The Crow Crew: September 2019

Labor Day weekend we visited 6 states.

Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee

21+ hours in the car! 🤪

First state "The Birthplace of America's Music".

Our first stop was the capital building in Jackson, Mississippi.

It was late, so we hopped out and back in real quick!

(Camera was hanging on a branch. Forgot the selfie stick.)

They wanted a picture with the Liberty Bell (replica).

We learned about the last time it chimed and how it cracked.

From ushistory.org, “Hair-line cracks on bells were bored out to prevent expansion. However, it is agreed that the final expansion of the crack which rendered the Bell unringable was on Washington’s Birthday in 1846.”

Next up, Louisiana

We drove on to West Monroe, LA.

Duck Commander!
We recently started watching the show with the kids, so they were excited to see the warehouse.

The tour was really informative and we were able to make our own duck calls!

I don’t know how smart that was, making something that makes THAT much noise, for a 20 hour road trip. 🙉

Had to get a photo with the conveyer belt and largest duck call in the world.

Lige made himself right at home in the baby recliner.

For lunch, we ate at Miss Kay’s Sweets and Eats.
It was such a sweet diner with a great covered area for games outside.

On to Texas.

Next stop, DPHQ2!! Frisco, TX

Even though we weren’t able to see the guys, it was awesome for the kids to get to see where they work.

They did see the cleaning guy (through the blinds) inside walking around. 😄

Tenzi Time! (School time)

We learned about this game in CC, with different ways to play that help with addition/subtraction and multiplication/division.

Dealey Plaza (Dallas, TX)

Since the kids are young and their attention span isn’t more than about 20 minutes, we didn’t go through the museum or ride a bus tour. Brad was our guide and taught us so much about what happened that day, as well as a little history of JFK. We even had a quiz!

(Brad and I went through the museum last year, on our trip to Waco.)

I want to know the WHOLE truth!!

If you ask the kids what they remember most about Dealey Plaza, they’ll probably say “When Daddy dropped Jaden off the wall.” or “Finding treasures (bottle tops, nails, screws, rocks) on the sidewalks and stealing money out of the fountain.” 😑
But I promise they learned SOMETHING! 😁

**Jaden dropped a bag off the wall at the plaza and Brad was lowering him down and let go a little prematurely.
No one was hurt during this process.**

The red arrow is pointing to where the car was when the second shot hit JFK.

Such an awkward photo opp. You want to be able to remember visiting places like this but it feels weird to smile...

For lunch we ate at Mexican Sugar. SO GOOD!!

After, we got gelato and played Bocce and corn hole.

(We know how to play Bocce from watching The Amazing Race!)

We never stay at a hotel long enough to actually swim or go to the fitness center.

Today, we had to plan to be at the hotel while Alabama was playing football, so while Lige napped and Daddy watched the game, the rest of us played in the workout room.

I was actually trying to wear them out, but I ended up wearing myself out more.

So off to the town of Prosper, to the “coolest playground ever”!

Annnnnnd since we just happened to be in the neighborhood, we rode by our BFF Tyler and Bethany Toney’s new house.
We weren't creepy at all, taking pictures as we drove by more than one time...

Beautiful sunset

Sunday morning we woke up and drove to Idabel, OK.

It’s a small, quaint little town.

We stopped at the (only) gas station and a sweet lady was asking about the kids and what we were doing in Oklahoma, all the way from Alabama. We told her that on Labor Day weekend, we like to take a road trip to visit states/towns that we’ve never been to and learn a little something about them as we go. She told us about a museum.

The Museum of the Red River

This dinosaur (Acrocanthosaurus atokensis, or Acro for short) was found 13 miles away from where the museum sits. WOW!
That got the kids attention really quick!

It had several rooms loaded with Indian artifacts that were found around the area too.

They picked out their favorites.
Blades, carved tusks, scary boar hair mask and a glass beaded jaguar head.

They liked the names of these paintings.
"The Usher", "Donkey Missing From Washington", "I am not the Mona Lisa"

Anders said this museum was his favorite part of the trip!
You never know what will be their favorite memory on a family vacation.

Arkansas, "The Natural State"

We stopped at a brand new Burger King for lunch.
Since it just happened to be Jaden’s birthday, we told him they were celebrating him!

He didn’t buy it, but got a crown anyway!

We’ve got some troopers here! And technology is wonderful. 😎

One of our stops in Arkansas was the state capital.
We had a good time running around and finding more trash, I mean treasures.

Our goal right now is to slip a little history in while we walk and hope they learned something.

The Old Mill

This is the opening credits of Gone with the Wind.

This is a replica of the one above.

From tripsavvy.com “In 1933, Justin Matthews was contracted for the construction of a replica of an old water-powered grist mill. He wanted the mill to appear as if it belonged in Arkansas and had been here since the 1800s. The Mill is intended to appear neglected, just as old mills that were in service in the early 1800s had become by the 1930s. Even though the park looks natural, and like it was constructed with vines and bark, most of the decorations are concrete. The park is decorated with sculptures of toadstools, tree stumps, and a tree branch-entwined bridge that connects the mill to the rest of the park. Senior Dionico Rodriguez, a sculptor and artist of Mexico City, was responsible for all the details of each piece of concrete work made to represent wood, iron or stone, as well as the designing of the footbridges and rustic seats.”