GRADUATION weekend

We had a whirlwind, but fabulous, weekend. Friday night we went to a reception/awards ceremony where I realized that the wife of Will's classmate and friend was a girl that I knew from church camp years ago. That was fun. We'll get together with them sometime this summer when they come up in this area (her parents live up around here). After that we went out to a nice place for dinner.

Saturday was the BIG DAY. We got the kids all packed up and headed out. Will was afraid of being late because we had to stop at Walmart on the way, so we left early and I ended up sitting alone with the kids for two hours before the ceremony started. Yeah, that was fun. A lot of Will's friends came, he was so tickled to see so many people there that didn't "have" to be. All of my family came except for my brother who's in GA (military) and my sister who was in OK watching her new stepson graduate with a similar degree. He already has a job. Not fair. :p

After the ceremony we went and got checked into our hotel and called one of Will's friends who wanted to take us out. He and his family came by the hotel room and hung out for a bit. Then we all walked down the street to a pizza place. It was crazy loud in there but the food was awesome. We had, bar none, the best spinach dip I have ever tasted. We stayed and talked (or, shouted is more like it) until about ten and then the kids were about ready to drop on their feet so we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and ate cold pizza and spinach dip for breakfast, and then went to the zoo. Hung out there for a few hours and then went to a park for a picnic lunch. I made the mistake of throwing a bread crust out to some geese that were walking by, we had to spend the next half hour frantically tossing torn up pieces of bread to keep them from coming right up on the table with us. After we got rid of the geese and the kids played on the playground for a while, we went out for ice cream and then went to Will's cousin Lynn's house boat (it was she that paid for this trip) to hang out and fish. The river was up so high and running so fast the fish weren't really biting, but Nathan snagged a turtle by the back leg and I caught two small catfish. We also saw a couple of water moccasins and I got sunburnt. Not too bad though, it's almost all faded now. Once we got tired of fishing Lynn took us out for Mexican for supper. Jacob set the emergency exit alarm off on the way back from the bathroom. Nathan was so embarrassed, I had to remind him that he did the same thing to me at Old Navy once.

After supper we went back to the hotel and let the kids swim in the indoor pool for a couple of hours before bed. They had the pool to themselves and had a blast. Jacob would walk back and forth from one side of the 3 foot area to the other with his little floaties on and exclaim "I'm SUCH a great swimmer!" every time he got over close to us.

Monday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel buffet (you could cook your own waffles and everything, so cool) and then went to the Museum of Discovery, which was right across the street from the hotel. The kids had a pretty good time, although it wasn't as much hands-on fun as the museum they're used to over here. A group of school kids acting like wild monkeys showed up around noon so we decided it was a good time to head out. We walked across to a popular catfish place for lunch. It was *really* good. We had talked about going at other times, but the line was always out the door and wrapped around the block the other times we passed by. Still busy when we went, but we only had about a fifteen minute wait for our food.

After lunch we walked to the trolley stop and rode the trolley all around the city and over the river. That was neat, very relaxing. Next time we go up to Little Rock for a concert or something we'll definitely have to park across town and ride the trolley, it stops right in front of the arena. After the trolley ride, it was time to head home. Thankfully we were only staying about an hour and a half from home, so we didn't have a ridiculous car ride back. The kids still all conked out about halfway home.

So, that was our weekend! We had a great time. Nathan was absolutely flabbergasted when he realized (on Sunday night) that he and Dana were going to miss school all day Monday for no reason other than to hang out and have fun. The look on his face was hilarious.