Spring break in Bentonville (it's now a tradition)

Since this is our 4th year going to Bentonville, AR for spring break, I now consider it a tradition.

Likewise, visiting my colleague roomie and her kiddo on the Friday night as we head down, has also become a tradition. When did these kids get so big?! Love that they are growing up together.

On Saturday we arrived in Bella Vista, our home base/campground at Blowing Springs RV Park.

We visited the new Slaughter Pen Skills Park, which was awesome and we also spent time at the Bentonville Bike Park Pump track. We wrapped up our evening with ice cream at Trash.

On Sunday we hit up some of the local bike shops to buy some new gloves. Then we hopped on the All American trail from downtown and rode down to Masterpiece, Moo moo, Choo Choo (super fun this year that we could ALL do ALL of these-even Gavin).

We had lunch at Pedalers pub and then went back to riding over (& over & over) on Leopards loop, Black Apple Creek and Tristan’s trails.

On Monday the birthday boy got his haircut and some Starbucks. That's what 15 looks like.

It was a rainy morning so we went to the Crystal Bridges museum before seeing the sun peek out and decided to drive over to Rogers and where Grandma Voigts painted us a beautiful rainbow over the Railyard bike park. 

Tuesday had us at the Snowbird art trail, Back 40 and Castle hub. We also spent more time on All American, at the skills park, and on Tristan’s trail. 

We had our annual dinner out at Oven and Tap (woodfire pizza).

On Wednesday we decided to try something new and headed over to Eureka Springs where we checked out the Passion Play trails, visited the Thorncrown chapel and zipp(line)ed thru the Ozark mountains. Liam and Alex also rode the gravity trails at Lake leatherwood Gravity Project (and got VERY muddy), while I shuttled them and James & Gavin hung out at the Lake's campground.

Thursday was our best weather day yet and we dedicated it to Coler Preserve, where Gavin conquered Thunderdome and then played in the water the rest of the day. 

The big boys went up to the hub and rode Fireline & Rocksolid

Alex made us an awesome dinner of Smash burgers & roasted potatoes on his new flattop grill.

The evening was spent at the Cooper Elementary pump track clearing the tabletop:

On our last day in town, we repeated all our favorites and took some fun pix. Including photographic evidence that I was on this vacation, and yes, I do ride the trails.

To mix things up, on the way home we stayed in Branson, at Table rock state park, on Friday night where we caught the Escape Reality magic show. The magic was actually very good, but the off-season in Branson is very quiet. So there were only the 5 of us and about 15 others at the show. It was very awkward for the performers. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was just awkward for us. No pictures taken. Too awkward.

But here is our campground and the good ol' Shasta!

On Saturday we made another stop at the Double J in Springfield and then finished the short ride arriving home on Easter Sunday to do laundry (and yes, hunt for Easter eggs).