At the end of July we wanted to take a little family vacation. We chose Little Rock because it's far enough away to feel like a "trip" but not too far to go for just a few days. We chose several kid-friendly activities to pack into a three-day trip. Avery is still not a great car traveler, but the boys were all happy to watch DVDs and have snacks the whole way. Since Avery is almost three, I feel hopeful that in the next few years, traveling with the kids may be a little more relaxing. A light at the end of the tunnel!!
Day One was the five-hour drive, checking in to the hotel (which Avery called the temple the whole time), and then we went to a little Mexican restaurant for dinner.
Hudson basically ate an entire basket of chips and salsa by himself. It's one of his favorites!
Then we went to see Inside Out. There was no need to rush, as we were the only ones in the theater! The kids thought that was pretty great.
Avery spent most of her time at the "temple" calling Manny from the room phone. {Unplugging the phones is the first thing we do when we check into hotels these days.}
Day Two Jamie took the boys on a hike at a nearby state park in the morning. The little ones and I opted to stay at the hotel and swim. You can see my priorities =)
The hotel pool wasn't ideal for little ones. There were no steps (other than the metal ladder), and the most shallow part was up to their chins. So they spent a lot of their time playing with toys on the pool deck, including this ice bucket we found in the bar area!
After swimming and lunch, we headed downtown to the Museum of Discovery. It is full of hands-on exhibits, demonstrations, and imaginative play areas. Definitely fun for all ages!
These wind tunnels were a favorite of all the kids:
Scarf Wind Tunnels from ashley walker on Vimeo.
This particular exhibit was full of brain-teaser puzzles and challenges. Some of them were too challenging for the kids, but Jamie and I could have stayed all day trying to solve them!
During a demonstration of solids and gasses, and boiling points and freezing points of various types of matter, Boston volunteered to eat a cheeto dipped in freezing liquid nitrogen!
Liquid Nitrogen Cheeto from ashley walker on Vimeo.
The last thing on the agenda for Day Two was an Arkansas Travelers minor league baseball game. Except for the suffocating humidity, we had a great time! The kids all brought their gloves and had high hopes of catching a foul ball.
 |
| (Avery had just been woken up from a cat nap in the car, so she was not in the mood yet) |
Let's just talk about how things turned ugly towards the end. Everyone was really in the baseball spirit for about half the game. When the kids started to get antsy, I decided to take them for a walk to the other side of the park where we'd heard the Little Rock Zoo had a booth with some animals.
Sadly, the animals were gone already, and the excursion had taken us perilously close to the Kid Zone full of bounce houses and arcade games. After spending the amount we had on tickets and over-priced ballpark food, I told the kids I didn't really want to spend another $20 for them to play in the Kid Zone while Dad watched the game on the other side of the park. The kind lady at the entrance witnessed all this, called me over and said, "Honey, I stop charging after the top of the 7th inning, so bring them back and they can go in for free." Score!
We walked back to our seats with the promise of returning after a few more innings. During the 7th inning stretch, we made the trek from our seats on the 3rd base line over to right field. Just as we walked up, all the lights in the Kid Zone went off and we could see the silhouettes of the bounce houses deflating against the city skyline behind it. Apparently it closes after the bottom of the 7th inning. What the what?! Minor league baseball innings last about 5 minutes! I wish the ticket-taker would have mentioned that. Basically it was only free for half an inning. But in her defense, there was a huge sign stating the closing time that I hadn't noticed before.
I cannot explain the mayhem that ensued. It was already about 9pm, well after a reasonable bedtime for a long fun-filled day. We were all sweaty, exhausted, and disappointed. Avery and Hudson immediately burst into tears. Mercifully, Cade did not throw a fit, but he did pout about it the rest of the night. Boston handled it well, as I recall. Not knowing whether to cry or laugh at the disastrous situation, I called Jamie, told him to grab the bags and meet me at the entrance; we were calling it a night. All eyes were on my sorry crew as we made our way out. They could probably hear the bawling from the parking lot.
Jamie saved the night by snagging some cotton candy from a vendor on his way to meet us, so the tears were soon dried, and we were able to get everyone bathed and slipped into bed without any more mention of the Kid Zone Disaster!
Day Three was our last day. We checked out of the hotel and headed to the Little Rock Zoo for one last outing.
Fortunately, we had the zoo almost entirely to ourselves. Not too many other people wanted to brave the scorching heat, apparently!
This little one had a great time, as she was wheeled around in a wagon all day by her Daddy!
A few hours of walking around in the 100 degree heat is all we could manage before we hit up the gift shop for some souvenirs and then headed home!
