2014 Eureka Springs Mini-Vacation Recap

Yesterday morning we loaded the kids up and headed to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to make a mini-vacation together.

 

 We arrived in Eureka around 11:00, parked the car and took off walking to a Mexican Restaurant to grab some lunch. Once we finally got there, after about 15 minutes, we found that they didn't open until 12:00 so we turned around and walked back to downtown. As you can imagine, that was a blast with two hungry little girls. ;)

I thought "If this is any indication of how this trip is going to go.... "

But luckily we ended up at Amigos Mexican Restaurant and Cantina instead...and I am so glad we did! Our service was quick, all of the waitstaff was incredibly friendly and the food was incredibly amazing.

 

Felicia had a nacho kid meal, Rae ate a kids quesadilla, Justin had a lunch special and I had this bad boy:

A shrimp chimichanga. OMG. This thing was incredible... I think it would have only been complete with one of the delicious looking margaritas. However, since it was noon and it was a family day I'll have to check those out next time. ;) Here is their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AmigosMexicanRestaurant  If you visit Eureka Springs, this is a must visit location!

After we stuffed ourselves silly we make a quick trek through town to see the sights before jumping into the car and heading out to see the Christ of the Ozarks (Or as we affectionately call Him, Big Jesus). More information on the Christ of the Ozarks can be found here.

Next, we took the girls to check out the Thorncrown Chapel. The Throncrown Chapel is a gorgeous glass chapel outside of Eureka Springs. I was lucky enough to see one of my beautiful friends get married there a few years ago, and the wedding was breathtaking. The chapel is so gorgeous it gives me chills. Felicia informed me that she is going to get married there one day. ;)

After sight seeing we went back downtown to do some shopping for Eureka Springs t-shirts. The girls had to put theirs on immediately. I can't wait to wear mine!

Here are a few pics from our walk.

Once we were all shopped out we hopped back in the car and went to The Rowdy Beaver to get some dinner.  We started with some delicious fried pickles.

The girls got hot dog kids meals, which were HUGE!

Justin and I got a couple of amazing steaks. His was a burbon rib eye and it melted in my mouth. Seriously.

I got an 8 oz. Sirloin and it was one of the best steaks I've had in forever. My potato was more beautiful before I covered it in butter and sour cream, but believe me it was amazing.

Our waitress did a great job, and service was so quick! We will be back to visit the Rowdy Beaver again!

After dinner we went and drove around town before parking and walking around. I stumbled across the "Roundhouse", which is and always has been my favorite house in all of Eureka Springs. Check out the website here: http://www.the-round-house.com/. I was so excited to be so close to it!  

 

We went and ventured around the Train Station. It is awesome and I got some great pictures.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and the girls loved it!

Oklahoma City Anniversary Trip

Last week Justin and I went to Oklahoma City to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. I must say, having an anniversary on New Years Eve does have it's perks! There is always something fun going on!

When we first arrived in Oklahoma City, we went straight to the Oklahoma City Memorial. It was super cold, but it was so worth seeing.  If you ever go to Oklahoma City, I strongly recommend that you visit the memorial. Here are the pictures we got:

After we got done at the memorial we headed to the Outlet Shoppes of Oklahoma City. The first store I hit was the Coach Outlet (of course). Since it was right after Christmas, the outlet was having a great sale. I got an Iphone case and an Ipad mini case for $20.00 total! I was so excited I was about ready to jump up and down in the store.

We also visited the Disney store, Rue 21, and Aeropostale. All in all I spent $50.00 at the outlet mall, so I think I did pretty fantastic!

After the outlet mall we ate at Olive Garden and spent the Hobby Lobby gift card that I got for Christmas.

Next, we went to check in to our hotel. We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Norman. This was by far, the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in, and thanks to Expedia we got a great deal. The room was beautiful, the building was amazing, and I would stay there over and over again.

That evening we went to Red Lobster to stuff ourselves and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our night out. I put on my sparkly dress from Old Navy, Justin put on some blacks and a button down, and we headed to downtown Oklahoma City.

As we got closer to downtown we were able to see crosses and a Happy New Year message on downtown buildings.  

The Arts Council in Oklahoma City hosts Opening Night in downtown OKC on New Years Eve. We bought tickets for a party held inside the Myriad Gardens. It was a little bit awkward because we didn't know ANYONE but it was warm, they had a dessert buffet and it was something fun to do together. And we got to watch the fireworks together at midnight. It was an awesome night.

The next day we headed back home after making a quick stop at Michael's. After making it home we spent the day relaxing with the kiddos. Everything about the trip was fantastic. We had such a great time together.

While my 30 before 30 list says that I want to take a weekend trip with the husband, I'm going to count this one as done. Do you have any fun weekend trips planned?

Branson Missouri Vacation Days 2 & 3 Recap

Happy Sunday Afternoon!

This is a continuation of a previous blog post from last week, recapping our family vacation to Branson, Missouri.

On Day 2 we woke up bright and early, and headed out to breakfast before starting our next adventure. We decided that we definitely needed to go to Ihop to get a good breakfast to start our day. (Our nearest Ihop is too far away to ever visit for breakfast.) The first thing I noticed when walking into Ihop was the fact that there was guy stationed just inside the breeze way, and he was selling tickets to local shows, Silver Dollar City, etc.  I'm sure some people find this helpful, I found it slightly annoying. So annoying in fact, that I was sure to tell the kids to "look down, make no eye contact!" on our way back out of the restaurant.


Anyway, our meal was pretty delicious. I had a spinach omelet, that was bigger than my face. I only managed to eat about half of it and I took it back to the hotel room to throw away at a later time, since I never had time to finish it.

Next, we headed out to Silver Dollar City! This was another surprise for the girls. We got there on a Wednesday morning around 10 am and that place was already packed. We stood in line to ride a trolley from the parking lot for about 20 minutes. Which wasn't terrible at all.

We spent the entire day at Silver Dollar City. We rode two water rides. The American Plunge was a lot of fun, and was enough to take me scream my head off. Basically, you sit in a fake log and it takes you up in the air, 5 stories before sending you splashing down into water, and soaking you head to toe.  I'm not a roller coaster kind of girl, but I still enjoyed it. My favorite ride was definitely the Lost River of the Ozarks.  This is a six person ride where you sit in a giant tube go on a controlled white water raft ride. I would have seriously rode that one over and over again. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was soaked and it was HOT outside. Another must do is definitely the train ride. But watch out for the train robbers that interrupt your ride! We also spent a good part of the day doing some shopping and watching the on site artists. The girls were particularly amazed while watching pottery being made. The glass blowers were pretty amazing as well. :) We had a fantastic day at Silver Dollar City, but while looking at the website I am realizing there is quite a bit that we didn't do. It would have been worth it to spend two days there.

Here are some items I suggest you take to make your trip to Silver Dollar City more enjoyable.

*Sunscreen
*Hats for everyone (I think my head was sunburned in the first 30 minutes)
*Bottles of water
*Small snacks (Buying a ton of food from the vendors adds up quickly!)
*Ziploc bags of all sizes. Think cell phones, cameras, car keys, purses. You will want all of these items protected while you are on water rides and Ziploc bags can help get the job done. I wouldn't completely count on plastic bags, but it will help. 
*Change! There are lockers available for the Lost River Ride (and possibly others?) as well as plastic bags for sale. I had NO change when we first arrived I was completely bummed out because I did not grab a Ziploc big enough for my purse.
*Backpack. This would have carrying stuff around a lot easier, I didn't think about it ahead of time and walked around with a reusable shopping bag all day. I would have loved a backpack to distribute the weight more evenly on my back.
*Cash for spending money!
*A camera

After we were done at Silver Dollar City we (six hours was about our maximum), we ran back to the hotel to clean up and head out to dinner.

We grabbed dinner at Joe's Crab Shack at Branson Landing. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table, but that was fine. They took my cell phone number to text us when a table was ready and we did some light shopping!

I went directly to $1 Jewelry Amore and stocked up on some cheap jewelry. (I'm a sucker for cheap jewelry.) Here's what I got.

Our dinner was amazing. And seafood just seemed right after a long day of hanging out in the heat. I had the East Coast Platter. The shrimp, crabcake and onion strings were to die for. I didn't have a chance to eat my fish because I was stuffed.

After we finished up we ran back to the hotel room, changed again and headed for the water park. We stayed until it was about time to close, going down the water slide ONE MORE TIME and then went back to the room to shower and crash.  What an exhausting day!

On Day 3, it was shopping day! We got up and packed up all of our stuff that was all over the hotel room and checked out at about 8 am.

For breakfast we accidentally found a Krispy Creme Donut shop. I had a cinnamon bun, but there were so many amazing options. And I'm sure my butt grew considerably while we were standing in line.

After that healthy breakfast we headed out to the Tanger Outlet Mall! Our first stop was the Coach Outlet (of course!). That was the most exciting moment of my life... not really but I felt like a kid in a candy store. I was handed a 50% coupon when I walked in and this just thrilled me even more.

I could have probably spent all day in that store, Rae on the other hand wasn't so excited that I drug her through there. ;) I ended up walking out with a purse and a wristlet for a total of $110.00ish after tax. This is true love boys and girls.

 We also hit up just about every other store in the outlet mall. We managed to score big at the Disney Store, Underarmour, Old Navy and Toys R Us.

We also went back to Branson Landing to eat lunch at Charley's. I had an amazing Cheese steak Sandwich. Cheese steak is my all time favorite food and I've never met one I didn't like.. but this one was definitely my favorite. The Man Child ate there very often when he was stationed in Germany and now I know why he always raved about how amazing it was.

 We did a little bit more shopping at Branson Landing. We visited Bass Pro, Charlotte Russe, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and went back to the $1 Jewelry store. I got an adorable cross wallet for $12.00! (I couldn't bear the thought of using a camo wallet with my pretty Coach purse. haha!)

 Branson is definitely a place where you could just go away for the weekend and spend the whole time eating and shopping.  I obviously didn't start counting calories until after this trip.

Before heading home we had to stop and ride go-karts, just one time. I'm proud to say that Rae stomped her competition.

All in all we had an amazing family vacation. And I know it is one that the girls will always remember!