Monday, May 28, 2007

2,753 feet above mean sea level

YES! We did it! We broke free, whole famn damily style! We made it out of Dallas on a Memorial weekend quest for higher elevation.

First stop... Hot Springs Arkansas (4 hour drive from the Big D)
We stayed there Saturday night and hiked around in Hot Springs National Park on Sunday morning.

The girls loved hiking and collecting rocks and pinecones



J Lo hiking with my girls

Downtown Hot Springs is beautiful and the national park is the heart of it. Tom and I loved this old Art Deco hotel (above) and the old bath houses on main street (below).





For all the national park junkies, did you know....
Hot Springs Reservation, the first designation of Hot Springs National Park, was set aside by Congress in 1832. This makes Hot Springs National Park the oldest unit in the national park system, 40 years older than Yellowstone National Park.

Next stop... Mount Magazine state park


Finally... some elevation! Mount Magazine is Arkansas's highest point at 2,753 feet and coming from Dallas, we enjoyed every foot of it.

"I'm sailing I'm sailing!"



J Lo with the girls...again


That's a ring pop on Tess's finger, excellent ammo for road trips!

We hiked the North Rim Trail, 2.2 miles, and other than the massive rain storm that started at about mile 1.5, the girls did great.

Hiking with Deli





We stay in one of the state park's one bedroom cabins

makin' smores


smores for dinner
trying to recover from suger overload


Trip Stats:
number of Spinach Capitals of the World visited = 1 (Alma Arkansas)
number of Magnolia Capitals visited = 1 (Durant, Oklahoma)
number of times Deli fell and bloodied herself while hiking = 5
number of times Tess fell and bloodied herself while hiking = 2
number of times Deli asked to go home during the rain
storm on the hike = 57
number of Sonic shakes consumed (primarily chocolate oreo
with extra oreo) = 8
number of DQ blizzards consumed (primarily chocolate oreo
with extra oreo) = 3
number of Sonics visited total = 5
number of Sonic car hops with braces and blonde ponytails that
said "OOOhhh, y'ALL have like the cUUUtest little fAAAmily"= 1
number of mosquito bites = 437
number of times watching Star Wars episode 4 = 1
number of times asking to watch Star Wars episode 4 = 32
number of happy, unbeaten children = 2
number of happy, marriages remaining = 1

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had watched the hiking video - and wanted you to know I planned to use the repeated -ready, set, go technigue to prevent wind down on my morning mile.
I especially liked hearing Adelle coaching her parents - "you are suppose to be racing too"
Now I think I know why I couldn't get my comments to enter -- you were adding stats to your blog. AND the smores video which weren't there the first time I looked at the blog.

I really enjoyed hiking and gathering pinecones with you guys via the photos & video !!!!

I'm getting personality photos for my grandchildren gallery and would like an 8x10 of each of the girls (horizontal) I think the head and sholders shot of Adelle in the pink puffy sleeve shirt really shows her personality - which one would you choose of Tess?

Amy said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

It looks so beautiful. You should have just kept driving another 12 hours and we would have joined you. What is J Lo's booking fee these days? I didn't realize she did family trips. How cozy.
-Sports Buddy

Nicole said...

You guys do such fun stuff!!! That picture of Deli near the top in the pink is so so cute, as are all the pictures really. And i loved the smore video. I can't wait till i get to see you again! Until then I will settle for just reading about the things you do! love ya!

Amy said...

Ok, I will leave a more appropriate comment this time.

Wow, what a nice trip. That's a beautiful area, and of course a beautiful family. You must be very proud, and very happy, and very nice.

How was that?

sarah said...

amy, shut it

you must have written this comment after 10 pm because it's very funny.

perfectly sarcastic, I think I'll let it stay.

Grant Skousen said...

Just trying to raise your comment count...