Four Wheeling in Mena, AR

Buddy and Serena were going four wheeling in Mena, Arkansas and invited us to go along.  We took our camper and they stayed in a hotel in town.  The nice part about camping was that we were at the base of the mountain and we could ride in and out on our four wheelers without having to drive anywhere first.  We left Friday morning and it was a long drive.  The girls did not do so well and were bored pretty quickly.  We stopped for gas, food, and it took 5 1/2 hours instead of the 4 1/2.  We finally got there at 1 and got the camper set up as quickly as we could so Paige could nap.  The girls were just happy to be out of the car so they played at the playground while we set up.  We had charged the camper so the fridge was cold and we had everything set up.  But when we got there, the camper was so hot inside and took about an hour to get cool enough that Paige would sleep.  So we finally put her down at 2 and after crying for an hour, she slept for about 30 minutes.  Not a successful nap.  While she slept, Cody and Harper rode four wheelers with Buddy and Serena for a few hours.  After they got back, we all headed to the hotel so they could check in and we could swim.  The girls love swimming and it was nice to cool off after a hot day.  We went back to the camper for dinner and then relaxed for a bit.  We all headed to bed at 8pm and Cody and I got to watch a movie for a bit before bed.  I slept with Harper this trip so we wouldn't have to move the bed/table every day.  It turned out to be better because the fan blew the coldest air on the tall bed where Cody was sleeping and it kept us all pretty comfortable.

The next morning, Harper woke up at the beautiful early hour of 5am.  I made her lay there and stay still until 6 when Paige woke up and we all laid in bed until about 6:30 laughing and relaxing together.  We had microwave pancakes and picked up and got ready for the day.  The girls played outside in the rocks, because this place was more rock than anything.  No trees for shade or grass to play in.  But they didn't care at all.  They loaded rocks in buckets and poured dirt everywhere.  We went four wheeling with Buddy and Serena at 9 and rode some easy roads for awhile to get to the mountains.  It was fun to go fast!  Then we hit a few trails that were hard to climb and twisty through the mountains.  We stopped a few times to chat and then ate lunch at a small waterfall area.  We walked through the waters for a bit and cooled off.  After that, it was Paige's nap time so I held her while she slept.  Eventually Harper fell asleep too and I was holding both girls as still as possible in a bouncy four wheeler (we rode with Buddy in the side by side).  It was so hard!  Thankfully Harper only slept for about 30 minutes which helped, but Paige slept a good hour and a half, which is awesome.  We headed back to the camper at 3 to go swim at the hotel again.  Harper loved swimming and since it wasn't too crowded she got to take off her life vest.  The front was only 3 feet and she could touch, so she played around and practiced swimming.  Paige likes to swim and also kind of doesn't.  I had to hold her most of it but she is definitely getting better at floating in her puddle jumper.  She also had Serena to give her bites of pound cake every few minutes she was content.  We went back to the campground for dinner again and then all headed to bed early again.

Sunday morning the girls slept till 7 so it was a much better morning.  Quick breakfast and we were back on the mountain at 8:30.  We rode for a few hours and this time I rode on our four wheeler and Cody rode on Serena's while they took the girls in the side by side.  It was fun and we got lost and learned some new trails.  We saw a few deer and it was a beautiful, cool day out.  We went back and had lunch at the camper while Buddy and Serena packed up and headed back home.  We all rested in the camper, watching a movie while Paige napped.  Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and swam for a bit, cooling off and washing the dirt off.  We ate dinner out and then drove up the mountain to Queen Wilhelmena Peak.  It was a beautiful drive and such an amazing thing to look out over hundreds of miles of forest and mountains and lush greenery.  We went back and went to bed early again, because this is one exhausting, awesome trip.

The next morning, we got up at 6 and packed the camper up as quickly as we could.  We knew if we wanted to get home before naptime we had to hurry.  We let the girls watch a new movie in the car and that seemed to help hold their attention better this time.  We also made it in about 4 hours so it was good time coming home.  We got here, ate lunch, put Paige down for a nap and then cleaned the camper really well.  There was a mouse in it from before so we had to clean the entire inside and then all the dust from the mountain trails made the camper seriously dirty.  So we cleaned and then relaxed because it was a looong weekend.

Harper's 5 year Stats

Harper Elizabeth Hempkins is 5 years old.  I seriously can't believe it.  It doesn't feel like she should be 5, but it feels like she's been here way longer.  She is 39 pounds and 39 inches and hits around the 25% for both weight and height.  Alot of people think she is small for 5 so I guess that explains it.  Her hair is getting long because she has decided not to cut it ever again.  She is in between 4T and 5T and wears a 9 1/2 shoe.  She still loves to wear dresses as much as possible, the fancier the better.  She doesn't change a million times a day anymore, but we still struggle to pick clothes out in the morning.

She loves crafts.  She likes to draw pictures and then cut them out and glue them on another piece of paper.  She likes to play anything, especially just make believe.  Her Frozen Barbies are still her favorites, but she likes to play with all her toys.  Kitchen.  Shopping.  Dress up.  Princesses.  Horses.  Minnie Mouse.  Every now and then, she will spend an hour or so just reading books on the couch.  She loves to read and be read to.

She is the best big sister.  Better than I ever imagined.  She loves to help Paige, or help me with Paige.  She is always grabbing her paci and blankey when she's sad or getting her snacks and water if she's hungry.  She lets Paige take toys or play with her stuff even if she doesn't really want to.  She shows Paige how to do everything she does and just acts like Paige is just as big and capable as her.  Which is probably why Paige thinks that!  She teaches her words; she was the person to teach Paige her animal sounds and to say the colors.  She is the best!  I love knowing that she is constantly looking out for her and I can count on her to always be helpful!

As we stopped preschool for the year, she was close to reading.  She knows all her sight words and can name most of her CVC word families and blended word families.  She can sound out lots of words as long as they don't follow some crazy grammar rule.  She knows how to skip count and add as well as place value and basic kinder math.  She is amazing!  She can learn something and quickly put it into memory.  She used to draw like a crazy person but that is gotten so much better in the last few months.  She has figured out how to mostly stay in the lines and color with correct, multiple colors.  She can write fairly well and knows basic sentence structure, which is a huge leap from the beginning of the year when she hadn't learned to separate words.

Harper is an adventurer like Cody.  She loves to drive fast and ride on the four wheeler.  She likes to jump and be crazy and wrestle.  But she is a bit sassy like her Mama.  She whines alot and complains about everything.  Even if she doesn't know the alternative, she despises being told no.  And she cries in confrontation, especially in public.  But she is smart and funny and wild and we love her more than we ever imagined.  It's been the best 5 years, Harper Elizabeth!

Harper is 5!

For Harper's birthday, all she asked to do was swim.  She loves to swim!  So we got up that morning and had birthday pancakes.  Then, we picked up Reagan and Presley and headed over to the Helm's to swim.  Morgan and Benton as well as Kelly, Julianne, and Tessa got to spend the morning with us.  The kids all swam for hours and had a great time.  We had lunch and the kids sang Harper happy birthday.  I think it was the best day for her!  After lunch, we headed home to put Paige down for a nap and Harper, Reagan, and Presley played together for the afternoon.  Cody even took them on a golf cart ride and let each girl drive for a little while.  At 3, we headed to dance class.  After dance, we visited with Nana and Papa so Harper could open her birthday present from them.  She got a Barbie camper and she loves it!  We went to dinner at Taco Cabana of course because it's her favorite.  We had to stop by Walmart real quick and then we were going to have dessert at Braums.  But instead, she asked to just go home and eat ice cream so that she could play with her camper before bed.  I think she had the best day!

Swim Lessons

We decided to do private swim lessons through Waterloo this year.  We split it with Haddock's so it was about the same as group lessons, but they got way more personal attention.  It didn't take much, but Spencer just needed to teach Harper HOW to actually swim.  She figured it out pretty quick and has made great strides.  She isn't the most buoyant person, she when she stops swimming to take a breath, she immediately sinks.  But she can swim if she goes underwater and has her goggles on.  She does much better that way.  The one thing she really did well at was floating on her back and swimming on her back.  She was able to do it for 10-15 seconds at a time.  She enjoyed that most days they got to do something fun.  Dive for pool toys at the bottom.  Go down the small slide.  Jump off the diving board.  Swim in the deep end.  And at the last day, they got to slide down the twisty, tube slide.  She had a blast and she loved every minute.  She loved getting to swim with Reagan especially.  It was a long few weeks, sitting there with Paige, but it went well.  Paige did pretty well walking around, playing in and out of the doorways, and getting into the pool toys.  But she was pretty sad not to get to jump in the pool with the big girls.