Steve, Carmen, Brock & Ryan O'Neal

Norman, OK

We started our Spring Break in Norman, OK. Steve's dad had open heart surgery, so we went to visit him in the hospital. He was doing good for the day after surgery!

U.S.S. Batfish ~ Muskogee, OK

On our way to Arkansas, we stopped in Muskogee to see an old WWII submarine called the U.S.S. Batfish. It was really neat to tour a submarine. I know one thing...I could never be in the Navy! The quarters were so tight and small. I could never imagine being underwater for months at a time in that thing!

My two little torpedos on one big one!

Ft. Smith, AR

When we got to Ft. Smith, we went to eat at a place called Boomerang's. It was in a train dining car...very cool! The boys got these 50's style hats and their food came in a Mustang Convertible.

Outside of Boomerang's was a dressed-up cow. Steve told the boys that tradition is that you kiss the cow. Brock kissed it, but I just missed it!

Steve kissed the cow.

Ryan refused to kiss her.

I kissed the cow, too!

Mt. Ida, AR

Brock and Ryan were most excited about getting to Mt. Ida. They have one of the best quartz crystal mines in the world. They got a lot of rain the night before, so it washed a lot of the dirt off the crystals and made them much easier to find. They absolutely LOVED it! Not only did they find a ton of crystals, but they got to play in the mud, too!! We ame home with a 5-gallon bucket of crystals!

Brock with one of his crystals (covered in dirt).

And Ryan with a crystal.

Showing off their finds!

Hot Springs, AR

After mining for crystals, we went into Hot Springs, AR. We took the boys to see the hot springs...

...they wanted to throw a coin in the springs, so I gave them each a penny. I told Ryan to see if he could throw it on the big rock (center) and see if it would slide down. He threw it and hit it dead center, but it didn't slide down, it got stuck on the algae! The circle in the middle of the rock is Ryan's penny!

Just on the outskirts of town, in a city park, is an amazing cave. It is a steep climb to get there, but once you do, it is incredible. The entrance to the cave is probably 30' high. Once inside, there are about 5 room that goes back at least 100'...we actually couldn't see the end. Beautiful place.

This creek was in the city park. It was full from all the rain and a beautiful place.

Little Rock, AR

From Hot Springs, we went to Little Rock. They have a great children's discovery museum. Steve had to work, so I took the boys. They had so many hands-on activities and experiments for kids.

This was one of the coolest things I've seen for kids. All those tubes were vacuums. Kids could put scarves or small balls in them and they would go all over the tubes...and on the ceiling, too. It was a lot of fun!

Here it is in action!

The museum had a section on dinosaurs and Ryan was in heaven. He wanted me to take a picture of him beside EVERY single fossil. Here are just a couple: