Arkansas Part 2

We were fortunate to be able to spend time with Brooks' dad, Geary and his wife, Juli in Arkansas while we were in the states.  Their willingness to meet us there and spend the week outside Little Rock was a HUGE help and prevented us from having to fly to Colorado.  When you travel across the world, you're not as interested in taking another plane ride.  We had such a fun week with them playing and goofing off.  We were able to rest and relax some, too.  Brooks started his week taking a duck hunting trip with his dad, brother, and our future sister in laws dad.  The guys had a fun morning and had a successful hunt for as few ducks as they saw.  I think they ended up shooting 4 total, not too bad for a slow morning.  Juli and I ended up hanging out and letting the kids play.  Her and I got to do some shopping throughout the week while the guys and the kids took naps.  

Brandons fiance', Kate and her parents, invited us all over for dinner one night so we got some extra hang out time with Kate!  The kids loved playing in the upstairs game room and goofing off with PawPaw.  

The whole family

While we were out running the roads, having fun we ate at some GOOD eating places.

Brooks and his dad took Gavin and Miles to shoot BeBe guns.  THEY LOVED IT.  Our boys have shot bebe guns a lot when their with their grandparents and is something they look forward to.  I hear Gavin has a good aim most of the time!!

On Thanksgiving, when Miles fell asleep on the floor we thought it was just a coincidence and he was THAT tired and maybe jet lag had a little to do with it, however, we noticed that was just the beginning of Miles ability to fall asleep and stay asleep in the most randomist places and ways.  This time, he fell asleep walking back from the shooting range sitting up on Brooks' shoulders.  Literally, Brooks said all of a sudden he felt dead weight on him and felt slobber going down his neck.  When he looked up, he realized Miles was alseep.  Miles also ended up asleep on the booth at a local hamburger shop we ate at.  Something this kid normally would never do!

 

Brooks' brother, Brandon was with us throughout the week and he found a jump house for the kids to play at-- very similar to one I took them to this summer.  The boys had a blast running around, playing, jumping, playing hide and seek, etc.  It made for hours of fun and entertainment.  They loved showing off all their new tricks and chasing each other then falling down!  Such a neat place and fun idea! 

We celebrated Christmas while we were together and the kids racked up.  Tools, pirate stuff, and girly things were opened and played with for hours.  Thanks Pawpaw and Gammy!  Brooks and Mr. Geary actually both got the same coffee grinders.

We spent one morning at the Little Rock Zoo and were amazed at all the animals we saw.  The kids loved it and were in awe of the lions, and tigers, and giraffes, and elephants, and so much more.  They saw a baby gorilla that was the cutest thing ever.   

Gavin made us camp fires at night and we all took turns singing songs and blowing out candles (from one of Brooklyns new toys that was a stackable cake).  He set up the pillows for us, the blankets, made the "fire" himself and called us in before bed time every night.  It was cute!

During the week, we drove up to the Ranch and spent some more time with Brooks' moms side of the family.  All the cousins got to play some more together, Mim and Pop had extra time with our kids, we ate a delicious meal, and just hung out.  Lynlee taught me how to make bows.  I'm excited to work through this new craft and practice some more.  I love the idea of making matching bows for outfits versus paying so much off Etsy or boutique stores.

MORE PICS FROM THE JUMP HOUSE.  Have no clue why they are all the way down here, but there were too many to move and rearrange.

Classic Perry Men Picture

and the girls!

What a fun week we had with family.  It always goes by too fast.  Lots of great memories were made!

Now we're off to drop the kids off in Louisiana and Brooks and I are headed to New York City!! 

Arkansas Visit

Our first week in Arkansas was a blast.  We spent the week with Brooks' mom, her husband, and his brother and fiance.  It was a fun filled week.  The kids had a blast and there was never a dull moment.  Our visit started off with getting to enjoy gifts their Mim dropped off for them to enjoy which meant immediate tractor riding for the kids.  Gavin graciously toted his siblings around and they enjoyed the ride. Brooks and Brandon got started on a tree house project they created, developed, designed themselves.  I've planned on making a separate post about the tree house, but can't not talk about it from this week.  To all of our amazement, the guys finished the tree house within the week we were there and the kids got some time to play in it. Building the tree house became a group affair at some times and our little boys willingly and eagerly helped their daddy.    

One night all our cousins and Brooks' grandparents came over for dinner and to hang out.  The little kids played their hearts out.  You'd never know months go by between these cousins' visits.  They just pick right up where they left off.  They are at the perfect age to play and enjoy each other.  I don't think we had to interfere one time while the kids played.  Awesome!

Us adults had some laughs too-- here the three girls were arguing over how we wanted the picture taken-- close up, far away, and with me on my tip toes to be their same height!  It's always fun getting together with Lynlee and MeLisa.  I was fortunate to marry into the family where we're all close in age, get along great, and have a lot of the same interests!  Not to mention, we always can offer up advice and encouragement on being moms and raising kids!  LOVE them!

During the week, we got together with some of our camp friends who live nearby and it came on a perfect night where our friend, Tally had driven in from Oklahoma and was stopping by.  Sweet!  We try to take advantage of any opportunity to get together with our camp friends when we can.  We basically bombarded our friends, Mali and Mitchell's house, put blankets on the floor and let the kids eat picnic style while we all attempted to have some adult conversations.  It was fun meeting Tally's newborn baby, Griffin, catch up on everyone's lives, see Mali pregnant (again), watch Bill and Malia's little boy walking around with the big kids, and had lots of laughs with the kids using their imaginations while playing.  It was a crazy, loud, hectic night but we made some memories with some special people!

We celebrated Christmas at Grammy and Papa John's and after eating breakfast, the kids went to town opening their presents! Everyone takes a turn opening their gifts so everyone can see what they get-- it makes for less chaos, but allows the kids to show off their new goodies.  Brooklyn LOVED her little kitchen and played her heart out opening the fridge and oven.  Since Papa John has a tractor in the back yard, the kids all got matching camo tractor shirts and B's was pink!  Loved it!  Gavin has been asking for 2 things for Christmas... 1. A Spiderman watch he saw in Switzerland (it's a good thing mommy decided to get it while in Switzerland, he's still talking about it) 2. A Ben 10 action watch.  We told Uncle Bran about the Ben 10 watch and he delivered.  Gavin was ecstatic to get the watch and the fact that his Uncle Bran gave it to him was all the better!  Miles was a 1000x more interested in opening the gifts versus what was actually in the boxes.  However, he had fun playing with his new toys.  Grammy and Papa John loved watching their grand-babies opening gifts.  Brooks' mom made him a queen size quilt by hand throughout her time sitting in the hospital with Brandon this past year.  She spent so much time in the hospital, she made two quilts.  One for Brooks and one for Brandon. We surprised Brandon and Kate with a photo book from their engagement party!  It was so sweet to watch them remember their moment just a few months ago!

We celebrated Thanksgiving while we were there, too.  From my previous post, we spent the day cooking, working on the tree house, playing in the yard, and ended the night with a hayride, bonfire, and roasting marshmallows and hotdogs.  It was a fun day.  Miles couldn't keep his eyes open before lunch and literally fell asleep on the floor.

Our last day we relaxed a little bit and went out to their pond and rode on their new paddle boat.  It was a lot of fun, even the boys were able to paddle and were amazed that the boat moved because of them.  There was a little fishing going on, but not many bites, so that became short lived.  However, Miles loved getting to use his new Snoopy fishing pole!

 

We had a great week, made lots of memories, and once again the time went by way too fast.  Can't wait for our next trip!