As you already know, the Stu monsters were asked to participate in my cousin's wedding. So, it was off to Eureka Springs.  

I had no idea what this town would be like... I knew it was in the Ozarks. I knew it was going to be chilly. That was all. 

We landed in Rogers, then drove about 40 minutes to Eureka Springs. Apparently, this town is bustling and busy in the summer... and dead in the winter. No kidding, half of the town is closed for December. I can't blame them. This is what we woke up to on Reagan's birthday:

A few months ago, my cousin Alex called and asked if my kids would be in his wedding. We were thrilled. The monsters LOVE Alex and Brooke. The wedding was scheduled a few days after Christmas... in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. 

Do you know where that is? I didn't. 

Eureka Springs is in northwest Arkansas. In the Ozarks. The only thing I know about that area is all I "learned" from watching Jason Bateman's show on Netflix. 

We worked it out to fly with my Dad. Mom drove her car (and most of the luggage) to Tennessee. The plan had been for her to drive from TN to AR. But we will get to that later. 

As I mentioned briefly in the last post, we missed the snow by a few days. It was actually much warmer in Boone than I was anticipating (50s). 

When we woke up on Friday, the kids really didn't want to go anywhere. They wanted to ride bikes and play outside for a while at the house. They were perfectly content to make their own fun.

​So we let them. 

Our bags are packed. The weather is perfect for flying. Let's go!

Buddy loves the snow. He loves colder weather. And so every year, he asks to be in the snow for his birthday. When we can, we like to make his wish come true.

​This year, we missed the snow by about 5 days. That was kind of annoying. The birthday boy was not pleased. After he got over his initial disappointment, he had a blast. 

Since I am adding things to the American Exploration page, I figured I should backlog some of our past vacays. 

My family used to make skiing an annual family vacation. I grew up skiing every winter. And I am fairly good - impressive for a Florida girl. Anyway, I digress. We used to travel all over each winter to ski. The vacations started out on the East Coast and eventually we fell in love with West Coast slopes. 

We took a long hiatus while my sisters and I were in college. Now that we are all grown up, with spouses and families of our own, we have reinstated the ski trips. Woo hoo! 

Actually, I think they really started because my kids asked to see snow, and their grandparents would do anything for them.