also going to find the original Walton's Five and Dime since none of us had seen it. I just envisioned a whole day of family fun and togetherness. Yeah...and apparently the entire state of Arkansas envisioned the same thing.
When we pulled up to the museum I knew none of that was going to happen. We couldn't even find a place to park. Jay finally dropped us off at the front while he circled the lot like a shark. While we were waiting for him I started talking to a lady beside me. She off handily mentioned that the Norman Rockwell Exhibit had sold out. We could not get tickets for it. I was so extremely disappointed. I was also mad at myself for not thinking ahead and getting tickets earlier. Grrrr! We decided to brave the permanent part of the museum anyway. Mistake!!!
Camryn turned into a Tasmanian Devil! I barely got her stopped before she put her hand on a painting. Then she tried to push her stroller and would scream and stomp her feet anytime we touched it. I know it looked to all observers that we had no control over our child, but that really wasn't the case. She was having a bad few minutes and we were doing our best to cope with it without making a worse scene. Need I repeat the child is not even 2? While she had a hold of the stroller I was trying to maneuver it away from her. Before I was finished with the task one if the museum workers came up and told me not to let her push the stroller because they preferred adults to push them. I almost lost my temper with the lady...did she not think I didn't prefer that an adult pushed it either??? What parent actually wants their child to push their own stroller??? And since the lady stopped me that meant Camryn was uncontrolled for a few seconds. If she had left me alone I would've had it together again in the amount of time the lady disturbed me. I feel pretty confident in my parenting abilities and most things really don't bother me, but that one got me. I felt like she was screaming "bad parent, uncontrollable kid." Thankfully Camryn allowed me to pick her up and I carried her the rest of the way. I was glad we quickly moved out of that lady's area. Apparently Camryn loved the acoustics in the building so she sang as loud as she could through the last two areas. That lady would've told me they prefer children don't sing.
I was relieved to leave the museum. My excitement for the day had quickly diminished with my disappointment with Norman and feeling judged by a very small incident with a tired toddler. It may have also not been that Camryn was tired but instead it was withdrawal symptoms....from the massive amount of cake frosting she had ate the day beore. We headed off to the Walton's store hoping to salvage something from the trip.
That wasn't our salvation. Talk about another disappointment. I'm not sure what I expected but the junk that they sold was definitely not it. There was a museum but Camryn was a darting mess in there so we finally went back to the car. It took Jay awhile to drag Cade away from the junk. He loves that stuff.
Then we decided to drive around and find where Jay lived in Rogers. You might ask if I got to eat at the Mexican restaurant. That was also a No. Jay and I found it by accident one day and we have a hard time remembering the exit. We knew it was farther than the exit we needed for the museum but we were hungry and didnt want to drive aimlessly around. When we were looking for Jay's old house we found it. Pretty sure I've finally committed to memory the exit so we won't miss it again.
Driving around that day (and the drive home) is what prompted Jay's Facebook post about a new car. It felt like it kept getting smaller and smaller that day. Camryn and Cade fought almost non-stop. Camryn can reach the drink holders with her feet. She spent a lot of time kicking Cade's drink. He spent a lot of time yelling. She already knows how to get under his skin. The fact that I was so stiff when we got out of the car was another reason. Also the lights keep dimming when you hit the brakes, everytime Jay would shift in his seat the cruise would go off and the brakes are messed up for the 900th time. BUT she is paid for....even that is not tipping the scales as much as it used to.
We did eat at a place that we've always talked about eating at when we are down there. We came across one by accident. It was ok. I was still in the "this will be the best trip ever" mode and took some cute
Pictures while we were eating. Of course these were the only ones from that day.
Seeing the picture of Camryn makes we wonder if a picture of my butt has unknowingly made it on to the Internet?? Yikes!
So we didnt have a perfect day....but if everything had gone smoothly this post wouldn't have been as long and I probably wouldn't have remembered the day as well. Instead I will retell stories of Sunday to Camryn and remind her she made herself look like a heathen and me like a parent not in control. Seeing pictures of Norman Rockwell would've seemed boring compared to all that.... Or even worse...we might have been thrown out!!!
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