Only in Arkansas.

A couple years ago, evidently, social media spurred a spinoff of the state of Arkansas's Visitor's Bureau campaign and it's now a hashtag and everything. #onlyinarkansas.

Indeed.

We had a terrific time in the Natural State. The kids were not bad at all on the early morning nonstop flight to Fayetteville (the AR not the NC one, a mistake I once made and which Dad will never let me forget.) They were terrorists in the airport, however.



We made a pilgrimage to the quirky, impossibly cool Terra Studios, home of the Original Bluebird of Happiness. Against all odds, nobody broke one. Ford had a much better time than it appears from his terrible face in the bottom  photo.

Seth went turkey hunting in horrible weather. Needless to say, the turkeys didn't materialize in the freezing rain and gusting winds, but one of my favorite things about Seth is that he always has a good time in the woods anyway.

I went for a jog in Springdale, knocking out the Hogeye Marathon- a real hoot, and my first one since kids. Which means it was slow and miserable (the weather didn't help) but it's nice to have under my belt. They did indeed give out hog snouts at the finish line.

Which were later repossessed.

And Finley and Ford had a grand time with Ana & Ata. Which included yoga,

tractor rides,

fireplace s'mores,

and Mom's famous pizza making.

Not to mention fun on the new tire and log swings Dad put up, although for some reason I failed to snap pictures of those. (So I'm subbing in two pictures of their beautiful house, an especially terrific place to hang out when there's a fire going on a cold and windy April weekend.)

It was tough to leave, we all had such a good time. Finley remembered to raid the fridge first

and we were grateful for the reminder that it's possible to squeeze in an "only in Arkansas" trip on a long weekend.


One of my favorites is of these three sharing a Texas waffle. (Ben & Lisa, that waffle maker gets lots of mileage when F+F are around.)