Arkansas Weekend

On Friday, Luke and I packed up and headed out to Fayetteville, Arkansas for his second indoor track meet of the season.  We had a cute little tag-along this time as well ;)  We left around 7:30 and after a couple of pitstops (one for bathroom one for an acai refresher - hahaha)...

... we pulled in to Fayetteville with time for a bookstore stop before checking in for an afternoon of tours and meetings.

Luke's a sophomore so college isn't a pressing matter yet BUT since we were going to be on a few campuses for track anyway we decided to make the most of it and take some tours and get some info.

He had an appt at the Honors College first...

... and then we headed into an admissions session and walking tour followed up with a meeting at the school of engineering.  It was WAY colder than we anticipated (the wind was CRAZY and it was drizzly which didn't help)...

... but it was so great to get to see the campus in a more formal way and he got a ton of great info.  This is G's face after 4+ hours of college talk ;) hahaha

We checked into The Graduate...

... which is always the cutest ;)

And then headed to the indoor track facility to meet up with his coach and teammatees and then to Woodstone for pizza.  It was super delicious BUT it took almost 3 hours and we were DONE DONE by the time we paid.  

Up bright and early on Saturday morning to get Luke (who forgot to grab his team sweatshirt and jacket out of the dryer on his way out of the door Friday morning - hahaha) dropped off for warm-up...

... and G and I did a quick Starbucks run....

... before heading back to the track to watch Luke run the 400.  He took time off his best indoor time from last year which is exactly what he was aiming for.

After he was done we stayed and watched a couple of friends run in later heats and then decided to head up to Bentonville and check out Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  The drive was only about 30 minutes and we were there pretty much right when it opened at 10 a.m.

The museum has free admission and is absolutely gorgeous.  I can't imagine how pretty it would be in Spring/Fall.  

We checked everything out for a little under two hours - trying to balance out having one kid who reads nothing and one who reads EVERYTHING.  Like every single thing. hahaha

I try to find restaurants that come highly recommended by real people (usually on Trip Advisor or some random Redit thread) and then let my kids pick.  This time they picked Parkside Proper in Rogers...

... which was so fun and absolutely delicious.

We shared the parm fries and then Luke and I had their meatloaf sandwich and G had a burger.  None of it disappointed. 

It was SO COLD so we kept our exploring to pretty much what was in between the restaurant and the car.  We popped into this antique store that was in an old drugstore building with all the original fixtures and floors.  If that wasn't cool enough it was also doubling as a cat rescue and there were at least a dozen kitties pretty much everywhere you looked.

AND A BASSETT HOUND!!!

Excuse me, sir.  Would you like to come live with me?!?!?!  UGH! THOSE PAWS!

We popped into a couple of other stores, then hit up a Walmart to grab some Body Armor and bananas before hitting the road back to Fayetteville.  We dropped Luke off at the track to watch a few more events and get warmed up and G napped while ran into Starbucks again....

... and then she and I hit up a couple of stores on the Fayetteville square...

... before heading back to the hotel to do nothing for a bit ;)

We decided that we could really use a sweet treat so I did some quick googling and we landed at Rick's Bakery to grab a few things to-go.

We went back to the track to hang out with Luke's coach and watch him run the 800 where he shaved some time off of last year but was really struggling with some residual lung stuff he's had going on.  It was rough but he did it!

We sprinted to the car because at this point it was REALLY REALLY cold and decided to forego a sit-down dinner in favor of grabbing some Chick-Fil-A and hightailing it back to the hotel.

Solid choice, my friends.  Solid choice.

G and I did some hello kitty face masks...

... and then Luke and I played some Catan dice and watched a movie because G was OUT by 8:30 ;) hahaha

We were up and out of the hotel by about 7:30 on Sunday morning to head back to McKinney since Luke had some plans Sunday night and we were all ready.  

It was a quick but super fun (and productive) little trip and I'm so glad we had G along for the ride this year.  What was Mason doing while we were gone you might ask?  Living his absolute best "only child" life for a couple of days ;) He and Dave went to a card show, enjoyed some fine cuisine (Taco Bell and baja basts), he went and saw Sonic 3 with my dad and he and Dave watched some classics such as Water Boy and Big Daddy