Hot Springs with the Engrams

For the first weekend of our 2016 spring break, I took my four oldest boys and we met up with Amy and the four oldest Engram boys in Hot Springs. We left from Houston Intercontinental Airport Friday morning, but our plane was delayed for about an hour and a half. The boys were so great though. They played catch, played cards and played on the escalators.

Three of them acted out the escalator scene from the movie Elf.

But finally we boarded this little plane and headed for Arkansas.

We took up over half of the seats, as it only holds nine passengers.

In the meantime, Todd and the littles drove to San Antonio to visit Joe White in the hospital. They also went down to the River Walk.

And they stopped at the Alamo for a quick picture.

Pirate's Booty in the car helped the trip go smoothly.

It was very fun to be back together with the Engrams. The boys swam, played iPad games in the hotel hallway and caught up on life.

Saturday morning we went to downtown Hot Springs and experienced the history of this delightful town. We couldn't believe how hot the water was as it bubbled up from underground. As we were taking this picture Amy said, "Now nobody fall in the fountain." Just then Hunter slipped and put one foot in the fountain. 

Yep, he had to walk around for the rest of the morning with a wet foot.

We strolled down this walkway.

We made the boys take lots of pictures.

Then we toured one of the preserved Hot Springs bathhouses. I think only the moms thought this tour was interesting.

We took the kids bowling and then to the horse races that were in town that weekend. I don't have a good picture from the race track, so hopefully Amy got one.

Back at the hotel the boys raided the hot chocolate and settled in to watch a movie.

Then more swimming!

Big thanks to the Cangelosi family who let us borrow their van for the weekend. We drove all over Hot Springs and the kids loved that we got to ride together rather than separately.

On Sunday it was time for us to head back to Houston. This day was filled with lots of mishaps. I accidentally locked the keys in the van when I dropped it off at the airport and our flight home was delayed 6 hours due to mechanical issues on the plane and storms in Arkansas.

This was us in El Dorado, AR - where we were stuck for 6 hours. The airport let us take their courtesy vehicle - an old, red suburban with expired tags - into town to get something for dinner. 

But man, oh man, my boys were so good! Patient and kind most of the day. 

This is the meme that Connor made after our long flight delay.