Hikers, bikers... they're all the same

My parents came up from Houston last Monday and we've been busy driving them all over creation. On Thursday, we drove them up to a friend's cabin near Jasper in the Ozarks. We've stayed there before and we LOVE this place. It's on the Buffalo River and it's gorgeous up there this time of year.

We planned to do some hiking, and my mom was determined to get my dad a walking stick. (Not the insect... an actual stick you walk with.) None of the usual country bumpkin-type places in our town (like Cracker Barrel) had any, so we decided to stop on the way up to the cabin. We passed a sign that we thought said "HIKERS OUTLET" so we stopped. Surely the Hikers Outlet would have a walking stick! It wasn't until we were all out of the car that we noticed the sign actually said "BIKERS OUTLET." The Confederate flags should have tipped us off. However, we did manage to secure a walking stick at a business adjacent to the Bikers Outlet, so mission accomplished.

After a couple hours of windy, hilly driving (in the backseat with a 9-year-old who is as prone to motion sickness as I am), we finally got there. The cabin comes complete with a resident elk (named "Elkie" by Jenna) who came to see us both mornings we were there.

Why, there she is now!

Julia and Jenna got to do lots of exploring on the land around the cabin. Here are my sweet girls actually being sweet to each other down by the creek.

We hiked Lost Valley trail and poked around in Beechwoods Cemetery, where graves go back to before the Civil War. In fact, if you know anyone whose last name is Villines and they live in Arkansas, just about everyone they're related to who's dead is buried in this cemetery.

Here's Jenna in the original Villines house, which was built in 1850. While we were in there, we looked up and noticed the whole place is being held up by a couple of thin cables. So we left. Rather quickly.

Then back to the cabin, where we walked down to the Buffalo River. My dad loved looking for arrowheads there...


...while my mom pretended to not be related to any of us.








This is the perfect place to find some lovely fall colors, which I tried to capture in this rather artsy photo I took:



We drove back to our house Saturday and my parents flew home today. My next much-anticipated outing: the Twilight movie on Nov. 21! Edward + Bella = love forever! (And I do mean FOREVER.)

Easter and the Ozarks

Here are Julia and Jenna post-egg hunt in our front yard today. (I also wanted to show off my daffodils. They've survived two snows and two hailstorms and still look lovely.)

I have a feeling Julia's going to start thinking she's too old for this in a few years, but I'm glad she's not there yet.

Jenna was apparently pretty excited to get this chocolate bunny.





If you're wondering why our yard isn't green yet, that's because two weeks ago, it looked like this:



Earlier this weekend, we took my mom up into the Ozarks for a little Arkansas sightseeing. Friday, we stayed in a cabin near Jasper that belongs to some friends of ours. The cabin's property is right on the edge of Buffalo National Park, and the scenery there is beautiful.

The girls loved playing in the creek...

...and in the hammock just down the hill from the cabin.

We took the scenic route home, winding our way through the Ozarks and stopping at a triple waterfall and some Civil-War era building remnants. When we got back into civilization, we stopped in Conway at the Marketplace Grill and made complete pigs of ourselves. Julia proclaimed it as her new favorite restaurant. I'm kind of glad there's not one in Little Rock -- we'd be in big trouble!