In February we finally moved down to the beach. We found a campground about 10 miles inland from the Seaside/Blue Mountain Beach area. I quickly found out that I hate Seaside, but love Blue Mountain Beach. Seaside is obnoxiously expensive. It turned me off real quick.
For Valentine's Day the kids got boogie boards. Avery especially loved hers. The water would be absolutely freezing, and she would be the only person in the water having the time of her life. We were in between PCB and Destin, so we had our choice of beaches. They were all fun. One day we went to the Back Porch in Destin, and I'm sad to report our family has outgrown our favorite place. Avery will have to forgo college after paying for that meal.
This guy turned 6 while we were at the beach. He got fun presents and had his favorite for dinner...Mexican! Even at 6 he still gives the best cuddles and kisses, and he's still attached to my hip most of the time. I love this boy, and I don't want him to grow up!
The summer before 8th grade I took a sewing class, and my mom bought me a sewing machine. I'm happy to say that I still have it, and it works! The extent of my sewing knowledge is pillows. We went to Hobby Lobby and each found some fabric, and the kids made these. They turned out really cute.
Back in October my mom and I started planning our girls' trip. We finally got to go on it in March! It was perfect! We had everything planned out (unlike any trip my family takes), and everything went off without a hitch. We started out in the Mississippi Delta.
This is the house I came home from the hospital to in Greenville, MS. It's down the street from where my grandparents lived.
We went to Gino's for lunch, then had to stop at Shipley.
Before all that we showed/told Avery all about her family on my mom's side. We saw so many graves in so many cemeteries along the way. I love hearing about my grandmother's siblings and their families.
We spent the night in Little Rock, then headed to northwest Arkansas the next day. We stopped in Fayetteville and saw the University of Arkansas. We ate lunch at a yummy Italian place called Mama Z's. Then we found an awesome used book store and a Little Debbie outlet store. We stocked up in both!
Next we went to Rogers/Bentonville and met up with my uncle, Harry. He lives there, and he was our chauffeur for the day. It was so much fun.
Harry brought us so many goodies!! One thing he gave us was a bunch of scratch offs. This was Avery's first lottery experience, and she had so much fun scratching off. Between what Harry brought us and some we bought, we had 11 scratch offs, a Mega Millions ticket, and a Powerball ticket. Can you believe we won absolutely nothing?!?! You probably can, but I thought we would win SOMETHING. Harry gave us UA hats, so we sported those around. We also went to the very first Wal-Mart in downtown Bentonville. There was a free museum, and we got to see Sam Walton's office, and all kinds of cool facts and things. At the end Avery got an ice cream. She got a scoop with 2 toppings and it cost $1.83. That's what I'm talking about. Harry got us a nice room at a hotel with an indoor pool, and Avery swam for a while. Then Harry took us to the most awesome Chinese buffet. I want to transport that place to where I live (where is that, again?). Harry was the best host, and I'm so glad we got to spend time with him!
The next morning we got up early (with a Chinese food hangover), and headed to our main destination...
My mom, Avery, and I all love the Pioneer Woman, and we've been wanting to go to her hometown of Pawhuska, OK. We got to the Mercantile at about 10am, and I promptly put our name on the list to eat breakfast. The wait was 30-40 minutes. Ten minutes later the wait was 2 and a half hours! We had perfect timing! We shopped until our name was called, then proceeded to have the most delicious breakfast.
I had pancakes that were topped with 3 different flavors of butter (aka heaven). My mom had some grits concoction with all kinds of yumminess mixed in. Avery had her usual eggs and bacon. We got a cinnamon roll to share (Marcy Jo's is better, but it was still delicious), and the biscuits were to die for. We ate at about 11am, and I literally didn't eat anything again until 5pm. It was a bad day for jeans...
We did our souvenir shopping in the Merc (I was so proud of myself. I was very intentional about spending on junk. Food was another story, but I didn't come home with a bunch of crap like I usually do). I got Colt a dog cookie jar, and I'm now regretting that decision. All he wants to eat now is cookies. We also shopped around in downtown Pawhuska. There are some really cute shops there.
After breakfast was the main event. You can go (for free) to the Lodge where the Pioneer Woman films her show. It took a while to get there, because we found out that Ladd Drummond's family owns a ridiculous amount of land. Like hundreds of thousands of acres. I didn't put any pictures of it, because pictures don't do it justice. It's like the Lion King....everything the light touches is theirs. The Lodge looked different than I thought, but it was really cool. The weather was absolutely perfect, and we could have sat on their porch all day. This guy in the picture is Walter. We were so excited he made an appearance.
We went back to the Merc and went upstairs to the bakery. For some reason I didn't take a picture of the cupcakes (dang it). I was so full from breakfast I couldn't eat mine yet. That never happens!! I honestly don't even remember what kind we got! That doesn't mean they weren't good, though!! They were delicious! While we were standing in line, the absolute highlight of my trip happened.
I might have a little crush on Ladd Drummond. He walked down the (long) line of folks waiting for cupcakes and talked to everyone and took pictures. He couldn't have been nicer. Avery told him we met Walter, and we all laughed at how fat Walter is. He made our day.
As if we needed anything else to eat.
Our hotel was 30 minutes away, so we decided to get our pizza to go and eat it at the hotel. Luckily I was hungry by then. I wasn't sure what her pizza would be like, but it was amazing! The pieces weren't huge, and the toppings weren't overwhelming. The crust was perfect! We also got a salad (it was called something like Ladd's Favorite Iceburg Wedge), and it was perfection. Lettuce, bacon, cheese. Simple and delicious.
We got up on our last day and drove to Memphis.
I wanted to go to the Peabody and see the ducks. My grandparents stayed here on their honeymoon for $8 a night. We payed over $15 to park for 30 minutes. My, how times have changed. I'm still mad about that...
I was wanting to see this, too. Apparently it's like a skate park or something, so I couldn't get a good shot without people. We drove by Graceland hoping we could just drive by and see it. Nope. Just like everything else, it was super touristy and complicated. Oh, well. My mom's cousin Nancy was our hostess for the night. She was sweet enough to let us stay at her house. I'm realizing now I didn't get a picture of Nancy.
But I did get a picture of Avery's new BFF, Patty Mae. Patty Mae has a sister, Lulu, and they are both rescues. Avery asked Nancy if Patty Mae could sleep with us, so we had 3 in our bed that night. Avery didn't want to leave the next day. We drove back to Birmingham the next morning, and our girls' trip was complete. We had the best time, and we are already planning our next trip!
I'll leave you with this. Colt went to Paducah with Daniel, and one night Colt had to borrow his girl cousin's clothes for bed. His shirt says Sorry/Not Sorry. No truer words from this child...
