Weekend Travels...

Umm... excuse me, McKenna... I think you have a butterfly on your nose!

So cool! We were touring one of the terrific Arkansas State Parks and happened on a tagging and release of Monarch butterflies. The process includes holding the captured butterflies in envelopes in a refrigerator until they can be tagged with identification info and released. When they come out of the cold they need a moment to warm up before flying off so the volunteer places them on someone's nose for them to 'gather' themselves. McKenna and Joe had the pleasure of accommodating their butterflies for several moments... Joe wasn't sure he was going to be able to shake his off but it finally did fly away. What fun! You can see more pictures here.

We had a great visit in Arkansas... arrived Friday in time to have a nice visit, then Saturday morning we took off for a tour of several State Parks... all with breathtaking views. Arkansas is a really beautiful state... see the website. That's Lisa and McKenna on the rock.
Then on Sunday Grampie and I drove up to Fayetteville with David to visit Lauren at the University of Arkansas.
Lauren showed us her dorm room and then took us to see the theater stages, rehearsal rooms and where she works with scenery and sets as Stage Manager. She's learning to use all sorts of tools and soon will learn welding... she should be handy to have around! Jeremy, her boyfriend, was visiting also... we met him when they all came to Birmingham to visit just before school started. We had a great time. Had lunch and it was time to hit the road again. See all the pictures here.
Before getting back to Little Rock we stopped to meet David's girl friend, Heather... she's a whole lot prettier than David ;-) We had a nice dinner together and David said I didn't ask too many embarrassing questions. Umm... I'd better practice more!

And on Monday we came home... it was fast but fun!