Fear the Beard

It was hard getting back to a schedule after our spring break, but I think we're back into our routine.  Spring break is always such a tease...showing us glimpses of summer break!  Here are a few photos from Jo's house this week:

 

Avery, Nicholas and Bryce

Bryce & Jo!

Nicholas, Arthur, and Bryce

We just can't stop talking about Duck Commander and I would say are a little obsessed...this week I found an app for my phone where you can add Willie, Jase, Si, or Phil beards to any photo.  I'm using it at school for a bulletin boards with photos of my kids, but I also bearded our family.  Check them out!

 

Saturday we went to our favorite place...Oklahoma Joe's...for lunch.  Standing in line I heard my name and looked up to see one of my friends from school.  We have another friend at school who loves OJoe's as well, so we took this photo and texted it to her!

Saturday night we ate at the taco truck, one of our newest faves, after going to Saturday night church.  We have enjoyed going to church on Saturday night, then our Sundays can be pretty lazy.  Today Matt's parents came down to hang out for a few hours.  We grilled and then had some Yogurtini for dessert!  YUM!

Looking forward to these nice temperatures hopefully sticking around!!!

Spring Break Surprise!

We had an amazing spring break!  Matt and I had a plan in the works for a few weeks and couldn't wait to surprise the boys!  They knew we were going on a trip and knew a couple of things we were planning, but they didn't know about our final destination!

Friday after school we left and started driving south.  Our first stop was Springfield, Missouri.  We spent the night there and the next day we went to the Wild Animal Safari Zoo.  It was awesome!  There were some cages that you could walk through and see, and also a drive-through part in which you could drive your car through or ride in their bus.  Here were some of the animals we enjoyed seeing:

 

 

Bryce loved the bunnies!

This peacock kept walking around all over!

Sheldon!  Our favorite animal there!  We could have stayed over by him all day!

Matt hugging Sheldon

Bryce got brave and fed the goat!

A liger.  It has a lion dad and tiger mom.

Coypcats!

Getting ready to drive through in their bus.

 

 

The camel would NOT leave us alone!  He kept coming back for more and even got a whole bag of food from someone...and ate the whole bag!

GIVE ME MORE!

Poor buddy...with a horn broken off!

Watch out for those horns!

These people drove their own vehicle.  Just look at how the animals come up to you!  This was my favorite way to see a zoo!

 

Mason's goal on vacation was to get a new hat at the zoo.  Mission accomplished!

 

After the zoo, we headed toward Little Rock.  We actually stayed in a small town close to there - Conway.  On the way there I realized our longtime friends, Brian and Gina, lived close to where we were staying.  I got ahold of them and we were able to work it so we could meet for breakfast Sunday morning.  It was so wonderful to see them!  We realized we hadn't seen each other since Zane was a baby - probably 8 years - but it felt like we had never been apart and picked up right where we left off.  True friends!  So so fun to see them and am so glad I thought of it!  I would have been upset with myself if I would have thought of it after it was too late!



Reunited!

After breakfast we went to the Children's Museum in Little Rock.  Zane could have stayed here forever!  There were so many things to mess with and learn from.

We all (except for Bryce) tried out this bed of nails.  It didn't hurt at all!  There isn't a photo of me, but here is one of Matt, Zane and Mason.  So fun!

Bryce found this little kid area, went and got a chair, and made himself comfortable!

The boys acting like newscasters.  Zane was trying to follow the teleprompter and Mason was just being funny.



Can you tell Zane is fed up?!?  I went over to be the second newscaster...Mason wouldn't give up!

Building a dam.

After that we headed farther south - to our final destination - West Monroe, Louisiana!  If you are still unsure what the surprise is...we took the boys to Duck Commander - where they film Duck Dynasty.  We are huge fans of the show...all 5 of us...every night the boys ask me if Duck Dynasty is on and even Bryce can tell you the names of the guys on the show!  Sunday night we arrived and decided we'd just drive by the warehouse to show them what we'd be doing Monday morning.  We stopped and I said "Hmmm...this place looks familiar!"  Zane read the sign and grinned at us.  Mason had him repeat what he said, then got very excited.  All night we kept telling them not to expect to see anyone because we didn't want them to be disappointed.  Little did we know what was in store for us the next day...

Our first stop was Haskell's Donut Shop - where the show was taped once during a donut eating contest.



Delicious (and cheap) donuts!

 



Sitting at the counter where the guys sat during the contest!

After eating our delicious donuts, we headed to the warehouse.  We were so excited!  We spent our time checking things out...seeing that they look just like on the show...and buying lots of souvenirs!

 

 



We are here!









Bryce saw this cutout of Willie, looked at him and said "Hi Willie!" then turned to Zane (who was holding a camera) and said "CHEESE!"

Posing by photos of the guys...the only "guys" we thought we'd see there!

Bryce found a comfy spot!

There's a cardboard cutout of Si in the corner.  He was turning around "talking" to Si!

Entrance to the actual warehouse.  I so wish we could have gone in there!

The loading dock.  Many funny episodes were taped here!

After while, we figured we saw all we needed to see, so we drove around West Monroe a little more.  We found the church the Robertsons go to and just enjoyed driving around.  After a little while I just had this nagging feeling...that I wanted to go back to get Bryce something.  We had bought Zane and Mason bandanas but didn't get one for Bryce.  So Matt said we could go back to get that as well as have one more look before heading back north.  Thankfully we went back...because as soon as we got there and got out of our van we found out that some of the guys from the show were there!  We ended up seeing six of them!

 

Bryce seeing Willie and Jace across the street.  I seriously thought he was going to cry he was so excited, saying their names and waving at them.  Pure joy right there!

Just look at their faces...worth every mile down there!

Willie!  He didn't come over to us, but when he left he stopped in front of Zane, who had his bandana on, rolled down the window (of his BMW) and said "I like that bandana!"

John David (int he red) and Jase (camo)

After a little bit Jase walked across the street toward us!

Posing with Jase!

While we were posing with Jase, Jep, and Martin, Martin said "so does anyone know my real first name?"  Well, earlier at the donut shop I learned this bit of information, so I shouted "JUSTIN!"  He looked at me, said "that was quick and that's right."  Then he went into the shop, got me a duck call, signed it, and gave it to me!  SCORE!



Martin (a.k.a. Justin)!

Jep!

Phil!  He also didn't come over.  The boys stood by the road and gave him thumbs up.  He made his hand into a "gun" and pretended to shoot it.  They loved it!

As we were waiting out there, watching all of the action, the security guard informed us that we were pretty lucky to be seeing them.  He said they are never there on Mondays - they are usually out in the woods filming for the show.  That day they just happened to be at the warehouse taping interviews.  St. Patrick's Day proved to be VERY lucky for us this year!

 



Before leaving town, we had lunch at Willie's Duck Diner

Zane's selfie!

The ice cream shop in the show one episode.

We were all on cloud 9 and couldn't believe the amazing things that happened at our stop.  We honestly couldn't have planned all of that to happen on purpose!  Such great memories!

Monday we drove back to Conway and spent the night there.  Then on Tuesday we stopped in Branson for a little break before returning home.  We decided to try out the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, and then ride some go-carts!

A 2-headed cow!

Tallest man in the world!

 

We then bought the movie Frozen to watch on our last leg of the trip!  We ended up getting home around 9:00.  Even though we were very sad to see our road trip end, we were also glad to be home!

 

We didn't have plans for the rest of the week, other than Mason having a couple of playdates!  Thursday he went to his friend Cooper's house:

 

And Friday his buddy Brody came over.  It's so fun to see your kids forming friendships!

Brody and Mason.  The two of them, as well as Zane, had to be shirtless the entire time Brody was here.  Boys!

Mason and Brody were taking turns jumping off of the bunkbed ladder.  They kept making funny faces for me to take pictures of!



Building legos!

Friday we had Zane's pack meeting:


This weekend Matt's mom came down and we were able to get new cell phones and go to a movie!  Thanks Keeta!  We appreciate it so much and are so thankful to have the time to enjoy each other and not worry about how much we'll have to pay the sitter!

Later Saturday night Marcy, Nate, and Celine returned from their trip to Italy so we picked them up from the airport.  Sunday Grandma Beggs, Jack, Kim, and Jake joined us so they could visit with Celine for awhile.  We hosted Sunday dinner at our house!  It was fun to have everyone here!

Now we're back to the old grind.  It's hard to get back into a schedule of having to wake up and get ready for work!  Spring break is always such a tease for what's to come in the summer!  Here's to the next few weeks going quickly and smoothly and summer slowing itself down!

In the meantime...we have amazing, amazing memories of our road trip to Duck Commander!!!