Arkan'sauce' or Arkan'saw' or 'Art'ansas?

We seriously live only an hour away from the Arkansas border. And since this summer marks 5 years since we moved here, we thought it was about time we took our girls to Arkansas! (Mike and I had been for a couple of getaways-- and I am falling in love with the rolling-hills, lush green landscape there!)

We visited Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. It's free (thanks to Walmart!).

Here are some of our photos and some of my memories.

Millions of wildflowers lined the entire entrance way into the park. Literally millions. Taking my breath away. I so want to recreate this in my backyard. Beauty. My iphone camera fails the capture the true beauty of it.

Amazing Trails. Beautifully landscaped, among the rolling hills of Arkansas.  Hidden treasures to be discovered here and there. Stumps to jump on, statues, the crystal spring, and a picture frame in the middle of the woods. How fun is this?! Morgan lost a leg in the bottom photo! ha!

And beautiful art inside -- by famous americans - Norman Rockwell, Thomas Hart Benton, Georgia O'Keefe, Andy Warhol, and many more. My favorite are the landscapes of the American countryside. And the girls had lots of fun playing 'bingo' by finding all the works of on their cards.

It was also family fun day.  Which included -- painting and drawing in the garden. Might be one of my favorite parts of the day.

And hula hooping. Can't believe I still knew how to do it. Glad I decided to join the fun.

And Mike insisted we all make and wear sunglasses for the day. Sarah's had a cool lanyard strap you can't see well.

And sailing sailboats in the pond.

We also really liked the listening station where they described a piece of famous art and you had to draw it. It was the one thing we went back to do a second time.

We will definitely go back sometime. It was a lot of fun and a great way to kick off the summer!  And today begins swim team practice, 2 hours a day for 4 days a week! Check out the 8am temperature this morning --

-- it was cold to get in the water, but they did it!