Rogers Aquatic Center

 For Family Home Evening tonight we went to the new Rogers Aquatic Center. They had this awesome sale going on and we all got in for less than the price for one normal day pass. That's a pretty good deal and I couldn't pass it up.

 

The kids were pretty excited top. Here they are as we entered the park. They took off with Tanner's protective hand on Bailey's arm. He cracks me up- he's always watching out for her!

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of water activities for toddlers. The kids had a blast!

There was a sprinkler pad the kids really loved.

Tanner thought he was pretty big stuff running through these sprinkler rings.

They also had a toddler pool with a toddler slide.

Tanner still loves walking/swimming on his hands in the pool.

Kiddos on the toddler slide!

Also, Bailey decided this was her favorite beverage. Totally gross and she wouldn't stop!

And she was completely thrilled with herself!

They also had a bigger toddler area with a tunnel slide and a big bucket that dropped water on everyone. My kids weren't a big fan of the dropping water. But they enjoyed the water guns, slide and sprinklers.

 

Chris and I took turns watching the kids so we could each ride the adult slides.

The slides were so fun. They had two that just dropped straight down and I'm way too scared to do those, but I did the toilet bowl slide. It  flushes you down and then swirls you around and until you drop out the bottom of the slide into the pool. So funny, except we kept falling out of the bottom in weird ways and face planting into the water.   There were two others that we tried as well and it was so fun!!!

Bailey kept herself occupied by trying to insert herself into the rental lockers.
My kids are total weirdos! But I LOVE it!

We had a great time. My cousin Aaron and his wife Stephanie came with their little boy too. It's so fun to have family so close. We are having such a good time living in this area.

My kids are totally getting spoiled though. Oh well, summer is almost over and then it's back to reality as preschool starts and life slows down to normal. So we are going to continue to enjoy the summer fun while we can!

Safari Day

On Saturday we spent the day in Gentry, Arkansas. We went to this awesome wilderness safari and had a blast. Gentry is about 30 minutes from our house, so we loaded up the car and drove over to the "Wild Wilderness Drive-through Safari."

The first half of the park was a drive-through. We got the kids out of their car seats and let them sit on our laps while we drove around. They LOVED it!

Tanner especially loved driving!

Bailey couldn't get enough of the animals...

The animals would literally come right up to the windows of our car and look right at us. It was so weird but cool. See the ostrich in the picture?

Bailey loved yelling out the names of each animal as we spotted them. Zebras were one of her top favorites.

But she kinda freaked when this zebra came right up to our window. It  was so funny. He just stood there looking at us for the longest time.

Even Bailey took a turn driving.

Then there was this big guy giving us the stare down.

Some of the more predatory animals were kept in cages, so we couldn't get as close to them in the car. We saw this bear but we also saw lions, tigers, panthers and leopards. It was pretty cool.

Check out this massive Rhino.

 

After the drive-through segment of the tour, we did the hands-on portion. There was a petting zoo area where you could feed the goats, ponies, donkeys, chickens and pigs.

Bailey very carefully picked out each piece of bread she fed to the animals. It was so funny to watch her.

Tanner was more a fan of the goats and animals there were behind the fences- that couldn't reach him. He didn't like that the animals were as big or bigger than him. And the goats kept trying to eat the bag of food he was carrying.

Tanner did enjoy checking out the different exotic birds. Chris helped him collect different bird feathers. (Completely sanitary right?)

This was as close as we got to a lion, but I did hear that in the spring they had lion cubs you could pet. How cool is that?

But I think the biggest hit of the day were these little ferrets. As creepy as they look, they were so sweet to hold. They just snuggle up to your chest and let you hold them.

Tanner did not want to give his up. He took like 6 turns holding them.

Even I took a turn holding the little things. So soft!

Then we spent some time with the camels and giraffes.

We even got to pet the giraffe!

 

By 2:00 pm the kids were exhausted so we decided to grab some lunch and head home.

 

It was such a cool place and we look forward to going back again. Maybe we will have to go back in the spring when they will have some new cubs and other animal babies.

 

It's so nice to have Chris home every weekend. I know it seems like a small thing, but for the last year he didn't get weekends off work so we are loving this!!

One more thing we can check off our NWA bucket list.

A+ for the "Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari"!!!! 

Life in NWA

We've settled into life in NWA and we are LOVING it!

There are so many fun things to do and we are doing our best to take advantage of all the fun there is to offer!

The weekend after we moved in we had our first FHE in our new home.

We did glow stick bowling. It was pretty fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

 

 

But about 20 minutes into our activity, Tanner decided he'd had enough and we decided to end the night with light saber duels.

We also have been on 3-4 playdates. Everyone is so friendly here and they want to play all the time. It's so fun to have so many stay-at-home moms who want to play.

 

Tuesday we made this awesome chalk ice.

It was a big hit. Isn't it pretty?

 

Wednesday we made Flubber. This was such an easy and fun activity.

The kids were so excited.

Bailey kept yelling "it's so cute, Mom." "My flubber is so cute"

I don't know what makes her think that, but it was pretty fun!

They literally played with this stuff for over an hour. So awesome. Perfect activity for those rainy days. (Which we've been having a lot of lately- very strange for an Arkansas July)

 

On Thursday we went to the theater for the $4 movie and saw "Madagascar 3"- which was really cute. We hadn't seen it before so we all enjoyed it. Tanner loves going to see movies now. This summer has been great practice for us and I feel much more comfortable taking the kids to see movies by myself now. And you can't be that $4 price.

 

Unfortunately, I got sick Thursday night and spent the next few days in bed. My wonderful husband took care of me after work and the kids were angels and just hung out in bed with me.

But by Sunday I was feeling good again and life was back in motion. 

 

 Monday's FHE was a treasure hunt. I drew a treasure map and Chris hid the treasure box (with our scriptures inside) and then we followed the map to find them. They loved it and we did the whole hunt twice. So fun. When we found the treasure box the first time, Tanner exclaimed "The scriptures ARE the treasure!"

I loved it! He's starting to really enjoy the scripture stories and it makes me so happy!

Tuesday we went to a friend's house for a play date. The kids loved it. Tanner started asking to go back immediately. So fun.

 

The next day the weather was amazing and so we packed our lunch and headed to the park.

The kids had fun and it was so nice to not be so hot while playing outside.

Look at those cutie faces- you can't help but love playing with them.

 

On Thursday we met Chris for lunch and looked at some houses. It was fun to spend some time during the day with him. The kids miss him during the day.

 

Then on Friday we went for a tour of one of the local fire stations.

I didn't get many pictures because my camera was acting up, but here is an instagram collage.

 

Well that marks our first two weeks in Northwest Arkansas. I can honestly say that I feel like we are meant to be here and life is going great.

Chris is loving his job, the kids have lots of new friends and there are lots of other moms for me to hang with. The only downside is the distance from our families- but we can visit.

We are grateful for all our blessings and can't wait to see what the future holds.