Trip to Louisiana & Arkansas

The boys and I had a short stay at home with Darius before we headed off on another trip last week. On Wednesday, the boys and I flew to Monroe, LA where we had plans to drive with Margaret and Alfred to a couple of family reunions on Darius' side of the family. This would be my first time meeting any of his family aside from his mom, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I was feeling apprehensive about it especially since Darius wouldn't be with us.

After arriving we had a day and a half to spend in Monroe before heading out for the reunions. We took a drive to Alfred's home one afternoon to visit his neighbor's donkeys, two of which are little new ones, and we fed them carrots. The following day I helped Margaret out by doing some organizing and deep cleaning in her kitchen, and later in the day Alfred's granddaughter, Jennifer, came by with her identical twins, Olivia and Amelia. I made pizza for dinner and had a little time over dinner to visit with Jennifer and compare notes on raising twins. In the evening, Margaret and I packed up the truck and had everything ready to go for an early start the next morning.

The reunions were being held in Northern Arkansas, so the boys and I checked off another state on our list. Our drive took us through most of the state before we arrived in Pocahontas mid afternoon. I can't say that I fell in love with Arkansas' landscape along the drive, but once we got closer to Pocahontas, it started growing on me a little.

Pocahontas is indeed named after the Native American princess, and we passed a statue of her in Overlook Park. The county which Pocahontas is the county seat of, Randolph, includes delta land which is used for farming and rolling hills leading into the Ozarks which is used for cattle ranching. It had the same feel of the area in which I grew up.

Our first stop in Pocahontas was to Aunt Opal's home. Opal is Margaret's mother's sister, so that makes her Ben & Zach's Great Great Aunt....right? We'll shorten it, and just stick with Aunt Opal, and she is just as sweet as can be! She suffers from Alzheimer's, but it didn't seem too bad to me. I'm sure she struggled with figuring out just exactly who Ben and Zach were and why they were tearing through her house and what exactly they were talking about whenever they spoke. Living with Aunt Opal is her grandson, Jason and his great big gorgeous Rottweiler, Albert. He's only 2, so there was definitely still some puppy in that large package, and he loved to lick and knock the boys around.

Aunt Opal had no idea why this little guy was kissing on her!

Aunt Opal just had her hair done before we got there. Smelling her perm made me think of when my grandma used to get a perm.

After visiting at Aunt Opal's, we headed over to Uncle Gerald and Aunt Pauline's home in Pocahontas. Uncle Gerald is Margaret's mother's brother, so he has a bunch of great titles in front of his name as well. Both of them were super nice, and they were kind enough to turn us loose in an extra home they own in town. Jason brought Aunt Opal to the house and we enjoyed more visiting time with them that evening.