Vacation - Part One.

Saturday Morning we left for Illinois to meet up with the rest of the family. Rachel had a tournament game that afternoon in Oakwood. They got fourth place. She was catcher at the start, and then played short-stop. She made two amazing plays in a row while at short stop.




Rachel trying to show a scared Devon that it is only her under all that scary stuff.

Austin and Devon take turns stomping on Dustin's feet. This is when steal-toes come in handy.

Devon rockin' the COLTS hat. He looks like a stud-muffin, parents, hide your baby girls.

Later that night we headed off for our drive to Arkansas. We stopped at a filthy motel on the way. Perhaps next year we should plan the stop-and-sleep spot before we leave. The girls' bed didn't have sheets on it! Gross, they had to go ask for some.

Nut once we got to Murfreesboro, Brother and his kids were there waiting for us. We went and checked out the campsite they were at since we couldn't check into our hotel rooms till three.

Everyone was chatting it up. We even started Diamond Hunting right there.

There is Robbie and Jenny. I think this may be the only photo we managed to get out of Jenny. She hid her face well, but I got one.

Rachel chills out for a breather. She found some really pretty glass :)

We ate lunch at the park cafe called the Kimberlite. Austin is putting up his marker for Warren. All those pins are places where people have come from to the visit the park.

Chris and Devon share a huge bowl of orange ice cream.

After going back to check in at the hotel, we came back to the park to get us warmed up for the next day. Tickets after 6pm are good for the next day- so that is what we did. Here is Devon hard at work looking for his diamond.

Ashley dressed up awfully cute for a day in the dirt.

Austin was the only one to find a Diamond, here he shows us how to git 'er done.

Chris studies a questionable stone that he found.

Chris and Kris dig near each other, while dad goes way out by himself to hunt for his treasure.

I'm using a plastic shovel to move the dirt around in my surface search... hey how come all the little kids get the real tools?

Austin and brother hunt together for most of the first night. Perhaps it was a great team effort to find the diamond.

Mom has a feeling she has a good spot. She found lots of crystal here, and they say, "when you got lots of crystal- keep diggin."

Chris is all tired out and dirty. It's not as hot at the wet sifting' bins, but it is still a lot of arm work to get all the mud away from the diamonds. We're told they are shiny clean and will never have any dirt on them.

Sonic must be a big thing in the south... there was one EVERYWHERE we went on this trip.

I think Casi is thinking about giving me bunny ears for this photo, but just didn't make it in time... or maybe she did and it's just too dark to see.

Indiana Austin at your service. You need to find a diamond, he's your man.

We swam a lot of this trip. Basically if we were at the hotel, we were in the pool. And the water was just how I like it- warm. There is Robbie and Ashley.

The next day at the diamond mine was when the diamond was found. Here is our little rendezvous place, and our shade! We loved the shade when we needed a break.

Of course Rachel and Austin searched right in the shade.

We ate lunch at the Kimberlite again. Devon was starting to get sleepy. Uncle Chris rocked him almost to sleep just like this. Then Devon saw the ice cream and he was good to go.

Another dip in the pool. Ashley is on the kick board, Kristina is next to her, mom is across from me, and Casi is with Devon sitting on the edge.

That sun was BRRRRRRIGHT. I had to keep my shades on while I swam.

Chris is setting up the tripod for a quick (or not so quick) family photo.

Here we are. The whole family minus Shane ... Dustin too maybe family someday... and Jenny.She kept hiding from the camera, apparently she does not like to have her photo taken.

Here are all of us Kids! The original sibling group.

The morning we left for the other hotel in Arkadelphia we made a planned stop at the Indian Reserve. There was a walk through tour of Indian things and villages in display cases.

And then you went outside to the field to search for Arrow heads and other pieces of pottery. Ashley found some cool pottery pieces and all the kids found something cool out there.

Of course, Devon thought the chunks of mus were pretty neat in themselves.

Aunt Lala with her girl Ray-Ray.

After we searched for arrowheads, we bought buckets of rocks so we could search for gems. Everyone had fun doing this because you were always finding something that was way cool.

First you had to get out all the mud and clumps.


Then you dumped and found cool rocks. All the kids found MANY shark teeth in the buckets as well as pretty rocks and even a few Arkansas Diamonds, but no more real ones.

Vay-Kay ! Part Two!

So here we are with the second half of our vacation. We headed off in the morning to the MID-AMERICA SCIENCE MUSEUM. This is the one place (other than Diamond Hunting) that I really wanted to stop at. It turned out to be a fabulous place to go, the entire family enjoyed it.

Chris and Lara at the opening of the walkway to the museum from the parking lot.

It was too expensive (doubling the admission price plus 5 more dollars per person) to see the OUR BODY exhibit. We debated as a group and decided against it. Turns out to be a good thing because all you did was walk through a room filled with skinless statues and see brains in a container.

Chris and Dad bought all the kids a flattened penny that said HOT SPRINGS, and Mid America Science Museum.

Mom puts all the bones back into the body so we kids can play.

Chris found an extra bone!

Lara and Austin spent the most time at the Operation Game. Yeah that poor guy got zapped a time or two by us.

So we couldn't quite manage to get our picture with the snot actually dripping from the sinks nose, but hey, you can see his head behind us at least.

Dad, Kristina and Chris play a trivia game in the GROSS-OLOGY hallway. They had to know all about the gasses and bacteria in your body that cause you to burp, fart and puke! GROSS!

Casi pulls herself up on the double rope machines. We played on these for like 15 minutes. They were fun, and we were waiting for the laser light show doors to be opened. We did pay extra for this, and for the simulator ride.

Ashley gets a little help from Uncle Chris to make it to the top.

Uncle Chris and Ashley try to pump out some night crawlers. There was a landing of dirt that everyone was filling with water to get them wormies to the top.

We thought we were in heaven when we found the tunnel through a night crawlers body. Rachel takes a moment to see all the inside workings of the worm.

Okay, so maybe I was having a bit too much fun crawling through a worm.

Chris smiles as he crawls around in the belly of the worm.

Here comes Big Sis Kris.

Austin probably went through the worm a hundred times. Not that I can blame him, it was pretty cool.

Oh, there I took another picture of myself inside the worm.

Chris checks to make sure he can attract the electricity before we go to see the CAGED LIGHT SHOW. Those pictures are to dark to post right now. Hopefully someone in the family got better ones from their angles.

Austin tries to steal Uncle Chris' powers.

The kids run around (never mind that no running sign) on a station meant to show how gravity pulls you in towards the center. It was right during this that the storms outside knocked the power out. The generators came on, then powered off. We waited for a few minutes and no power came back on. We all headed down to the cafeteria to grab a snack. The power was back on by the time we got down there. Crazy that the storms would knock the power out- there was no rain, and the wind was not strong enough to stop us from eating outside and feeding the huge fish in the creek.

We made our way back to the museum and spent... oh about an hour playing in the ARKANSAS UNDERGROUND. It was a very cool play place that made you feel like you were, haha, under ground. I pretended to be on an adventure with Indiana Jones! jumping from rope to rope and climbing nets with skeletons below them. This is the only picture I got in there because it was very difficult to not hold on with both hands. Not to mention you have to crawl the entire way.

So you can't see it, but we know it's there. This was sand pendulum, it was way cool.

Once we got into the town of HOT SPRINGS we walked our way over to the BATH HOUSE ROW. We went inside and toured the FORDYCE Bath house.

I am going into the Cooling Room. The Bath houses were used as a therapeutic means to good health. This is actually the ladies Cooling room and this is where they would come to sit and read or socialize, or relax after their baths.


The girls really lost out on this one. The girls shower room was normal, and plain. The boys' had statues and this beautiful center fountain. It was much bigger and brighter than the ladies' shower room also.

Chris discovered the Bath House used OTIS ELEVATOR- Why is this so interesting? Because it is a sister company to Sullair under Hamilton-Sunstrand. (I'm sure I misspelled that, but...)

The next day it was time to head home. We had one last stop to make and it was at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library... or... Bill Clinton's Museum.... Chris and Rachel go right to the limo sitting in the middle of the room. Here they displayed all of the Secret Service devices that help keep the president safe.

Here is the Cabinet room. I pretended to be Head of Homeland Security while Chris of course was...

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Chris spent most of his time at the library looking through the daily schedule of the president. It was pretty interesting. Everyday, the entire was scheduled out minute by minute... from time spent in the car, to how many minutes it took to walk down a certain hallway. It was crazy, crazy.

The OVAL OFFICE. No one was allowed into the Oval Office... but Chris wants to let any inquiring minds know that Monica was not under the desk and she did not leave her dress. :)

So, we're driving home and Chris see's a Big G truck. He passes the truck and wakes me up with his hooting and hollering. We passed his DADDY on the road! We stop at the next exit to say hello and let the kids check out his semi.

Ashley

Austin

Rachel

Chris

Chris and Lara

Now we are home to Danville. Saturday morning, Chris, Dad and Austin clean out the cars and wash Grandma's Van before taking it back to her.

Austin is a big helper with the hose. He had to scrub the mats and then spray them off. He also sprayed down the van for Dad and Chris to wash.

After the boys finished washing the van, the three of them, Casi and myself all headed out to Kickapoo Park. We rented Tubes to float down the river on. It was a 2 1/2 mile trip down river. It was a lot of fun. We got pictures with a water camera and as soon as those pictures get forwarded to me, I will post them.