Arkansas 2014

If you asked me what was the halfway point between my Texas family members and my Indiana family members was, I doubt I would ever answer Arkansas.  However, if you ask my dad and aunt, who were searching for midway-locations for vacation loving families... apparently, it's Arkansas.


Anyway, way back in August we packed up a (rented) minivan and drove 3 adult males and myself to Arkansas.  On the way, we played a game where we flipped the XM radio to various stations and if you guessed the correct artist you would win a point... and it was a CLOSE call with around 100 points each to my brother and I.   

Side note: Ed Sheeran and the guy from Passenger (the guy called Passenger?) sound almost exactly the same but they aren't!  Also, Ed Sheeran has more songs on the radio than ANYONE ELSE EVER.

Clarification:  Indiana to Arkansas is a long-ass drive.

The fun part about vacation is that it's basically a non-stop photo shoot because all of the new places and sun-kissed skin and good vacation happiness.

Luckily, we hung out in Arkansas for the most mild week of "southern" weather ever, meaning there was low low humidity and the temperature never got above 90 degrees.  MAJOR score.

We stayed at a vacation-rental-by-owner property that wasn't necessarily the nicest vacation home I've ever been in, but it was clean and had plenty of space, so everyone survived.

Of course, the private dock down by the water didn't exactly hurt our good moods.

I can't say that we really "did" much on vacation - other than roast marshmallows, catch up on my Goodreads reading list, take a duck-tour of downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas, and go up and down every single aisle at the local Wal-Mart (when in Arkansas...).

We also rented a pontoon boat on a pretty small lake... which resulted in Mr. RH shouting out to me that my hair looked bad and if I was going to be doing more posing than tubing that I should at least fix it if he was going to take a picture.

Noted.  Although I can't say it looks any better.

I forced my dad and brother to take pictures, and they only look 25% like escaped convicts (yay for vacation beards?) so that was exciting. 

We also discovered that certain candy wrappers (like leftover ones from my wedding) actually burst into colorful flames in the campfire.  I'm 99% sure that it's not super toxic or cancer causing, so we threw approximately 20 dozen of them into the campfire.

 Can you see the colors?!?

Luckily, we had the lake to ourselves for the entire week until our last day... at which points the hellion-raising neighbor children arrived.  Luckily, we had pretty much reached our lake quota at that point... and I was 20% covered in mosquito-welts.  Scratch scratch.

 Pffft as if I would waste a decent hair day by jumping in the lake.

And last but not least, I think we took my new favorite picture.  I can't say it's particularly flattering on my upper arm area, but the sun was so glowy that we literally look airbrushed.

And next time somebody asks me if I want to go to Arkansas in August.... I would probably say yes.  So relaxing, I almost forgot we had a 14 hour drive to get our butts home.

Is it vacation time again?  

(Sad note: NO.)