The Rest of our Arkansas Trip

Aww, let’s see. Where was I in talking about our Arkansas trip? Oh yes, on to Saturday.

I woke up with much pain, due to my stupid sunburn. I wasn’t alone in this affliction, as many of us had one. But we all have them in different places, which is kinda funny. Kristi’s burn is on her arms, Jeff’s is his legs, Jess has hers on her arms, legs, and upper back, and mine is my upper back and shoulders. I was so careful with Adrianna’s sunscreen lotion, making her wear a hat, and keeping her in the shade for much of the day. Today, she has a light, healthy tan. Too bad I wasn’t as careful with my own health, but I don’t imagine that I will be as careless about spending so much time in the sun sans suncreen in the future! I don’t think I have had a burn this bad since 1998, when I went on a Florida vacation.

Anyways, back to Saturday. It was rainy and overcast most of the day, so we lazed around the cabin for awhile. Reading our books and relaxing. I am reading Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (again) and am really enjoying it. I cannot wait to go home and watch the movie again, even though I have seen it many, many times.

Saturday afternoon, we drove to Fayetteville and browsed at a great used bookstore. I bought What to Expect – the Toddler Years. I am hoping it will give me some good insights and ideas on how to deal with Adrianna’s little shrieking fits she has from time to time. They usually show up on long car rides or when we are eating at a restaurant. I am pretty sure they are always because she is demanding our attention or from boredom. We were disciplining her for them at first, but you cannot easily do that in public and it also seemed to be giving her the attention (albeit negative) that she was looking for. A couple times she even laughed at me. ARGH. Toddlers are frustrating.

So now we are trying to ignore the bad behaviour, which seems to be working a little better. By ignoring, I mean that we make it obvious that she is being ignored when she behaves that way. The downer to this approach though is all the annoyed stares from other people. You can read it in their eyes, which seem to imply, “Can’t these people control their child?!”

The best solution is, of course, trying to distract and prevent the behaviour before it starts. This, unfortunately, is not always possible though. With a toddler, sometimes a tantrum cannot be checked or it comes without warning. But we are learning to bring cheerios and crackers with us or to ask the waitress to bring us some, and Pronto!

Okay, off of that bunny trail and back onto our time in Fayetteville.

While we were downtown, Greg decided to do a good deed, but it came back and bit him in the butt, so to speak. He saw an empty Funyuns bag on the ground so, being the good citizen that he is, he bent over to pick it up with the intention of discarding it into a nearby trash can.

***RIP***

He tore his britches. He ended up with a HUGE hole in the butt of his jeans. You could see his boxer briefs and his upper thigh, it was so large.

Now here is something that I just love about my husband. He is so laid back and calm. He didn’t seem to mind much about having to walk all over the downtown area of Fayetteville with his rear hanging out for everyone to see. He basically said, “What else can I do?” We were about an hour away from our cabin so he didn’t have a change of clothes handy. So he just went with it. And he didn’t seem too perturbed that Kristi and I busted a gut laughing for at least two blocks afterwards.

After our little shopping excursion, we went to an evening church service at a church that was familiar to Dave and Marilyn. The service was nice and I enjoyed the music. Adrianna cried when we dropped her off at the nursery. I think it was because she was handed off to a man, and men she doesn’t know scare her. So we explained that and he gave her to his wife who was also working in the nursery, while Greg and I watched through a window to make sure Adrianna was going to be okay. She settled down after she was placed into the woman’s lap so we left, even though I was still torn up a little about leaving her. When we went back to pick Adrianna up, we peaked through the window and saw that she was sleeping. Still sitting in the woman’s lap. We were told that she pretty much stayed in her lap the entire service, but that she did fine and the woman enjoyed how loving and cuddly Adrianna was. I am glad that she did okay, but my poor sweet baby. I couldn’t wait to sweep her up and cuddle and love on her myself.

Today, which is Sunday, we packed up our stuff and cleaned up the cabin so that it was left in perfect order, as it was when we arrived. Greg cooked pancakes for brunch. Not long before we left, Greg took me for a ride on one of the four-wheelers. I really enjoyed the ride. Any excuse to sit close to Greg and wrap my arms tightly around him is fun for me! After returning to the cabin and snapping a family photo, we headed back to Kansas.

We went to Montana Mike’s for dinner. As circumstance would have it, the kind couple that lent us their cabin for the week was also dining there. So we all had dinner together.
Once we arrived at the home of my in-laws and unloaded the vans, everyone jumped on the available computers to check email. Oh, the bliss of fast internet service again! And so here I am, updating my blog and enjoying the cable connection at my in-laws.

Oh, I should give an update on the whole story of the stolen cash that I blogged about yesterday. So Friday night, after Dave had picked up his wallet (that had been lost and found the previous day – Thursday) and discovered his cash to be missing, he got a call from the convenience store owner. They found a wad of cash stuffed under the jerky display near the cash register. It wasn’t the full amount of what had been taken, but it was close. The owner had balanced their register and was convinced that it hadn’t fallen out of the register. The way and also the place that the cash was found seemed to look as if perhaps the person who had taken it originally had a change of heart and returned it, but just hadn’t wanted to turn themselves in by actually handing it off to an employee there. The owner was sure it belonged to Dave and wanted to give it to him. Since the amount was a little less (i.e. not the exact amount that was lost), Dave told the owner to hold on to it until the day we were to leave town, just in case another patron came in with a plausible story of having lost that amount of cash. No one claimed it, so we got the money today on our way out of Arkansas. How crazy is that? It was such a nice relief to have the majority of the cash returned. A nice way to end our wonderfully fun, family vacation.