Spring Break Adventure - Garvan Woodland Gardens

The second stop on the Hot Springs leg of our Spring Break Adventure was Garvan Gardens, a 210-acre botanical garden that is part of the University of Arkansas School of Architecture. We were fortunate enough to visit during Tulip Extravaganza where Garvan Gardens has 150,000 tulips blooming all at once. I was really excited to see all the tulips in bloom and I was not at all disappointed. 

I was surprised at all the different varieties of tulips that were in bloom. There were tulips in every color and size, tall ones, short ones.

The arrangement of the tulips and how they had certain colors and shapes mixed together was amazing to see.

I took probably 200 pictures of the tulips. I wanted to share them all.

See all those happy smiles? Noah was our map navigator. The welcome center gave Noah a bingo game, but Emily and I ended up marking the bingo spaces for him.

Emily took this picture of these yellow tulips. Aren't the interesting and totally unique?

The edges are just amazing. Like I said, there were so many shapes and colors of tulips.

The tulips were a showstopper, but there were many other things in bloom at Garvan Gardens while we were there. 

We'd just missed the peak of the daffodils, but the Redbud trees were blooming. There were many types of blooming trees.

Noah had the sillies while we were there. I got several pictures of him with funny faces, including this one beside the waterfall that I posted on Instagram. 

This picture was taken beside the Koi pond. Those trees ... the scenery ... total garden envy!

They had these origami birds in several places around the gardens. Grandmother asked Noah what the bird was made of and he went to touch it, but I made a loud "ACK" sound and scared him. Haha. He thought he was about to get into trouble!

I accidentally got all fancy with my camera and took this artistic photo. I have no idea how I did that but it's really cool looking.

We found George the peacock. He was one of the bingo squares we were hunting.

I thought their Bonsai garden was pretty neat. I'd like to have one of these in my backyard.

We walked over to the Children's Adventure Garden, which is not so much a garden with plants but rather a bunch of large rocks and a big waterfall. They are in the process of building a treehouse in the kid's area, which is going to be really cool. We went into the cave behind the waterfall. I had to take a selfie.

Noah wanted to take a selfie with me. So cute!

Noah had fun playing in the waterfall. Here's a little video from the cave. 

I'm sorry but I can't stop with the tulip-sharing. I put together a few collages with the tulips.

Garvan Gardens was one of my favorite stops. I'd like to go back in the summer ... and the fall ... and the winter when they have the holiday lights display.

How beautiful!!!!!!!

Do you have any gardens like this where you live? If so, tell me in the comments so that I can go visit!

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Spring Break Adventure - Fish Pics

We spent some time fishing at the pond while we were on the farm. This is one of my favorite activities. I could spend all day fishing from sun up to sun down. 

One evening while Grandmother and Granddaddy went for a walk, Emily and Noah and I went out to the pond and caught the smallest bass. I wish I'd taken a picture of the bait we used to catch it because it was almost as big as the fish!

Emily has gotten to where she can put her thumb in the bass's mouth to hold them up. This is a big step for her! Noah wanted to get in her picture sooooo bad! #photobomb

One morning, I drove the Ranger over to the other side of the pond away from the house and ended up catching a nice bass. 

One evening, Granddaddy and I were fishing and I caught this big bream. He was just so big and perfect, not a scratch on him. I don't know why I had my eyes closed.

On Saturday, we went down by the old dock and tried to catch some catfish. We were using hotdogs for bait. My first cast, I caught a 6-pounder. Look at the belly on that fish! 

Granddaddy said that the first pole in the water gets the first fish and after that, it's a lot harder to catch them. He was right! We had to sit and wait a long time for the second one. 

Granddaddy caught a nice one,  too. 

After lunch, Granddaddy went to a car show and Emily and I spent the afternoon fishing. We were fishing for catfish but we caught a bass and a couple bream, too. 

The biggest catfish of the day was this guy. We ran out of hotdogs and had switched over to cheese cubes. I saw him flop in the water and I cast out near him and he took the bait. Isn't that cheesy? He put up a fight but I managed to bring him to shore.

I don't like to take catfish off the hook because they can fin you, but I developed a method where I dragged them onto the bank while still on the hook then used my boot and a pair of pliers to get the hook out of his mouth. Then I would slip the hook of the fish scale under his gills and pick him and weigh him Next,  I would take the scale over to the edge of the pond and lay him in the water then ease him off the scale. Most of them started swimming away immediately, but if they didn't I would help them along with my boot. 

The biggest fish weighed about 6 1/2 pounds. A couple of the other ones were 6 pounds. We really didn't catch any catfish that were small. It was a fun fishing day.

After supper, we went back out to do a little more fishing using some little smokies sausages as bait. My goal was to catch four more fish, but we ended up catching none. I even switched back to the cheese cubes when the sausages were not working, but the fish weren't having it. They were probably full from all the hotdog slices and fish food that we'd used earlier in the day. 

I was still happy with our fishing day though. We ended up catching 7 catfish, 1 bass, 1 bream, and 1 snapping turtle that day.  Wow! What a day!

Who wants to go fishing with us next?

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Spring Break Adventure - Playing at the Farm

I've really loved the fact that we've gotten to do so many fun things on our spring break. One of the most fun parts has been playing on Grandmother and Granddaddy's farm. This is sort of a "Part 1" of our farm adventures. We did so many fun things on the farm that it's impossible to fit it all into one blog post.

Emily's favorite part of the farm has probably been getting to drive the Mule. She's been getting driving lessons on the Mule from Grandmother for a while now, but this trip she's progressed to carrying other passengers, like me! I'd ridden with her before but this time I wasn't scared. #kidding

We've all had fun riding the Ranger. Noah asks for rides pretty much all the time. On Friday, we went for a long ride all around the properties and we all got covered in pollen! That stuff is thick this time of year and it gets all over everything. It's kind of crazy. 

Noah has had a lot of fun playing on the slack line. He's finally tall enough to reach the top line so that he can hang on. Emily is really good at the slack line too. They also like to play on the lazy swing together. I haven't gotten a picture of that one yet though. 

Grandmother has a lot of beautiful flowers blooming right now. There are a lot of white-blooming bushes and trees out in the woods and some of the irises are blooming around the house. One of her roses started blooming this week, too. 

One afternoon, we went over to the cemetery on their property and cleaned it up a little bit. Keyword = a little bit. These are obviously pictures before we cleaned anything. 

It makes me wonder what the world was like when this cemetery was built. Clearly, that area was not in the middle of the woods back in the 1800's. But what was it like? Was it beside a church? Beside a road?

Beside the fenced part of the cemetery is a large slab of concrete with names and dates written on it. A lot of the graves are unmarked. Nobody knows for sure who all is buried out there. 

We've also been out in the pedal boat several times this week. One nice thing about the pedal boat is that the seats are adjustable so that everyone's feet can reach the pedals. I went out with Noah one afternoon and let him do the pedaling.

Doesn't that look like a lot of fun?

Another fun thing about the farm is Grandmother's breakfasts. She fixes pancakes and lets you put anything that you want on them! This was Noah's breakfast this morning - pancakes with melted chocolate chips and marshmallows, covered in syrup, topped with sprinkles and bananas and drizzled with chocolate syrup. What a breakfast!

I have a lot more pictures to share from our time on the farm as well as the pictures from Garvan Gardens in Hot Springs. We have had a blast and I can't wait to share the rest with you.

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Spring Break Adventure - Oaklawn Racing

On Thursday, we drove over to Oaklawn Racing to watch the horses run. This was my first trip to the races and it was a lot of fun!

Our first stop was the concession stand so that we could grab some lunch. Then we headed out to the grandstands outside to wait for the races. It was such a pretty day to be out in the sunshine.

After we finished our lunch, we started looking through the program to see which horses we thought would win the race then went into the holding area to look at the horses as they were lining up. We all picked a horse and wrote down our answers in the program to see if any of us were right. 

When it got close to race time, we went down to the railing by the finish line so that we could see the end of the race. I don't remember if anyone picked the winner, but I know I didn't!

The next couple of races, we picked our horses then went inside to the machines and placed our bets. By the time we left, Grandmother and Granddaddy were both in the hole a few dollars, but I was ahead by one dollar and 60 cents. That's not even enough to cover the parking much less lunch! But we had a good time at the races. 

We came, we saw, we conquered. 

One the way back to the car, we had to stop by the bronze statue out front to snap a quick picture. Noah was pretty tired by this point, but he said he had a good time. 

After we left Oaklawn, we headed to Garvan Woodland Gardens. I took a couple hundred pictures while we were there so you will have to check back to see the details of that stop on our adventure. (Hint - the tulips were blooming and putting on a show!)

Travel Guide

Would you visit here again? 

Yes! Oaklawn was a unique stop. I thought there were plenty of food options, including some sit-down restaurants. The day that we were there was not super crowded and there were plenty of places to sit both inside and out.

Favorite thing about the trip?

Noah: The cheeseburger.

Emily: (I forgot her answer so I will have to ask again!)

Jennifer: The excitement of the races.  

Best photo op?

The bronze statue out front was a good place to take pictures. A picture along the railing outside would be pretty too.

Travel Tips?

I didn't feel like there was a whole lot for kids to do at Oaklawn. We only stayed for a few races. I don't know if the races could have kept their attention for much longer. Like I mentioned, Noah was already fading fast as it was. Overall, I think it was a fun adventure and I'm glad we got to experience a day at the races.

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Spring Break Adventure - Hot Springs

Our Spring Break Adventure continued Thursday with a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We did so many fun things that it's going to take several blog posts to tell you all the fun things we did on our trip.

Our first stop of the day was at Oaklawn where we ate lunch and watched the horses race. If you follow me on Instagram, I posted the first "Where are we?" from the outside viewing area at Oaklawn. If you don't follow us on Instagram, follow us here!

I will be posting more about our trip to Oaklawn later this week so be sure to check back for another post.

Next, we headed off to Garvan Woodland Gardens where the tulips were in full-bloom. This is where we posted the other "Where are we?" pictures on Instagram. They had rows and rows of tulips in every shape and color and size. It was amazing to see them all together. Doesn't the picture above look like a postcard?

We also hung out in a cave and Noah played in a waterfall. I tried to get Emily to take a selfie with me but I failed. That happens all the time.

We posted another Instagram from behind the waterfall. That was a pretty cool one.

I have approximately three hundred more pictures from Garvan Gardens that I still need to edit and upload so please come back and check later this week to see the rest of the details of our visit.

After Garvan Gardens, we were tired and hungry so we headed to Fisherman's Wharf to have supper on the water. We got a table outside and hung out while we waited for our food.

Since we were at a seafood restaurant, I got the catfish dinner with roasted red potatoes and black-eyed peas. The huge catfish filets were delicious and the potatoes were even better than that. 

Granddaddy got a steak and he said it was pretty good.  

The kids got their second cheeseburgers of the day and they both enjoyed them. Noah could eat a cheeseburger every day of his life and be pretty happy about that. 

We've had a lot of fun spending time with Grandmother and Granddaddy this week.

After supper, we headed to Kilwin's in downtown Hot Springs for a treat after a long and fun day. Emily and Noah got the Superman ice cream based solely on color. I got the butter pecan since I ordered the wrong flavor at the Walmart Museum the other day. My ice cream cone was really good. It had huge pecans in it. 

We sat on a bench beside the street to eat our ice cream. Emily was taking a picture for Instagram in the picture above. 

Next, we headed across the street to the hot springs for which the city of Hot Springs is known. The water coming up out of the ground is surprisingly hot! I know I shouldn't be surprised at that, but I was. It's supposed to have healing properties so I'm assuming I'll be as good as new by the time I wake up in the morning. I should have put my hurt foot in it! Gah! Why didn't I think of that?

Despite the lack of forethought about the foot, we had a great time in Hot Springs. I would like to go back and check out more of Hot Springs and the Lake Catherine area. It's really a beautiful area and it seems like there are a lot of things to see and do.

When can we go back?

Have you ever visited the natural hot springs in Hot Springs, Arkansas? 

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