Weekend: Birthday Fun

      I turned 31 on Saturday, and I could not have asked for a more beautiful day.  I decided that taking the weekend off from cooking would be nice, so we headed to one of our favorite Irish Pubs in town for Fish and Chips on Friday night.  Yum.



      Last year for my birthday, we headed to Petit Jean Mountain to go hiking.  This year, we went to Mt. Magazine, since I had never been there.  If you have an Arkansas Bucket List, this should be on it.  (We are currently creating our own.)  It is about a two hour drive from Little Rock, so it is a bit far for a day trip, but we made it work.  It is gorgeous.



      We loaded up the girls in kid backpacks and ended up hiking close to five miles.  My calves are still killing me, but it was worth it.  Since they weigh about the same now, we let Lily decide who she wanted to ride with, and she wanted to trade off a couple of times.  The trails were well marked with these cute little hiker medallions.



      Since we were at a higher elevation, spring wasn't as springy and it wasn't quite as green, but it was great fun to see the views.




And the streams.  Glad I wore my Chacos.






We snacked on yummy trail mix.  (I did trip right after taking this picture and realized that I cannot walk, eat, carry a child and take a picture at the same time.)



The girls loved it.  Which makes sense, since they were being carried.

We ate lunch on some rocks.




We hiked to Signal Hill, the point of highest elevation in Arkansas at a whopping 2,753 feet.



We drove over to the Lodge, and I now know I would love to stay there any time.  It is gorgeous - with amazing views.  We heard it referred to as an "island in the sky," and it does feel a bit like that.  I imagine that it is spectacular in the fall.




It was such fun to just have time all together, not focused on any project, but just on enjoying God's creation and one another.  We also discovered that Bella loves the seagulls on Nemo that all say "mine."  She goes nuts for them.  On Sunday, we met up with some friends for ice cream treats, and they all sang Happy Birthday to me.

Notice, Bella just has a spoon.  Poor littlest kid.  Looking forward to what 31 holds for me!