Family Trips Part 1

The Stinson family--Kenneth, Jamie, and Magan--and our family took a road trip in April together that was so much fun! Kenneth is a truck driver and has driven through the winding mountain roads of North Arkansas probably a thousand times, but has never been able to stop and explore the little towns and sites along the way. So he and Brian started talking about all of us going on a driving tour of North AR sometime. We finally go to go in late April and it was great to explore AR and to see the gorgeous views in the mountains. Our trip took us to Mammoth Springs, AR on the border of AR and MO, then to Eureka Springs, farther west, to Fayetteville home of the Hogs University of AR, and then back down to Rison. It took us from Thursday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, and we spent A LOT of time in the car, but it was really fun!

Our first stop--the spring in Mammoth Springs. It bubbles up and creates a lake that feeds into a river with a dam and waterfall that was all so pretty. You can sorta see the color of the water in the picture, it was bright turquoise like tropical water. And it was COLD!!!

This is Kenneth, Jamie, and Magan. They are the sweetest family. Magan is 14, and she is not at all like a typical teenager. She is so nice and polite and she carried Jack around the whole time. They love Jack, and he loves them back!

This is a nutria rat we saw in the lake--yuck, I know! But Jack loved seeing it, and he still talks about it now, 2 months later. He tells us how it was "swimmin' in the wah-er" and "eatin' the grass."

Here's where Jack's train obession began! You should have seen his face! PRICELESS! After this we saw a bunch more trains go by our motel room balcony. Every time one came by Jack was enthralled.
The second day we went to a park where you could look at these deep ravines and walk down into some caves. This cavern type thingy was down a steep flight of 119 stairs. It might not sound like much, but I was carrying Ali Grace and she got HEAVY! Brian had Jack and I know he was heavy too! We were all huffing and puffing on the way up--going down wasn't too bad--but it was so peaceful and pretty down there.

Friday night we were in Eureka Springs. They have a passion play that we heard was incredible, but we weren't able to go because of the kids being so tired. We did go to the park where they do the play and there is this Jesus statue there. It was huge!