Fairfield Bay, Arkansas

OK, so I've sat down to work on this post like three times now, and something always seems to come up. So I'm just going to bite the bullet here and get as much as I can done, and we'll see what we end up with. Hopefully it won't turn out to be a crazy mess. Keep your fingers crossed...

Last week, the family and I headed to the Arkansas mountains for a much needed vacation. In all honesty, I had no idea what to expect. I mean, come on,... we were going to the mountains of Arkansas. Between you and me, I may have had a scene or two from the movie Deliverance playing in my sub-conscience on our way there.

These two were SO excited to go on vacation:

It took us a bit longer than we had anticipated to get there.  

(Darn MapQuest!) 

But alas, we made it. 

I was so relieved to walk into our condo and see that is was WAY more updated than the photos we had seen revealed. And the kids immediately found their room and did the first thing you always do when you arrive at your vacation destination...

Jump on the beds, of course!

Although we managed to do a whole lot during the week we were there, we also managed to rest quite a bit and sleep in and take glorious naps. We only had one scheduled event during our stay, so other than that, we pretty much let the chips fall where they may. Which was such a nice departure from the jam packed vacations we've taken in the past.

Anyway, here are some snapshots from our week in Fairfield Bay, Arkansas:

We hiked the Indian Rock Cave Trail, 

which lead us to some amazing Indian caves the kids LOVED exploring.

It's hard to really show the size of this one specific cave. 

As you can see Scott looks tiny!

It was absolutely fantastic!

Scott said this was his favorite vacation adventure!

We played mini golf:

And what I remember most is laughing.

Hard!

Oh yeah, and sweating. 

A lot.

It was a scorcher of a day.

And this was our one scheduled event of the week.

And it was totally worth waking up early for.

We rented a pontoon boat for 4 hours and enjoyed every single second of it.

Isabella shocked us a number of times during the week.

Especially with her love for tubing and swimming in the lake.

I would have NEVER expected that from her.

But we're so glad she was open to experiencing new things.

Sam, on the other hand, was leery of it all.

He enjoyed the boat ride, the music, the dancing, the napping, the eating and the drinking.

But he definitely preferred to stay out of the water.

He did, however, say that this was his favorite vacation adventure. 

Like I mentioned earlier, Isabella was full of surprises this week.

One of the local country clubs hosted a kids' karaoke night.

Straight out of left field, Isabella decided she was going to sing.

She stood by her brother and her Daddy, in front of everyone, 

and sang Jesus Loves Me!

It was ADORABLE! 

And then she walked up to a teenager and asked if she would like to sing with her.

Huh?

 Who is this adventurous girl?

Together they sang You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift.

SO cute!

One day we decided to make the hour trip to go see the 

Blanchard Springs Caverns in Mountain View, Arkansas.

It was stunning!

It reminded me so much of our caves back home in Puerto Rico.

This was definitely my favorite vacation adventure.

And then we swung by the Blanchard Springs 

and enjoyed dipping our feet into the nice 58°F water.

The views were unbelievably beautiful.

There's something so peaceful about being surrounded by nature.

Well, except maybe when you come face to face with this:

Yes dear friends, that is a snake.

EEEKKK!

We also enjoyed a puppet show, grilling out and making smores.

And let's not forget the swimming pool.

We spent a whole lot of time playing at the pool.

So, there you have it, our vacation in a nutshell.

☺

By the end of the week, we'd had no Deliverance-related issues.

We loved every minute of it.

And we can't wait to go back!

Oh, and as for what Isabella's favorite vacation adventure was...

When asked, she smiles really big and says: 

EVERYTHING!