The Big Dam Bridge and Garvin Gardens

On our trip to Arkansas we spent our Black Friday at The Big Dam Bridge, which is a heck of a sight more relaxing than what most people traditionally do on Black Friday. The Big Dam Bridge is an Arkansas tradition for me. I always want to rack up a few miles there when we go back to visit. We did not bring the double jogging stroller because we needed extra cargo space to bring home the awesome doll house that Lee's aunt and uncle have generously gifted the girls with. We did bring the compact single stroller. Analese insisted on pushing Mariele in the stroller. That lasted about halfway up the hill.




The next day we went to Hot Springs to visit Lee's old childhood buddy who was in our wedding. We had only briefly met his new wife a couple of years ago, so we got to spend time with both of them. It was nice getting to know Kevin's wife, Autumn. They took us to some recently developed botanical gardens called Garvin Gardens. It has only been developed in the last few years since we left Arkansas. This place is a true Arkansas gem, and Autumn's dad works there. They put up thousands of Christmas lights for the holidays. It was such a nice walk through a beautiful forest that was alive with lots of fall colors as well as gorgeous twinkling Christmas lights. The Japanese maples were absolutely beautiful, and the sun was setting and completely lighting them on fire. Times like that make me wish I could paint.



There were all of these beautiful bridges. I could not quite get the girls together on the bridge to take a picture from below. I always imagine these ideal shots in my mind. Oh well.






The Koi pond was beautiful. The koi were very slugish because it was cold. Autumn said that they let you feed the koi when it is warm.



Kevin took our pictures down by the waterfalls.




As it got darker, the photography became much more challenging. We did walk thorough the entire gardens and ended up at the miniature train sipping hot cocoa and eating popcorn and chatting it up with other folks that we knew (Arkansas is a small world). The girls just loved running ahead of us together. The stroller was just to push my mommy bag. So I got lots of these shots.