Little Rock, Big Fun...

For the first time in like, EVER, Ryan had the entire week of Spring Break off. We'd already done our big trip for the year but we couldn't let the week pass us by without doing a quick trip. So we decided a 2 day get away to Little Rock was the perfect plan and this town did not disappoint. We headed out Saturday morning and took our time on the seven hour drive. 

Ryan has been in east Texas for the past 6 weeks and wanted to stop at an old Native American historic site for lunch. The weather cooperated and the kids had the best time exploring this tiny museum.  

If you're ever close to Aldo and have $11 to spare, it's worth the hour. The museum had great true-to-life exhibits of life on an Indian village for the kids to explore. 

And outside they have a walking trail around the original Caddo Mounds detailing the burial grounds and what life was like way back when.

It also let the kids run off some of that road trip energy before making the rest of ride to Arkansas. 

The kids are so into our goal of seeing all 50 states and love talking about which ones we've been to, which ones we will see next and which ones have been their favorite. As we were getting closer to the border they were all looking for the "Welcome to Arkansas" sign and couldn't wait to snap a picture for state #11.  

We got to the hotel just in time for dinner and fell fast asleep before day 1 in Little Rock. First up on the agenda - the State Capitol. The grounds were surrounded by the most amazing trees all in bloom and the girls wanted to take each and every one of those petals home. 

These trees are called Japanese Magnolias and I kind of need one. 

Seriously, how gorgeous is this?!?

We had to walk around for a bit because the building didn't open until 10am and even though we lost an hour, we are still early risers and had to wait! HA!

Once inside, we did all of the exploring and basically had the place to ourselves. The kids were in love with this fireplace and convinced that this is where Santa enters to deliver presents to the Governor. HAHA!

Ryan's favorite part was this guy. He's really advocating for this type of patch to become the new sign of bravery, courage, and manhood. 

As we made our way back down to the main hallway Emersyn was just mesmerized by the space and insisted that it was a ballroom and ballrooms are in fact, made for dancing. So dance we did. 

And for the record, I totally wore my Texas Forever shirt on purpose. 

#clearly #whoisArkansas  

Next up - the Big Dam Bridge. The entire city of Little Rock has walking and biking trails throughout and all of them are connected - part of that reason is this structure which is pretty cool. The city landscape is really beautiful and full of lush green trees and tons of nature so we had to check it out. 

We clearly had too much fun with the name and the kids couldn't get what we thought was so funny. As we were walking up Emmy said, "I don't see a dam bridge anywhere - I just see a bridge." 

#mouthofbabes

This endeavor was a lot quicker than the last bridge we walked across.

We had worked up an appetite and made our way back downtown to walk around a bit more and grab some lunch. How cute is this underpass? College Station, let's make this happen somewhere, mkay?

We filled ourselves with some Dam Goode Pies and then headed for our last stop of the day, The Clinton Presidential Library. 

Everyone really really enjoyed it! All of the exhibits are completely interactive which kept the kids attention so well. 

I learned more about his Presidency in those 2 hours than probably when it was actually happening because I'll admit, I don't pay attention to current events. 

#IknowIknow #Butignoranceisbliss #Iwasinhighschool #Andatinbitofcollege

Radley's eye roll at mom snapping pics is one of my favorites these days.

Seriously, everything could be touched, moved, listened to, played with - super cool and tons of fun. There wasn't near as much history about Bill as what we have with HW Bush, but his story is still pretty great. (They did, leave out one teeny tiny part of his presidency - I'll let you guess what that was.)

#weallknowBill

At one point as we were reading about Chelsea, Ryan I looked at our kids and tried to imagine what it would be like to be born in a Governor's mansion and then move directly to the White House. That's just crazy!! 

This picture is nothing more than to showcase Emersyn's posing techniques. 

Fun fact: You can purchase a Presidential Passport and get it stamped at each library you visit. There are 13 total and three of them are in Texas! (LBJ, George HW Bush, and George W. Bush) We may try to knock all of those off this summer!

#worldtravellers #nerds #historyisfun

Part of the agreement between the city and Clinton Foundation was that to be able to place the library in this location, they had to agree to connect more of the LR trails. You can literally run, walk, or bike, the entire city on these River Trails - I think that's just so cool. 

Emersyn didn't - she was having a moment so we did what all good parents do and told her we were going to chuck her into the river to swim back to the hotel.

She believed us. 

We decided a car ride back would be quicker.

:)