Alaskan Cruise

 In May, we got to have a wonderful vacation -- a cruise to Alaska. All 5 of us. Chick took advantage of some company benefits to present us with a gift last year. She covered the cost of it for all of us!

We were flabbergasted to say the least.

We weren't really sure we'd get to go with Covid stuff going on. But it happened. And we had a great time! Here are some highlights. I'll expand on it later on.

Girls' Weekend 2016

This year, our girls' weekend ended up being quite a bit later than usual. We all had a lot going on and so we celebrated Rugrat's birthday at lunch and then headed off to Eureka Springs, AR.

We had just about made it there when a deer suddenly walked out of the night into my hood. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't just told Chick about 30 minutes earlier that I was going slow and trying to watch because deer were bad to come out at that time.

And it still wouldn't have been as bad if about 45 minutes before that, Hubby had not called to tell me that someone pulled out of a parking lot in front of my son on the main road consequently totaling the Civic he was driving (the air bag even activated). Fortunately, he was okay and the van was still fine to drive -- just not pretty. God was watching over us all.

Despite it's horrendous beginning, we still enjoyed our time together. We enjoyed the Christmas parade there and lots of shopping and sight seeing.

We even managed the short trip up to Branson one day.

Yeah. They certainly look like they're having a horrible time.

Branson Vacation

 We decided to actually plan a family vacation this year. All previous vacations except our Disney trip have been used on visiting family. Now that we actually live nearer family, we decided a family vacation was in order. Unfortunately, it's been a rough year and we weren't sure how much of the budget could be dedicated to it.

But Hubby had several trips and we earmarked the money he made from it for a quick weekend trip to Branson. With his hotel points, we got ourselves a nice hotel to stay in. Then he noticed the Groupons that were available.

And that kind of set our itinerary. We got one for a pretty cool acrobat show, one for all day mini-golf (Rugrat's first time), and some other little goodies.

Shortly after we got there, he noticed a special deal on the Sights and Sounds Theater (we had raved about it after going during a girl's weekend). It had the show I had been wanting to check out too so we grabbed some tickets for that night.

Thanks to his watchful eye and travel money and hotel points, we were able to go without breaking the bank. And we got to try a few things that we otherwise might not have. That's one of the reasons I love him!

Girls Weekend 2014

Our girls weekend was shortly before Halloween. We went to Harrison, Arkansas and made a quick trip up to Branson since we were so close at one point. This year, though, we mostly just hung out -- something we don't get to do very often anymore. It is always enjoyable but goes much too fast.

Anniversary Trip

 For our anniversary, Hubby surprised me with a trip for just the two of us to Sulphur Springs and Turner Falls where we were able to check out the Chickasaw Cultural Center among other things.

This shop sign just struck us as funny being that it was a tobacco shop but also a 'smoke free environment.'

The native American village was probably my favorite part of the cultural center.

This castle at Turner Falls was probably one of our favorites as well.