Weekend with Friends and a Pageant Part II

Saturday morning the boys and I loaded up to drive to Bentonville to watch Abby on the stage at Miss Arkansas USA. Kyle came the next day with my brother and soon to be SIL. I was excited because I love a good car ride to call all of my friends. I only made a couple of phone calls though before my boys COMPLETELY LOST THEIR MINDS. They are such good little travelers. We don't really have issues with them on long car rides, planes, anything. But on this particular day they were fighting and yelling at each other and just lost it. And when you are the only adult in the car focusing on safely driving your precious cargo, your hands are tied. I called Kyle and he talked to both of them and helped calm them down. I turned off the DVD player as punishment and turned the radio on to calm my nerves. And all was well until we got into Bentonville. My mom met us at the hotel with Steak-n-Shake, which we absolutely love! The boys think hotel rooms are the greatest thing IN THE WORLD and were so happy.




They loved playing in the hotel room, but were not thrilled to go watch a pageant with girls.

After playing for awhile, we loaded up and went to Chick fil a to meet Kelly and her sweet girls. I have read Kelly's blog, Kelly's Korner, since Krews was a baby. She has been such an encouragement to me as a mom! The kids played and Kelly was so nice to buy all of them ice cream. We talked and had the best time! We were texting later and both sad that we didn't get a picture of our fun time, but Chick fil a became crowded and it became nerve-wracking trying to keep up with kids in the crowd.




After Chick Fil A, we met up with my Mom, Aunt Lu Anne, and cousin Maddie. We went to a Mexican restaurant and I immediately noticed a lady in a full blown witch costume complete with scary make up. I knew this would not end well. Kole is in the stage of saying EXACTLY what is on his mind in public. And just as expected he was scared and started saying, "What is that woman?" and "I don't want to see that woman." Luckily, we sat far away and Kole was safe from "that woman." After dinner Maddie and I might have driven thru Krispy Kreme and enjoyed a Krispy Kreme donut before heading over to the prelims of Miss Arkansas USA. I was ready to support PBQS.





PBQS was amazing during prelims! We got to see her after the competition and we had a photo shoot. I do not like to take pictures with Abby for obvious reasons. I avoid it most times, but was so proud and wanted to document it. You can clearly tell which person went to Krispy Kreme and which person went to the gym that day.





Isn't she stunning? That night we stayed up past midnight talking and laughing like high school girls. Maddie is an accounting major and even made an excel sheet of our personal scores of each contestant. It was so much fun! I love nights like that! The next morning we went to Cracker Barrel, where I ate away my nerves for finals. We ran a couple of errands, but I knew if I was going to make it thru the pageant, I had to go lay down because my head was killing me. We made it to the finals and you can read my recap here. We are so proud of our overall swimsuit winner and 3rd runner up. I am most proud of her speaking abilities! I still feel in my heart like she was the winner.









We drove home after the pageant, and the boys only slept a small part of the way home. We got home around 2am and decided to have a preschool skip day so the boys could rest. I love pajama and movie days at home!





Overall, we had a wonderful weekend! I am so grateful for wonderful memories!