This is the view from our balcony patio. We were in new cabins this year ... totally not roughing it!
Of course I had to make some treats for the trip. Fishing bobber cake pops. Oh Lordy, I'm becoming obsessed.
I thought I made way too many, but they were gobbled up like candy. Wait, they ARE candy!
All of these things, plus bubbling, steaming, perfectly combined, Laura's - uh hem ... Chris' World Famous cowboy stew equals ...
Three very happy boys home from a full day of fishing and three very happy girls (not pictured as we ate our chili for breakfast and it was way too early for make-up and curling irons and botox injections). 
Now ... that's better! Here we are before indulging in our spa treatments at the Palace Hotel in Eureka Springs. I'm SO FREAKING jealous that that Val and Laura both got Curtis aka Kip from Napoleon Dynamite aka Magic Hands. He's so awesome, seriously, marriages are in danger.
Here's me in the steam room channeling Lucille Ball.
The story about this hotel: this crook Dr. Baker "treated" cancer patients with his magic elixir. Total crap, he wasn't a doctor and people dropped like flies around this place. The "hotel" had a morgue if that tells you anything. Dr. Baker was later figured out and finally arrested.
I love coming to the Crescent but I'm 100% sure I could never spend the night.
Not with pictures like these hanging on the walls. I mean what's wrong with a good "ole sparky" demonstration displayed outside of the bathroom which is down a long, creepily quiet hall, which has antique fire hoses on the walls like... "The Shining"?
Nothing is wrong. Just like there is nothing wrong with these "Sleeping Angels". Umm..Sleeping's ass...they are dead and they creep me out.
So does this owl/gargoyle/demon thing that is on the mantel in the hotel lobby.
Then we leave the hotel and see this. THIS I love. Hippies make me happy. 
So do hula girls and Snoopy, and tiny monkeys and troll dolls and Burt, and frogs and snakes. What... snakes! Yes snakes glued to the side of hippie vans make me really happy. 
But not as happy as naked Barbies doing the splits - hot glued to a top of a mini van. Yes ... that really rocks. Don't judge me. 
And please don't judge my sweet friend Chris. He didn't know that he had a Guinness Award Winning eye brow hair. He also didn't know that my other sweet friend Bryan would be - oh so willing -to pluck it for him. Dude on dude plucking ... ummm yeah.
P.S. Happy Four Years My Andy. I love you more that you can ever fathom. It's too much sometimes. But it's always fun and it's always real and it's always just the way it's supposed to be. 
I'm sorry I didn't get any shots with you on the fly rod. You did great this year! We ate soooo good. 
And we played really fun new games. A game in which I ruled at by the way. Sorry about your luck Val-a- wa!
And we saw things like this hanging outside of a bread and breakfast downtown. 
And we saw this in someone's front yard. We're so not in Kansas anymore. I sure do love me some Arkansas. 
And Laura made this. This is the best, most addictive thing EVER. Chex Mix to the extreme. Sweet and Sour. I gained 10 lbs and I loved every second of it.
Then Val and Laura made this. This is not camping people. This is gourmet on a paper plate. This is why I really, really love camping with the Tolar's.
See how happy we are. Cheese and noddles and friends and salad and laughter and bread and memories and wine and a baby growing in a belly and cake pops and SNL = one dang good night.
And on our way home we saw this in someone's front yard. It's about 7 feet tall and they dress him up for the seasons. Jack the rabbit. Get it?
