as he clung and gripped the door.  What an angel she was to take that little bundle of joy!

Then we got back to the sealing and it was so special. Just so sweet and I was so glad we were able to be there for it.  The best part was when they brought in little Eric to seal him to his parents and he just kept looking at all of us and was just content. Then when Brother Griffin the sealer was done Eric just so sweetly said, “hi!” It was too cute! Such a great day for them.

Then we headed over to a yummy mexican restaurant, Abuelo’s for lunch. YUM!  Then we headed back to Little Rock for a little bit to say our good-bye's to David’s family. Then we headed to Dardanelle.  We went to church the next morning and then headed home back to Utah.  It was a long and very eventful trip home.  There were poopy blow outs from Parker, rain most of the way, Lizzy wanting to eat every 2 hours and the best part of all was the tornado we almost saw. We were in Kansas and I noticed some clouds that I thought were tornado clouds.  I just kept looking, but didn’t want to say anything in case David hadn’t noticed.  This funnel cloud kept getting lower and lower and closer and closer to us. I was freaking out. David finally said, “Is that a…” I said, “yes it is.” He then said, “well at least it looked like it is going right and we are heading straight, so we should be fine.” It was about 10 seconds later that the GPS said, “turn right in a half a mile.” Then we see these storm chaser vans go flying past us and we really started to get scared. We were so grateful to not get hurt at all. It was intense and scary. We had quite the storms on our hands and then saw the aftermath of one of the storms a little while later. There were street signs completely bent and twisted and the big 55 galloon jugs they put on roads were knocked over and in the middle of the grass. It was the longest 24 hours of my life!  We drove straight through though and made it some how.  It is always so nice to get back home to our own bed and not live out of a suitcase from house to house, but we sure do miss Arkansas.

I asked the kids if they wanted to live in Utah or Arkansas and they quickly responded without hesitation, Arkansas! Makes me proud and sad at the same time.  It was so much fun and so nice to be around so much family in Arkansas and I loved seeing the kids have such a great experience with their cousins and see the strong friendships they have with them even with 1500 miles between them.  Who knows what the future holds for us and where we may be in the future. I would absolutely love to be back in the south again, but I have really come to love being in Utah and we have made so many great friends out here and have great family here too! If only we could have the best of both worlds.  All I know is that we will go wherever we need to be and wherever is best for our family. Thanks to all of our Arkansas family for always having a place for us to stay and for making us feel so loved! I already can’t wait until our next trip out again!!