There are perks to both you and your spouse being teachers. One of them is having the summers off together. It affords us opportunities to do things together during the week when everyone else is working. (poor things)
My mom graciously offered to keep Bennett overnight on Thursday since she doesn’t work on Fridays, so Michael and I could visit Crystal Bridges Art Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. It’s about a 3 hour drive, so we passed the time singing loudly to pop songs (me) and talking about random things (both of us).
The museum is amazing. If you’ve never been and you’re anywhere near Bentonville, you should go. The architecture alone is worth seeing.
It’s full of American artists ranging from the early 18th century to modern times. Even if you’re not an artsy person (like myself), it’s still very enjoyable. Here are some of our favorites.
Guys, this old man is NOT REAL. How creepy/amazing is he? The detail on this piece is unbelievable. Everything from the wrinkles on his face to the skin folds on his arms. Someone dropped something in the museum while we were looking at him and it made a loud “BANG”. I totally expected him to jump.
After we finished perusing all of the art and pretending like we knew what we were talking about, (My husband actually kind of does. He went to Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School and is pretty well versed in the world of the arts. Such a well rounded man I have.) we ventured down the Art Trail which connects the museum to downtown Bentonville.
We stumbled into the Walton’s 5 and 10 store (the original Wal-Mart) and bought the coolest book ever for Bennett. It has everything from directions for building a tree house to a chapter about girls. It would make a fantastic gift for parents of little boys.
Attached to the store is the Wal-Mart museum which is actually pretty interesting. I know Wal-Mart gets a lot of flack (some of that flack coming from myself, for sure), but it really is an amazing story of entrepreneurship in America and how someone can go from a tiny 5 and 10 store to a billion- dollar-a-year franchise. Plus, Sam Walton seemed like a pretty normal person. He drove the same old Ford pick-up truck his whole life because he said, “What else am I supposed to haul my dogs around in.” Ha! I love Arkansas.
It was a really lovely date day and I am most grateful for days like this. Days spent with just my husband are few and far between and it’s nice to be able to reconnect every once in a while. (There’s no better way to reconnect than having 3 hours in the car together by the way. Good thing we still like each other…)
A Chronicle of Us 