Home for the Holidays

My sister Jody and Sara both came home for the Holidays, so the week after Christmas we spent a lot of time doing various activities with them.

Monday, everyone went to Branson to eat at out favorite restaurant, Lambert's: Home of the Throwed Rolls.

You'll never taste better home-cooked food from a restaurant.  And you get seconds of anything you finish (even steaks and ribs!)

There is always a long wait at Lambert's, so we opted to split up our party of 24 in order to wait only an hour.

(Just a disclaimer that I had to use many of my sister's pictures since I didn't get many)

The Hornbergers

The McBrides

The Berrys and Smiths

Yum Yum!

After filling up at Lambert's, we drove 30 minutes North to Springfield, Missouri to see Fantastic Caverns.  We all fit on a trailer and did a drive-thru ride of the cave.  After 10 straight minutes of  Miriam crying (she had just woken from a short nap in the car), Stan opted to let the rest of us enjoy the ride and took Miriam out of the cave.  Luckily they refunded his ticket.  At least they were there for the picture! 

There was some really spectacular sights and interesting history behind the cave.   It was fun to do something in the area we hadn't done before.

Tuesday we had a farewell breakfast for Sara at Cracker Barrel (you'll notice a lot of our activities revolve around food).

Thursday we celebrated Dad's birthday.

 Friday we went to my step-sister Tracy's wedding reception.

Eliza with Uncle Cace.

I'm not sure what was so funny, but doesn't it make you want to be in on it??

Dad and Janet.

Miriam enjoying her cupcake.

My sister Rebecca made their wedding cake.  She did an amazing job (as usual).

Tracy and Brad Nuttall.  Ahh, the newlyweds...

 Afterwards Jody, Cace, Stan and I went on a date to see the Crystal Bridges Art Museum.  More about that in another post.

Friday we rang in the New Year at Jared's house with LOTS of delicious food.  Jared got a smoker this past year and let me just say that we have ALL enjoyed it!  He smoked ribs and sausage that were aboslutely incredible!

I forgot to take pictures, but what you would have seen was playing games and eating more food.

Good thing for my body that the Holidays are over.  Now it's time to get into shape!

Happy New Year!  2011 has been a wonderful year with the birth of Eliza and much time spent with family and friends.

2012 is gonna be great!

Crystal Bridges Museum

Several years ago they announced that Northwest Arkansas would be the home to a major art museum.  We were all excited to see what change and growth the museum would bring to the area.  

On November 11, 2011 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art officially opened.  Although it is open, they are still working on some of the landscape and filling the water areas, so here are a few of the "envisioned completion" pictures of the outside.  It really is quite spectacular, hidden away in a valley in the middle of our town of about 30,000 people.

We went on a double date with my sister Jody and her husband Cace to visit the museum.  I must confess that I really am not a museum person.  Usually I prefer to do a quick glancing walk-through and be done.

But this time it was actually really nice to stop and enjoy some of the art.  I think I actually prefer Amercian Art, now that I have seen it up close.

Oh sure, some of the art is still really weird if you ask me.

For example, the "Sound Suits."

But then some of it is quite exquisite, like this piece done with tiny pieces of rolled up rafia and other textural items.

Or this painting that depicts the Arctic water as smooth as glass.

One nice thing about going to the museum in person is the size,

and textures that you simply can't enjoy from a photo.

This is made from puzzle pieces.

Look closely.  Can you tell what this one is made from?

 Yep, those are spools of thread, depicting the Last Supper.

Very cool.  That's all I can say.

Then of course there are the more traditional and well-known pieces of American art.

George Washington.

I absolutely love the picturesque landscape paintings.

And there are a LOT of them.

The Arkansas Traveler.   I remember teaching my kids in school about this painting when we learned the song.

Some modern art.

Over all it was very enjoyable and I highly recommend it!