Fun Friday

In between our two temple visits on Friday, we went to lunch with Elder and Sister Ellis at PF Chang's.  Yummy food and fun conversations!  We love the two of them and are glad to know that they will be lifelong friends even after our missions are done.  One of the fun blessings of serving a senior mission!

We had to pick some chairs up from the mission office for the Mena elders but then we still had some time to fill before going back to the temple.  We decided to visit the Walmart Heritage Lab--a little museum they created while the actual Walmart Museum on the Bentonville Town Square is being redone.  It is really just one big room with displays along the walls, but it was interesting exhibit and I came away with a greater appreciation for Walmart and Sam Walton who was the genius behind it all.  He was actually born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma--but he made Bentonville the center of Walmart organization.  It is an interesting story.  Similar in some ways to JC Penny's story that we learned while visiting his hometown in Missouri.  These men are very interesting people who showed the power of drive and leadership.  Museums are such interesting places--glad we stopped at this one.

The first thing we found as we pulled to the parking lot for the Heritage Lab was this amazing art work on the parking garage--

It is hard to be amazed with photos, but the colors change as the air currents blow by so it is in a constant state of changing patterns.  It is made with 268,947 stainless steel disks.  It is a tribute to the small mouth bass which is an important game fish in Arkansas.  The numbers listed in the fourth bullent point are the totals of the local and out of state visitors who come to fish each year in Arkansas.

People are so creative and we are lucky that we can enjoy their talents.

The Walmart Heritage Lab:

Sam Walton received the Metal of Freedom from the Bushes shortly before his death in 1992. 

Some of the branding for Walmart over the years---

I love this quote which the exhibit said that Mrs. Walton had over her home office desk--

"It 's not what you gather in life, it's what you scatter in life that tells the kind of life you have lived."

Isn't that so true!!

Drone deliveries are already in beta testing in several places---crazy to think that you can order something and have it dropped into your yard within an hour!!  That would have been useful when raising five kids and having someone sick and being out of cough syrup or whatever--oh the world that we live in!

A sample drone from DroneUp

They had one small display of returns----which included the reason they were returned

The customer returned it because "it was possessed."

The note says:  Obviously crushed by a heavyweight, the customer returned it
"because he couldn't serve well with it."

This one "never told the correct time."

Seriously--and I worry when I need to take something back because it was broken in the box!!! I didn't know that you could return for these reasons!

Fun visit!

Downtown Bentonville---

Town Square still with its Christmas tree in the center---

We lead such a great life.  It is not without challenges and worries, of course.  Life is filled with both but we have been so blessed even in those trials--and it helps to remember that!!