Traveling Kings

Day 3 of vacation.  The family is embracing the leisurely lifestyle.  Our only plans for the day is to drive five miles into town and visit the quaint shops of Eureka Springs, and it would be almost 2:00 before we leave the house.

Mallory was anxious to tell a story this morning of how Marissa woke her up in the middle of the night.  Marissa was repeating “I’m sorry.  I’m sorry” so Mallory turns her flashlight on and points it at Marissa.  Marissa was sitting up in bed looking at her.  Mallory yelled at her to shut up, and Marissa laid back down.  When Scott heard this story, he asked Mallory if she had asked Marissa if she was okay.  This prompted an outburst of laughter from Mallory, who thought that was the funniest thing ever.  (The answer was no…)

Miles ices the cinnamon rolls for KK.

An outbreak of Phase 10.

Kings visit Eureka Springs!

Eureka Springs is built on hills.  The shops, of which there are not many, line the winding roads in a small district.  The town was pretty busy while we were there.  In fact, there were many more shoppers around than the few times that Stephanie and I have visited in the summer.

Eureka Springs is full of little surprises. Mallory and a troll.

PK and Mallory find a rooster covered in lights. Photo op!

KK enjoying a refreshing beverage at the Rowdy Beaver.

Ellery window shopping at the Princess Boutique.

Erin, Scott, Ellery and Humpty Dumpty.

Another thing that the citizens of Eureka Springs are is environmentally friendly.  It is neat to see a town embrace nature as much as this town does.

A tree growing through a hole in the street.

A tree sweater.

This grove is the warmest in town.

Near the end of our time in town, Uncle Joe & Aunt Judy joined up with us, as they will be spending the rest of the vacation with us.  They brought great news, as Judy’s son, Jeff, got engaged to his girlfriend, Melissa, over the holidays.  Some of us got to meet Melissa for the first time this past summer when they were in Oklahoma for a few days.  She is a lovely person and we’re excited to welcome her to the family!

During dinner preparation, Mallory drove back into Holiday Island to find out what time the nail salon opened tomorrow, since Mallory is wanting to get her nails done as part of her birthday celebration tomorrow.  On our drive through our neighborhood, which is home to a golf course, we saw a lady walking her dog down one of the fairways.  This prompted Mallory to yell “This is not a children’s playground!” at her (with our windows up, of course).  This outburst was prompted by the numerous signs around the golf course that detail everything that is not allowed on the golf course and the cart path.  This place likes their rules.

Not a Children’s Playground!

Today is also Joe’s birthday so we were excited to get to celebrate with him.  Happy Birthday, Uncle Joe!

Our birthday meal was steak and baked potatos.  The ultimate birthday meal, really.  Props to Erin for putting this feast together!

Erin running the grill on the patio.

Birthday Boy.

Of course, there was cake and ice cream.  Erin asked KK what kind of ice cream he wanted.  KK replied, “I want a big slice of cake and a LOT of ice cream”.  Yeah, we knew that! We knew a full Cream Machine worth of cream would make him happy.

After dinner, we switched it up and played a round of Apples to Apples.  Turns out that Miles and PK have some type of unnatural ability when it comes to this game.  While Judy, Mallory, Marissa, Scott and I each finished with 1 card, Miles beat PK 5 – 4.  It was like they were playing a different game than the rest of us.

Apples to Apples.

The family is slowing down after three days.  We could only muster one game, and everybody was ready to do something else.  That’s fine.  There’s always tomorrow.