Arkansas again

Every year we go to Shepherd of the Ozarks in Arkansas to ride four wheelers with Levi's mom and Nannie. I'm always afraid it is going to be boring or monotonous since we have gone to the same place and done the same thing over and over again and despite the fact that many of the pictures I took look identical to the pictures from last years trip (just bigger kids) we always manage to do it a little bit differently. This year had the added excitement of Levi's Nannie's alzheimers keeping us on our toes...and biting our tongues. =) But really it is little things like repetitive questions or comments that make us smile when we get home and talk about our crazy trip.
I think Levi has made this trip 15 times and I've been going since I was a junior in high school so we have quite a few of these long drives under our belt. But this was the first year that we have run into the problem of having a flat tire on the way...let alone 2 flat tires. Addie posed in front of the trailer during our first stop while Levi changed out the tire.

One flat tire isn't that big of a deal because you have a spare....

Two flat tires kind of sucks. I snapped this pictures outside of the tire shop where we stopped after driving on the second flat tire for an hour going 20 MPH while Nannie continually asked us why we were driving so slow on the shoulder. Fun times.

But we did finally make it to SOTO. The kids ran around checking out all the bedrooms and cool hiding places. Addie unfortunately loved the stairs so I had to stay on alert at all times. Just thinking about it again makes me nervous. But I did let her play on the lower half so I could get a few pics.

I had to throw this one in because I just thought Nannie's socks were so funny...especially with capris.

We set out the first day to begin our adventures.

We stopped first at the cool petting zoo.

The kids especially liked the lemurs. I just liked to hear the way Addie said, "lemur." It sounded like "leeeeeemore."

Then the annual Bufford the Buffalo visit.

Addie wasn't a fan of Bufford so she hung out on the four wheeler.

Then we made it to the creek where we spent 90% of our time because by noon it was sooooo HOT! It was the hottest it has ever been for our Arkansas trip. Jack tried in the beginning to not get his shorts wet. Good try, Buddy.

Addie Grace getting her feet wet.

Oh, look, a picture of me. Whenever we go anywhere and take a bunch of pictures it always looks like Levi is a single dad out with his kids because I am always behind the camera.

I love Levi's expression in this picture. You can just tell he absolutely adores his baby girl.

It didn't take long before shirts came off. And little later after that so did shorts and diapers.

This is one tradition that hasn't changed from year to year...jumping off rocks. Levi and the kids stayed entertained for quite awhile with this activity.

Addie has to keep up with the boys.

And Levi jumps too...he just makes the biggest splash.

Oops. I got these pictures out of order. Oh well. I just think it is cute that the kids are just sitting there watching their Daddy.

Jack finally got up the courage to jump off the tall rock. I was so proud of him.

I think he was pretty proud of himself too.

Here I am again. Imagine that. Us girls took over the four wheeler for a little while.

But then my riding partner fell asleep.

We had dinner with family friends, Al and Barb McDonald. Then enjoyed the evening on the balcony.

We managed to find time to snap a family picture. It wasn't easy, but Levi managed to push the button and fly across the river to get in the picture before the picture took. I think some of Jack's super powers must have rubbed of on his dad.

The infamous muscle picture. I don't know what is going on with Jack's muscles??? He does that weird pose every year.

Miece (Karalu) and Nannie were awesome and took every hill and dip they came across.

Nannie is in her element in Arkansas. I can't believe she is 83 and still riding four wheelers!

When Levi and I started thinking about having children I think this was his dream...it wasn't exactly mine but I'm glad he got his way.

One afternoon we had a picnic by the river.

My loves.

Because it was so crazy hot we got to tube on the river the last afternoon.

Jack loved the the tubes.

One funny note about this picture is we were letting Addie run around naked because we only had one more diaper with us and we didn't want to waste it if she wanted to get back in the water. She was content to run around with Cuddles, but then she just squatted and pooped right on the bridge! See, new experiences every year.