The Great Room Swap

We made some big decisions about the house this summer. The boys really needed their own rooms. J decided to take DH's office, even though he'll have to walk down the hall to the bathroom. Since J was going to be walking down the hall, he needed access to the hall bath, which was attached to A's room. J would probably rather share a bathroom with his brother than his 14 year old very girly, long-shower-taking, nail-polish-using, smelly-lotion-wearing sister, so B really needed to switch rooms too. The great room swap became J moving into the office, B into A's room and A into the boys' room. We only had a month or so left to get it done before school starts.

Since the boys were going to be gone for a week, I took advantage of their absence to clean out their room. Sunday was the hardest part, debunking the beds by myself. I had my tools, diet coke and hex wrenches. An hour and a half later, with help from A, the task was done. It took me 3 more nights after work to go through all of their stuff and empty their room. Going through 8 years of little boy stuff was not fun!

Lake Trip 2014 - Boys Week

The boys stayed behind at the lake for another week of fun. They went tubing of course. However the new game was jumping from tube to tube. Crazy boys! Thank heavens I wasn't there for that. They went on a long boat ride to Big Cedar Lodge for lunch. B went to a week long sleep away baseball camp with his cousin. It was 5 days of baseball, baseball, baseball. He loved it! J stayed at the lake with Pa Pa & Grandma. He fished and fished some more. He came home with 5 bags of the fish he caught so he can have his own fish fry. He loved it too!

Lake Trip 2014 - Girls Ride Home

A & I left the lake earlier than the boys. She suffered through a book on tape (or mp3 player) with little complaint. Thank you A.

We took a side trip to Fayetteville, AR to visit the Crystal Bridges Museum. It was a great museum and free. I took pictures of some of my favorite pieces. I'd like to go back someday and walk the grounds. They looked beautiful.

After our museum visit, we headed to downtown Fayetteville to find Crepes Paulette. I found the little crepe stand on a "restaurants nearby" search on Google Maps. It was well worth the visit. They serve buckwheat crepes with all kinds of fillings. A had chicken with pesto. I had ham, cheese & jalapeño. We ended with a sweet crepe with sea salt caramel and dark chocolate ganache. It was so yummy, it disappeared in minutes. A, who learned to make crepes in her decats class, definitely approved of our lunch stop.

We had another 5.5 hours until home. The audio book was interesting and not racy, which I started to worry about since I was listening with A! It was just a tad too long, so after we emptied the car, we sat down on the couch and finished the last 20 minutes.

It was nice to be home again.

Lake Trip 2014 - fishing

The boys spent some time fishing and caught a couple of keepers. Papa taught them how to clean the fish, J actually tried, B took care of the guts. We ate them when their great grandmother Vi came to lunch. When fishing was done, B honed his tubing skills. The dog had some fun too.

Lake Trip 2014 - Silver Dollar City

We arrived early and in the rain. At least it was more drizzle than downpour and it kept the crowds away.

B volunteered to be on stage at the Brad Ross magic show. They demonstrated a new tennis shoe cleaning machine that didn't quite work. They sent him back to his seat with a burnt up sole of a shoe. He went back up and tried to use a series of magic wands to fix his shoe. Eventually they found his shoe in a box hanging in the air at the front of the stage. Now all the kids have been up on stage at some point. A was in the magic show on the Disney Cruise. J was in a juggling act on our other cruise.

DH & I rode the rollercoaster Wildfire in the front row seats. I don't know what I was thinking. There were steep, steep drops and multiple upside down parts. I survived but was dizzy.

The kids rode all the little kid rides. A went on the "Dumbo" ride for the good selfie potential.

The best part of the day, the cheddar jalapeno pretzels on the way out. There are no pictures because we ate them too fast. In fact, the first one was gone in less than a minute and we went back and bought another one. I want that recipe.

It was a good day to go to SDC, the early rain kept the crowds down and it wasn't too hot. I think we all had fun.