Back from vacation

I started this yesterday, but it just didn’t get finished.

Oh, man. What a week it was! But my kids survived the lack of internet at Granny’s house. 😉 I’m not sure I survived the flights. But I didn’t seem to get badly glutened even though I ate a small piece of Aunt Becky’s black eyed pea cornbread knowing it had wheat flour. I had to know, and it was good!

I tried to keep it on the down low that I was going home to Arkansas because there were issues I didn’t want to address. It only partially worked as they popped up in a way that I had to address them after I got back. But in a way that I’ve avoided any public meltdowns. So far.

I was supposed to run 9 miles the weekend I traveled to AR, but there was no run happening on flight day, and I wasn’t running 9 before church, and wasn’t running that evening. So I attempted it Monday morning. I made it 4.73 miles (according to MapMyRun). Around mile 4 I realized I had stopped sweating, and decided not to push it. I walked into the house and exploded in sweat. After I cooled down and cleaned up, I took the kids to Petit Jean Mountain. We did the obligatory trip to “the point”, and were going to do the Museum of Automobiles, but there was no one there but us and the kids were all “Uh, no.” So we went to the petting zoo.

photo(2)

Oh hai

Oh hai

We went to the visitor center, and then went on to the Cedar Falls Overlook area.

photo(20)

One word.  Creepy.

One word. Creepy.

Jamie wanted to hike down to the falls, and I was game. However, we couldn’t figure out how, and so then she decided we should go to some cave. We didn’t make it to the cave, and only made it as far as the Davies bridge on the creek above the falls. It was down there that I used what little service I had on my phone to text Karyn and let her know that having come down that trail, the Campbell Creek Trail at Raven Rock is an easy moderate trail. And we had to climb back up out of there. 1.17 miles down and back. I added that to what we walked on the other side to the overlooks, and decided 3 miles of trail on the mountain made up for the 4.2 miles I didn’t run that morning.

Cedar Falls

Cedar Falls

Davies Bridge

Davies Bridge

Tuesday, we went to the zoo. It’s a mile around the zoo, and we did enough looping and backtracking that I think I got in a couple of miles.

He likes penguins.  And making that face.

He likes penguins. And making that face.

I was amused by the cat sleeping sprawled out on it's back.

I was amused by the cat sleeping sprawled out on it’s back.

I think we wandered around downtown Conway on Wednesday.

photo(16)

photo(8)

The kids wanted to go to Toadsuck...until we got there.

The kids wanted to go to Toadsuck…until we got there.

Thursday was the annual family reunion for my dad’s side of the family. There was a low turnout, but I was glad to see those who were able to come. In an effort to prevent glutening, I fried chicken to take. As I was opening the package before I fried it, I thought, “Oh, man. 18 pieces was too much. I hope people eat this!” We only brought back 4 pieces.

3 of my cousins...with red solo cup...

3 of my cousins…with red solo cup…

We went by the old homeplace when we left. :sigh: It sure doesn’t look anything like it did when I lived there.

This is where the house was.

This is where the house was.

I spent Friday wrapping up remaining loose ends, and hopefully all of them for the time being. I got caught up on my reading, and my planks. But I didn’t do any planks over the weekend. I arrived to too much drama. But that is a story in itself that I started to blog, but then I saved it to drafts and decided to leave it alone for now.

First dorm at college.  Short Hall

First dorm at college. Short Hall

My second dorm.  Denney Hall.

My second dorm. Denney Hall.

Common area between Short and Denney.  Only dorms that still look exactly like when I went to UCA.

Common area between Short and Denney. Only dorms that still look exactly like when I went to UCA.

Old Main at UCA.  It seems bigger than it was.

Old Main at UCA. It seems bigger than it was.

Brenda was on vacation at the beach when I was home so I didn’t get to see her. Which means she has to come out here to visit me. lol Anyway, when I talked to her last, she told me I should go by and see Kevin’s headstone. So I did, and probably would have melted down if Jamie hadn’t been with me.

photo(14)

photo(9)

There are a few more photos on my Instagram.

4 Responses to 'Back from vacation'

  1. Jenn says:

    I’m sorry that you’re having a hard time with some things right now, but it looks like you had a nice time, regardless. Some of that scenery is gorgeous. And yes, that skin is definitely on the creepy side. Ew.

    • DragonLady says:

      I certainly don’t regret that I went, and what has happened needed to happen.

      I should have made the pics bigger! lol It is absolutely gorgeous up on Petit Jean. Before I started running, I would avoid it because I didn’t want to walk/hike around it, but I was the only one who came up from Davies Bridge that wasn’t sick, and that after running nearly 5 miles that morning! 😉

      I guess the skin is a coyote. It probably said somewhere around the table, but I was all disappointed that they don’t have snakes anymore and didn’t read anything. 😉

  2. Angelique says:

    Those are some awesome pictures! The “touch it sign” was a bit creepy! I hope you had a good trip sorry there is drama if you need a laugh let me know! Miss ya

    • DragonLady says:

      All I could think of when I saw the “touch it” sign was Mike Myer’s Sprocket sketches from SNL. lol

      And I’ll fill you in soon on what’s going on. Miss you too! 🙂