{ An Impromptu "Vacation" }...

Warning: Lots of pictures...much scrolling!

After we spent a couple of days in Dallas because of loosing electricity from Hurricane Ike, we decided to make a little trip to Arkansas. We were living "day by day" at this point, not having any idea when we were going to get power back, so we decided to make the most of it and have some fun. Casey had been working from his laptop in Dallas and figured he could do that anywhere, so we went to visit the Swensons.

One little side note I forgot to mention in my last post. Casey and I would want to remember this later. On our way out of town when we were headed to Dallas, we could not believe how much traffic was headed into Houston. We assumed there would be traffic headed out because of loss of power, but we could not believe how many vehicles were headed in. We counted at least 100 big trucks. Electrical trucks, trucks with generators, trucks with ladders, trucks with supplies of food and everything else. It really was amazing! It made me feel bad for leaving.

Three out of the five us got sick towards the end of our stay in Dallas. Kaylee had some kind of a virus that I took her to the Dr. for while we were there. Jake was complaining of an earache and my throat was starting to hurt...AGAIN! Andrea was so nice to take us in while we were sick. Dr. Swenson checked us out once we got there and nursed us back to health. Thank you so much Jonathan! Kaylee got better on her own and Jake took antibiotics for his ear infection and I took some for strep throat! After a day of resting we were ready to play. We took a trip about an hour away to a place called Hot Springs. None of us had ever been there before, so we explored it together. We went to a BBQ cook off and car show. It was fun to walk around and check things out...especially the red necks! We should have gotten some pictures of that!

While we were there we had a picnic lunch at a national park. The kids got to run around and Andrea and I played with my camera and took some family snapshots.

We stayed and went to their ward with them on Sunday. We had a late lunch when we got home and were way to lazy to make a "real" dinner for anyone, so we made a treat instead and ate that for dinner. Yes, it's true. We fed our kids brownies for dinner! We earned some wonderful mom points from our kids. They thought we were pretty awesome! :) When the kids weren't inside the house completely destroying it, begging for snacks or dragging toys from one corner of the house to the next, they were content to play outside. This was a great source of hours worth of entertainment. They had many baseball games in the backyard with the dads. The kids would chant "baseball game, baseball game", until Casey and Jonathan would come out and play. Fun memories! They also enjoyed decorating the playhouse. They would take crayons and paper outside, draw pictures and tape them up all over the playhouse. I wonder who they get that from??? Kids can play so well outside when they have each other to keep them company. These moments were a breath of fresh air for the adults!

Casey had to be back at work on Monday morning. We hadn't gotten power yet at our house, so he booked a flight back and the kids and I stayed waiting to hear about power. In the meantime, Andrea and I gathered 5 out of the six kids and made a trip to Hobby Lobby for a little bit of creativity. The trip did not go well (what did we expect from 5 kids under the age of 7?) We all survived and were happy with the things we got. (The lady in the scrapbooking isle was NOT happy with us!!!) We went a little crazy making bows for the girls...more like flowers for the girls. They were so fun! Now we have a great collection.

While we were there, I also got some things to put a fall wreath together. Here it is, hanging on my front door.

I know this post is forever long!!! Last, but not least, we threw these pictures together at the last minute. The boys clothes are borrowed from Jex and Kaylee's dress was a $5.00 find we got for church on Sunday. We came with out Sunday clothes. I have been wanting to take some fun pictures of my kids since I've gotten my new camera. My kids don't like to cooperate for me and it's not Casey's thing...he doesn't have patience for the camera or pictures for that matter. So, thanks to Jonathan and Andrea I finally got the pictures I had been wanting. We took them in about 15 minutes, if that, and I LOVE how they turned out!
Thanks again Andrea and Jonathan for letting us invade your house, food, time, laundry room and everything else. We love you guys so much and had so much fun!!! Casey and I miss our late nights of game playing while the kids were tucked quietly in bed. We can't wait to see you in November and you will definitely be pampered!!!