Thanksgiving, Arkansas Style!

This year for Thanksgiving, we decided to go check out Marisa's new home and drive to Centerton, Arkansas to celebrate. It is about a 9 hour drive from Houston and so we left Tuesday morning. We made a stop halfway in Dallas and visited with Ragnar's aunt Brigette and Uncle Kent and his cousin Stephanie. 

They were kind enough to feed us lunch and we enjoyed spending a couple hours with them. 

After our stop, we finished the drive to Arkansas. It wasn't a bad drive. We got there Tuesday around 6:30 p.m. Unfortunately, right after we put the kids to bed, Marisa's son Liam threw up and a couple hours later her other daughter Kate. Terrible timing for the poor kiddos. That put a damper on the first couple days as we had to quarantine a little and lay low. 
Wednesday we went to the Walmart Museum with our family and Marisa and Aubrey while the others rested. 

It was a small museum about the founder of Walmart. It was interesting though and we learned about a very successful family.  

The kids enjoyed the ice cream at the end of the museum.

Right down the road was a cute little ice skating rink. We stopped and skated for an hour and a half. 

It was Deacon's first time. He did awesome. After about 30 minutes he didn't need "walker" to help him anymore. He just kept saying "I'm great" . Haha, that kid doesn't lack confidence and has the coordination to back it up.  

He was pretty excited! Ragnar is pretty good at ice skating so he helped the kids along when needed. 

Cavin, on the other hand, is not so naturally coordinated. He has to try pretty hard. He did pretty well though after a little while he got it down.  

Marisa and Aubrey stayed pretty close to the railing. 

Channing did as well. She did a good job.  

Ella has more coordination, so she didn't have any problems and just happily skated around.  

It was a fun little outing and the weather was perfect. 

Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we played outside and ate, and learned the new game "Cover your assets" which we enjoyed and Ella really liked. Marisa and I also went to do a little black Friday shopping and we didn't have a ton we needed so we got to just enjoy the experience.

Friday we went to HighRise Trampoline park and the kids enjoyed jumping there and Cavin loves the dodgeball. That evening, we drove to the Stewart Family Light show. It was a nice way to kick off the Christmas season.  

The kids were a little chilly, but there was some fun lights to look at.  

The younger two kids even got to meet Santa.  

I love Christmas lights!

On our last day on Saturday we played games and played outside in the beautiful weather. Channing and Deacon were thrilled to drive around in the power wheels.  

 

The boys played football, then basketball and Cavin was excited that Liam was finally feeling back to normal. 

Addie and Kate were finally feeling happy and well!

Sunday morning we drove home and took the scenic route. It was beautiful and the kids did awesome! When we got home we played a few games to finish off the Thanksgiving break. 

Deacon was practicing his poker face :) haha.  

We love our Sunday night game nights. I won 5 crowns by 1 point by the way :) 

We had a nice week and I was grateful we got to spend time together and be with my sister and her family and so grateful for her hospitality.