Vacation, traveling with girls, and Miss Arkansas

Me and the girls loaded up last week and headed to Hot Springs for a little R&R. For those of you who know me, it's pretty funny that my vacation was sort of planned around the Miss Arkansas pageant... I so deny being a pageant mom - even though I totally support Britt when she competes. So, we'll just say that we vacationed in Hot Springs and the pageant just happened to be the same week!:-)Actually we were a little late in actually planning when we would all be able to take off for a week, and Britt had already planned to be in Hot Springs.

Every year that we travel it seems like more stuff has to go with us. It literally looked like we were going abroad for a month! When I made the announcement to bring everything to the car, it looked like a luggage store was dumped in the driveway! I wasn't sure it was all going to fit.

But, somehow we managed to get every bag crammed in the back of the explorer.

And, yes that is a jewelry organizer hanging in the back!

We searched online to find our condo and were so surprised to pull into the driveway of a house! Hot Springs Village is a bit of a drive into Hot Springs. But, it was so worth it. This was a great house and our little oasis for a week!


And, if you were wondering why so many suitcases....shoes!That would be Britt & Lindsay's closet!

For the most part, the week was for relaxing. Sleeping late, swimming, and lots of downtime. But,we did spend a fun day at Magic Springs and Crystal Falls.

Britt & Lindsay braved just about every ride at the park. This was just before the soaking!



I'm pretty sure Britt was screaming through that whole ride!

We had a lot of fun strolling Central Avenue and shopping. Hannah and Lindsay posed a little for me in front of the Arlington Hotel.

And we found the coolest little coffee shop. Nothing like a little coffee and ice cream break where you can sit and play chess! Here's Hannah contemplating her next move...

Britt went to every night of Miss Arkansas, and we joined her for the final night. Here's my girls looking fabulous at the pageant!

From Britt competing in preliminary pageants, she had several friends competing this year. And, as it turned out I used to work with Ashlen's mother many years ago. Small world! I would not have wanted to be these judges, because all of the top five were amazing and incredibly talented.

Anyone that does follow the pageant world knows that we had wonderful Miss Arkansas in 2007, Katie Bailey. Katie represented our State very well and was a Top 15 finalist at Miss America. It was fun to watch her final performances as Miss Arkansas.



At the end of the evening, Ashlen Batson from Newark, was crowned Miss Arkansas. Ashlen was amazing all night and it was obvious she came to win! She had an amazing presence on stage. She'll be a great representative for Arkansas this coming year. I know Lynn and David must be very proud!


Now you know why if you called or emailed me last week that I was MIA. We had a great vacation! It was hard to come back and go back to work. But, lots of fun memories! Good luck at Miss America, Ashlen! - Cheryl