Arkansas

Addie and I flew out to visit my older sister, Karly and her family for a week. We left Cambree behind with Benton and our families to babysit her while Benton worked. They hadn't seen Addie since she was 2 months old, so it was time for us to visit them.

Both her boys are in school now. Jack is in second grade and Reid is in preschool. Reid was able to do more stuff with us on his day out of school. Poor Jack just had to hear about all the fun things we did.

Karly and I went to a taco truck, which served smoked pulled pork with their special sauce, cheese, avocado, pico and doritios to top it off, it was really good surprisingly.

On our way to pick up Jack one day from school, we had a little time to kill and started driving around looking for a good spot to take pictures. As we were leaving, I saw something in the distance, little ears. I decided to get out of the car and find out what it was. I was surprised to find a baby deer. It looked abandoned, hot and hungry. We tried calling the local wildlife center to see if we should take it somewhere but got their voicemail (that's why we have it wrapped in a a towel in my arms). After multiple attempts calling a bunch of places we finally got a hold of someone who told us it was normal for the mother deer to leave her fawn to go find food. I read online about baby deers and found out that during the first 5 days of their life they don't have that fight or flight response, so they will let people touch and hold them. So like I said to Karly, I doubt I will ever hold a baby deer ever again, a once in a lifetime opportunity. But it's good to know that the mother hadn't abandoned her baby.

On one of the days we spent a few hours at their local splash park. It was pretty empty since it was a cloudy day but both our kids loved running around getting wet.

I love visiting with them. Its hard when they come to town and are pulled every direction. I enjoy going to their house so I have all the time to myself!

We took a walk at one of my favorite places by their house, Tanyard Creek. We were told their was a poisonous snake on one of the trails, so we steered clear of where it was seen. Addie loved splashing in the creek.

We had a bunch of phone conversations with Benton and Cambree. I love the ability to see one another while talking and so did Addie, who didn't want to share the phone with me.

It wouldn't be normal if we didn't make a trip to the park!

And I was able to take their family pictures while I visited. For those of you who don't know, I've started to take pictures for clients. My photography blog is Maephotoblog.wordpress.com. Come check it out!

We had such a good time with their family and I am thrilled that they will be visiting Utah in about a month. I am so thankful for Karly, she is such a great older sister and has always been there for me. I've spent countless hours on the phone with her and I love that I can call her up anytime and vent, cry or just talk if I need to. Sisters really are such a blessing. Arkansas was good to us this trip, and hopefully we can come back next year!