Our home town/Happy Saturday

After dropping the brat off with the sitter  groomer, today, we took my niece and nephew to downtown Hot Springs (or as the slogan says..."America's first resort" blah, blah).  There are actually several things that are very interesting about the history of Hot Springs, but in the summer I usually avoid down town like the plague since it's "tourist season."  For those of you who also live in a tourist town, you know what I'm talking about, for those of you who do not, let me enlighten you.  During the summer, down town Hot Springs becomes a mad house of crappy drivers, followed by people that make you question why it does not require a license and an IQ test to reproduce.  Not to mention the ever so rude northerners who seem to thing that since we talk slow and sound nice even when we're being rude, that we owe them something. 

Today, however, was a pretty great day.  We got up early, picked up the kiddos, and headed to the Pancake Shop, downtown.  It's this tiny hole in the wall place that has some pretty good food.
{Yeah, I know, there goes the whole no eating out for a month.  But, we don't really take the kids out to eat very often so it was kind of a special occasion.}

I {finally} agreed to let the waitress take a picture of all of us...I was not expecting to be in ANY of the photos so excuse the clothing choice.  I'm not usually a shorts person but it was like 103 today and 100% humidity, so really I should get a medal for braving the heat.

Anywho, after breakfast we went up on the mountain and I taught the kids about the volcano that Hot Springs sits in that feeds the natural springs, among other interesting facts about the land and city.  (For those who do not know me, I was a history major when I went to college before deciding I really wanted to be a nurse, so I'm full of otherwise useless information that I find fascinating.)

Once we left the mountain, we went to the Fordyce bath house which has been turned into a museum and did a self tour (with me as the AMAZING tour guide!).  The kiddos learned all about the natural springs and how the baths were believed to heal people.

They had a blast learning about the bath houses and the history of {the appropriate parts anyway!} the city.  Even some of the beautiful stained glass caught my niece's eye.

At the end of the tour, before the education video (I know! I can't be all fun all the time!  They need to learn too!)  My nephew even built his own "bath house" while we were waiting in the play areas!

Maybe, someday, once he is grown, he will be designing buildings of his own!

We finished our day with the kiddos by picking the brat up from the sitter, I mean, groomer, and dropped them all off at Nana's house.  Then we went to our friends to hang out and swim, which is why I'm posting a midnight on a Saturday.  Here's to another wonderful day tomorrow! 

I realize I've been slacking all week on my blog, but I did the whole work every-other-day-and-never-feel-rested for a week thing followed up by working three 10's in a row, so it's been a little crazy, and I've been a {little} cranky.  Here's hoping that next week will be better!