Let’s Review

We made it home last night about 9:20 p.m. It was a wild ride with four stops along the way, stand still traffic on I-35 and torrential rain. But we got back in one piece and it was a great trip. Well worth the three years of ‘banked’ cookie money from selling over 20,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. So, let’s review just what a cookie can do!

Last Sunday, thirteen girls and six moms headed to Tyler, Texas en route to Hot Springs, AR. Fun at the pool and all you can eat pizza.

Then on to Hot Springs the next day to live at the Radford Girl Scout House for the week.

Our first activity of the week was to dig for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro.

Followed by a quick trip to Sonic for supper. Yum, Slushies!

Wednesday we all wore our pink shirts and visited Garvan Woodland Gardens in the morning,

Bath House Row, The Grand Promenade and The Arlington Hotel for refreshments in the afternoon.

We walked up the hill to fill our jugs with natural spring water and shopped downtown.

Finally ending the evening with a haunted tour.

Late night after getting back to the house and having snacks and showers.

Little Rock bound the next morning and ready to learn about Heifer International.

Enjoyed our time at Heifer Village and learning about “Green Building.” Then we were off for fun in the sun? at Willow Springs.

Not so much…

So we came home for supper and the girls had a blast just hanging out, visiting and giving foot massages! What a deal.

Bedtime, sweet dreams ladies.

After a lazy morning and a delicious meal of breakfast tacos, we departed for Magic Springs and Crystal Falls.

What a day of overwhelming fun. Over eating and playing hard, hard, hard!
It led to an interesting night for some. Seeing Krista out of bed and thinking it was time to get up, Miss Karen deflated her air mattress at 4:00 a.m.–oops!

6:00 a.m. came way too early for everyone but there were kapers to do and cars to load. They did not enjoy the kapers!

We left the house in true GS fashion–cleaner (way cleaner) than we found it. Then it was time for breakfast and more spring water fun before hitting the road to Texas.

It took us quite a while to get home but we made it eventually and all Safe and Sound.

Thank you leaders and mamas! It was a wonderful, memorable trip for the books. The shirts were quite fitting by Saturday too. 🙂

Just in case you can’t read them, they say, “Fatigued Mom.”

Grand Finale! Magic Springs and Crystal Falls

Today was our last full day in Hot Springs and the one thing on our agenda was Magic Springs and Crystal Falls, the local amusement and water park.

The girls were beyond excited and still full of energy, despite a very long and fun week of activities. Some girls were ‘riders’ and others were not so we divided accordingly and hit the park!

One group enjoyed a magic show and got autographs and a photo with the magician afterwards.

Standing on the bridge for the Plummet Summit was a big hit and Denise got this great before and after shot of her girls.

A mid-afternoon storm rolled through with some thunder and lighting so we took a lunch break and shopped in the stores. Then it was over and we visited the water park.

At seven, that part of the park closed so everyone changed back Into their clothes and headed back to the ride side. Guess who got to take lots of stuff back to the truck?

We closed down the park at eight with lots of last minute riding and everyone’s favorite, funnel cakes! Lots of powdery mouths when that was finished.

Back at the Radford House we had ‘potluck’ dinner and boy was that fun. This table chose Cheetos, cereal and brownies. Aren’t we the best?

Karen and Krista made this cute gift that we all signed to leave as a token of our visit to the Radford House.

Now I’m sitting here on my air mattress amongst the snores and sighs of sleeping girls and leaders. One last blog before we hit the road tomorrow morning. What an amazing week this has been.

I must also add that Karen didn’t want me to have to be the only one who gave the girls a life lesson this week…she had to stay home today because of dehydration (one too many Cokes?) but is feeling much better now and has drunk plenty of water all day long.

Time for me to go to sleep so I’ll be able to drive my truckload home tomorrow, goodnight.

Like I said on FB, this place had the best music!

Time to go!

Leaving for a full day in Hot Springs. More to come soon. Good morning!

Day One, Headed to Tyler

It’s been a good day. Hit the road from P-Ville about 9:20 this morning and arrived in Tyler around 2:30. Smooth sailing on the road, not too many potty stops!

We stopped for a picnic lunch at the park in Jewett, Texas.  It was such a pleasant day today, about 77 degrees outside and cloudy.  Amazing! We all looked at each other like, are we still in Texas?  Perfect driving weather too.

Pulled in to Tyler and found the hotel.  The girls were shocked that all we had planned for them was swimming.  It was a good surprise and they spent hours in the pool and running around the courtyard of the hotel.  Lots of fun to be had there.

Some housekeeping, prepping for lunches tomorrow and the all important snacks that each girl and mom will get two of every day.  Krista has devised an ingenious way of handing them out in a fair process.  Doesn’t that giant bag of treats look like fun?  Who wouldn’t want to plunge their hand into that and pull out a surprise?  And they get to twice each day!

While they swam and played, we ordered pizza from Mazzio’s.  Wow, been a long time since I had their pizza.  Denise and I both have high school memories associated with their restaurants.  The girls were getting a little antsy waiting on the pizza but the TV and a funny movie calmed them for just long enough.

Yum!  Hot pizza for everyone and salad with ranch, who could ask for more on the first day of ‘vacation?’  They ate and ate and ate.

and then they ate some more!

And just a little more.

Now it’s shower time and they are all upstairs getting clean and into PJ’s.  You should have heard them all “calling” the showers.  “I call first, I call second, well, I call third,” and on and on.  Thankfully, they are all good sports.  We think they’ve worn themselves out but will top them off with a sandwich making session once they are all clean and ready.  Then off to separate rooms for a little TV and ‘quiet’ time before bed.  We’ll let you know how that went in the morning, ha!