In the course of composing what you read before you I have changed multiple diapers, doodled a funny doodle on demand, invented pumpkin oatmeal followed by leftover duck pilaf tacos, lulled a teething baby to sleep 6+ times, scouted fairies in our wooded backyard with a very Daddy-obsessed little boy who was distraught when his favorite guy went to work, Instagrammed a little, etc etc. But that's not the story I mean to tell...
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Last Saturday, JG texted me as he was heading into 'rush hour' dinner service: "let's go on an adventure Monday." For the past couple months it's been pretty wild around here. The restaurant has been going through transitions which has and will require a lot of JG's energy, creative and physical alike. Huge opportunities have presented and lots of hard, hot work is starting to really pay off for him. Which is exciting and we are grateful for the love our community has shown that restaurant on the south side of this lovely hilly little Ozark town. Alas, family time for adventures has been... unavailable. So, "let's adventure Monday" text was so very happily received. And adventure we did.
***insert random photo of baby bear with pumpkin- fall gold***
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| In challenging myself to 'make do' with what we've got, I'm attempting to make great use of our canon power shot. My goal is to take great pictures with natural light using this easy to operate little number. So all of the photos (minus my instagrams down yonder) are unedited shots taken with our point and shoot. I think they turned out alright, but i'd love to hear feedback) |
After a healthy delicious breakfast (which included kale) and a couple of to-go almond milk lattes, we hit the road to Gentry, Arkansas, home to The Wild Wilderness Drive Thru Safari. That's right, y'all, head due north west on highway 412, cut through a rural town or two and skip down a gravel drive and you too can see some tigers and lions and bears! And foxes and deer and buffalo and rhino (there's a lone rhino, don't worry he has a bird friend)
The safari is about a 30 minute trek that winds through a pretty well-kept wild habitat, home of numerous animals. The first few glimpses at the animals are a bit depressing as they are housed in small cages, but there are also free rangin' buffalo who bathe with beatuiful deer, psychotic looking emu who wonder up to your car window and stare you down with their wacky emu eyes, cute baby zebras, mama zebras, striped piglets that about made me faint, and a lion king that practiced his "roar-ing" for us (behind fencing.) The crisp morning air met with the caged beast's call to the rest of the wild wilderness to create a impressive steamy sight and sound.
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| Our wild Fox was over the moon for a seat-free 5mph cruise, although I must admit that we grew pretty tired of "can I get out?" and "I want to pet/can I touch..." a (nearly) three year old's repetitive question fire is pretty indicative of their impulsive nature |
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| There was a lot of oooooo-ing and ahh-ing |
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| The far lion was the roarer |
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| we like bears |
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| Jerrmy loves this guy. He 'claims' to have touch the fella on a visit years ago. |
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| See, bird friend :) |
Last on the bill of the drive through are the never disappointing prairie dogs. oh. my. goodness. such adorable little creatures, who love to pose for pictures!
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Our adventure continued with a 30-minute-beautiful-fall-day drive along some beautiful Natural State highway to Northwest Arkansas' prized Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The stunning Moshe Safdie building was completed last year and opened on 11.11.11. This was our first trip!
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| A little light reading on the drive... |
We arrived just in time to miss lunch at the museum's raved-about Eleven. And by miss, I mean by 4 minutes. Pretty disappointing because we had scoped the menu out before leaving town and were very much looking forward to ordering one of everything offered that day. Luckily a pre-packaged sandwich lunch from the coffee counter sufficed and was plenty to fuel our short jaunt through the galleries, for our wee ones grew weary of the day's adventuring and there may or may not have been the beginnings of a melt down in our last walk through (we did not see all the art) but escaped to the grounds which offer lovely walking paths and views of the Crystal Spring which the bridge portion of the building was inspired by. Quite lucky to have it all in our neck of the woods.
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| My two favorites |
Oh what a beautiful day it was. We were giddy with Togetherness.
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| It's not "allowed" to climb this statue |
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| We were reprimanded and blamed the kids... as per usual |
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| He's a keeper |
Crystal Bridges: a reason to come to Arkansas.
Enough said.
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| This is what dining out with a tired toddler and baby after a day driving all over three counties, driving through a safari and visiting a world class museum looks like. side note: loukas fell out of his chair and stabbed himself in the lip with his fork. we now take high chairs when they are available. |
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Y'all heard Halloween was this last week, right? What fun. Of course, by October 31st Lou was fully versed in how to wear a tail as his dinosaur costume has been a fun way to celebrate any day...
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| collecting sticks to help build a bon fire |
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| his T-rex move |
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| rawr |
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| An inevitable selfie. Been addicted to taking self portraits since the first time I held a camera. |
We did a little trick-or-treatin around the square before Daddy Deer headed to work...
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| He was shy at first, silent even, then started a little whisper of "Halloweeen..." til finally he grew the dino-courage to say it: "Trick or Treat" then it was full on, he left his chariot and "Trick or Treat"ed it up |
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| Pretty happy with himself. |
We brought along decoy candy from the natural food store, superfood bars with chocolate chips and fruit juice snacks and handed them to him to eat to distracted from his bag of "trick or treat" loot. I'm going to be honest, the kid's never had conventional candy. It's a personal choice, not a black and white issue. Our son is very sensitive to foods, has had some pretty gnarly eczema since he was a newborn therefore we tread lightly in the sweets department, are pretty conservative about our food intake. (I'd like to share that story sometime) So, when we got distracted by chatting with other parents and found our little dinosaur licking his first dum-dum sucker we were pretty tickled but still made a quick switch out.... He's been telling everyone we see about our trick-or-treat doings, and kind of looks up to their faces for signs of being impressed. That or he's waiting to get them alone- to ask where the hell all that candy went. I know, he's a kid. Kids love candy. But he is still a tiny kid and he'll likely have plenty of candy in his life- and don't worry, he gets plenty of sweets. I'm not a monster.
Oh but this frog prince is a little monster! A monster of adorable!!!
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| friend Oliver, they have the best baby convos- which usually involve a lot of face grabbing. |
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| He was my little frog prince!!! |
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| Fox was pretty stoked to see the local grocery store booth on the square passing out apples! Although, I think in this photo he is asking me where's the candy?. He's all, "this is a nice apple, but where the cuss is my loot, princess" (which he was calling "lemon-stuffs" I think referring to a bright yellow box of Dots. Gah- what's worse, shielding your child from the joys of trick-or-treating or letting them collect the stuff then swap it out for hippy-health-decoy "candies..." |
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And as if all our treat-psyching-out wasn't enough, I staged a "we-should-be-eating-dinner-but-let's-carve-a-pumpkin" pumpkin carving... which was pretty successful although I wouldn't recommend carving a pumpkin with a wondering crawler and an over tired toddler... it was fun and all but our Halloween could have done without.
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| kind of into it but kept asking, "what's that smell?" |
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| Precious onesie embroidered by my friend Amanda Wunderlich who is an amazing mama of two boys that writes a cool blog about their adventures in farming. Super inspiring folk who I feel privileged to know |
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| he who puts it all in his mouth |
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| neighborhood deer friends. regulars in our yard :) |
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Do you love INSTAGRAM like I love INSTAGRAM? (@nicobg if you care to follow me)
I can't help but 'gram my life away... which is fun and I never regret the couple minutes it takes to document moments to hold onto. see?:
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| rainbow of yard sitting |
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| precious deer |
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| a road cruise quick snap from the passenger seat! |
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| Crystal Bridges welcoming tree of glory |
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| was smitten by this little lady |
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| Lou said, quite loudly, "He got a penis." |
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| my love |
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| abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz |
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| "halloween eve" |
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| me and my princes. well, at least the ear of my first prince. |
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| grateful for this photo |
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| finished jack. free handed... in haste... |
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| poor baby fox... ouch! Lou Fox took a nasty nose dive into his bed frame Halloween night, resulting in his first black eye ... |
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| Arkansas Apples with friends |
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| bébé booty. |
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| it was homecoming this weekend... so grateful for the Hogs always a nice boost for our independent restaurant |
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| Our 'big boy' loves to play TAG. |
I'd love to hear what suggestions anyone reading has about blog design, any tips that are helpful to de-generisize the look here... or just say hi! I love to hear from... well, anyone. Oh, and Lou's birthday is 4 short weeks away! Any and all thoughts on party ideas are welcome and appreciated! Happy week to you... from me...
xoxo
nico
PS::
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| this gal is the doodle-on-demand above mentioned ;) |
5 comments:
This is all true... I approve of this blog message- good work babe
thanks, husband. kind of you. so kind.
Love the photos. Point-n-shoot or not, you captured some really great shots!
I'm actually not much of a blog follower so I have no suggestions for design or layout especially because I enjoy what you've done so far. Your posts are really cute, fun, easy to follow-and inspiring.
Lovely love.
The images are wonderful. To use what you have and find enjoyment is the sure way to open the doors for more to come your way :)
Keep posting sister friend.
thank you anonymous. :)
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