Arkansas

A couple of weeks ago, we loaded up the car and took a little weekend trip to Arkansas. Tony grew up in Arkansas and still has family there so we decided it was time to show the boys where daddy spent a large part of his childhood. Maw-maw came w/us so it was nice to have her along for the 5 hour car ride. She kept peace and order in the backseat. It was the boy's first trip to Arkansas and they enjoyed it so much that they're already asking when we can go back to Aunt Dot's house. We arrived Friday afternoon and the boys immediately wanted to go for a swim.

They swam while we played catch up with family we haven't seen in several years...such a nice treat.

We woke up early Saturday morning, ate a greasy Hardee's breakfast and then parted ways for a couple of hours. Tony and his mom went to the cemetery so the boys and I took a little road trip to see the Cars 2 movie. Road trip b/c the nearest movie theater was 30 miles away. Even worse than that is the nearest Target is 45 miles away. You gotta be kidding me! Now I can do w/out a movie theater but I would never survive being that far away from a Target. I'm being a little dramatic and probably would be just fine but it would be really, really hard. I had no idea where I was going so I entered the movie theater address in my phone and off we went. Since it was opening weekend for the movie, we left in plenty of time b/c I knew there was a possibility the movie would be very crowded. We passed the movie theater twice b/c I was looking for a big theater. You know, like the ones we're all used to here in Dallas. I finally saw a sign, pulled into the parking lot and Kase said, "mommy, this doesn't really look like a movie theater."

Well, he was right. It was a good ol' small town cinema. I was no longer worried about the crowds b/c we were one of 5 cars in the parking lot. Tony called to check on us and I guess he could tell I was a little surprised. His response, "well what did you expect? You're in a little country town." We got our tickets, walked in and I immediately wanted to walk out. It wasn't what I was used to, at all. There were only 6 rows of seats, no stadium seating and NO CARPET IN THE THEATER...and it was musty. My germaphobia quickly kicked in as I scanned the seats we were about to sit down in. I wanted my Clorox wipes really, really bad. The three of us just stood there, looking really confused. But, instead of freaking out, we sat down, made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed the show. Afterwards, we ran into the bathroom, washed our hands 3 times, sprayed hand sanitizer and drove back to a place we were much more comfortable with. Looking back now, I just laugh b/c I'm sure we stuck out like a sore thumb. As a matter of fact, I know we did b/c we were the only ones not wearing cowboy boots, tank tops and cut off shorts. Needless to say, we are spoiled to our nice, comfy and clean movie theaters and have a whole new appreciation for Cinemark, AMC and definitely the Studio Movie Grill. On a more serious note, I'm truly thankful for the experience b/c the boys were able to see what life is like in a small country town. We enjoyed driving down country roads, seeing the farmers spray their crops, passing through quaint little towns, watching the cows graze the open fields, and realizing that there is so much more to life than what we're used to in "our world". I had forgotten how simple life was in a small town so it was nice to go back there for a weekend...really nice.