Day 4
Day 4 was one of my favorites. We left Little Rock first thing in the morning and drove a couple of hours to Petit Jean State Park near Morrilton, AR. It is beautiful there! They have several hiking trails and we opted for the easiest for obvious reasons. We chose to hike to the Rock House Cave, which has ancient pictographs scribed inside the cave by Native Americans over 500 years ago.
Harper was less than enthused at first. Poor girl ate it in the parking area and was already all scraped up before we even made it to the entrance of the trail. But once we got walking a little and she saw just how different the landscape is from anything we have near us, she was interested again. And we found her another trusty walking stick. :)
Hadley was a champ. She really is the best baby.
This kid LOVED our hike. He still talks about the rock house cave every day, almost a month later.
Harper was really hesitant at first, but then she decided she wanted to give rock climbing a try like her brother. I was super nervous watching the kids test their limits but tried not to be a helicopter mom.
After a picnic lunch, we got back on the road to make our way toward Missouri. The drive was very scenic and lovely.
For the first hour, anyway. But the road was SO winding and steep that eventually we were ready to be back on a highway again. I was a ball of anxiety by the time we made it back to civilization. Which just so happened to be a town with a special name.
The town of Harrison may only have a population of 13k, but it seemed like a metropolitan city to us after driving through the Ozarks for hours. We found a charming cafe and bakery called Neighbor's Mill for an early dinner and it was delicious.
I found this video when I was uploading these pictures. I didn't even know they took it. They are crazy. They crack me up!
And since it was a bakery, we HAD to indulge. I mean, we really didn't have a choice.
Then it was time to get back on the road.
We drove on to Kimberling City on Table Rock Lake, just outside of Branson. We made it to our cabin at dusk and got settled in. It felt good to have more space than just a hotel room. It took Harrison about an hour to get the courage to climb the stairs to the loft, because apparently a loft is much more terrifying than the giant cliff he had no problem peering over just hours before. lol.
The original plan was to meet one of our very favorite families here and camp out with them for a few days. But Tienna & Lynnox came down with the flu right before they were set to leave and so they had to cancel at the last minute. Such a bummer!!! We missed them and felt so awful that they had to spend their vacation days dealing with the flu instead of, you know, vacationing. We will definitely have to have a do-over trip with them in the future.
Harper was less than enthused at first. Poor girl ate it in the parking area and was already all scraped up before we even made it to the entrance of the trail. But once we got walking a little and she saw just how different the landscape is from anything we have near us, she was interested again. And we found her another trusty walking stick. :)
Hadley was a champ. She really is the best baby.
This kid LOVED our hike. He still talks about the rock house cave every day, almost a month later.
Harper was really hesitant at first, but then she decided she wanted to give rock climbing a try like her brother. I was super nervous watching the kids test their limits but tried not to be a helicopter mom.
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| taking a break to nurse and cool off inside the cave |
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| turtle rocks |
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| he loved reading all of the information posted at the lookouts |
After a picnic lunch, we got back on the road to make our way toward Missouri. The drive was very scenic and lovely.
For the first hour, anyway. But the road was SO winding and steep that eventually we were ready to be back on a highway again. I was a ball of anxiety by the time we made it back to civilization. Which just so happened to be a town with a special name.
The town of Harrison may only have a population of 13k, but it seemed like a metropolitan city to us after driving through the Ozarks for hours. We found a charming cafe and bakery called Neighbor's Mill for an early dinner and it was delicious.
I found this video when I was uploading these pictures. I didn't even know they took it. They are crazy. They crack me up!
And since it was a bakery, we HAD to indulge. I mean, we really didn't have a choice.
Then it was time to get back on the road.
 |
| welcome to Missouri |
The original plan was to meet one of our very favorite families here and camp out with them for a few days. But Tienna & Lynnox came down with the flu right before they were set to leave and so they had to cancel at the last minute. Such a bummer!!! We missed them and felt so awful that they had to spend their vacation days dealing with the flu instead of, you know, vacationing. We will definitely have to have a do-over trip with them in the future.
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