Honeycutt Reunion

Saturday morning we headed out early and drove about an hour north to Mammoth Spring State Park just shy of the Missouri border in Arkansas. The park is home to the largest natural spring in Arkansas and forms a 10 acre lake. Also housed in the park is the old Frisco train depot equipped with an old caboose open for visitors to explore. The park was beautiful and a great location for the Honeycutt Family Reunion.

Frisco Caboose.

Mammoth Spring.

The Honeycutt family is Margaret's father's family. Darius' grandpa Earl passed away at the young age of 46, but still living are a few of his siblings and their families which we were able to meet at the reunion. I took a notebook along with me to try and write down names and trace back who belonged to who, but I quickly became confused by my notes!

Aunt Mary (in hat) is one of Earl's sisters. She made the boys baby blankets which we still use. Pictured behind her are her son (Doug) and daughter (Phyllis), and to her right is her granddaughter Courtney.

Ben and Ben. Earl's brother Ben is awesome and was great with the boys. He always had a little something sweet for them in his pockets.

Everyone seemed genuinely excited to meet Ben and Zach, and they definitely livened things up! We enjoyed visiting with everyone over a delicious potluck lunch, and then the boys dragged me around the park to explore and play. Zach and I checked out the Frisco caboose right as a freight train passed by the depot....very loud, and then we met up with Margaret and Ben at the playground for some teetering and tottering and afterwards walked down to the lake to feed some ducks and throw rocks in the water.

It was a hot day so, after returning to the picnic, it wasn't long before the family started packing up and heading out. Zach coaxed me into one more visit to the caboose and then we loaded up and said our goodbyes and headed back to Pocahontas.

We took a different route back to Pocahontas by driving northeast into Missouri and then back south into Randolph County, AR. It was a beautiful drive and my favorite views from our trip.

Our accommodations the previous night were a little on the hot side, so we packed up the truck, tidied up the house, and invaded Aunt Opal for our last 2 nights in Pocahontas. The boys were happy to be around Albert and had lots and lots of room to run around the enormous backyard. Zach also made friends with Cousin Jason and climbed all over him like a monkey, which I'm sure Jason wasn't too sure about!