A weekend in Hot Springs

Early Friday morning so we could beat the heat, we headed off to Hot Springs AR to visit my Mom's parents who live on Lake Hamilton. It's been too long since we were able to go there and we love spending time with them and playing on the lake so we were all really excited to get to go. Dad volunteered to stay home and take care of all the animals so we missed having him with us but still had a lot of fun. We made the 6 hour trip and got there at around 9:00 in the morning....the trip was pretty uneventful except for the fact that three of the little ones got car sick from going through all the curves and mountains...which wasn't fun, and we weren't really prepared for that but we made it. :)

We spent most of the day Friday swimming in the lake and then Saturday morning Paps, Caleb, Daniel, Elijah, Micah, Anna and I went to the Hot Springs farmers market, which was pretty neat, a lot bigger than the one we have here in Guthrie! :) After that we drove through downtown Hot Springs and got some of the hot water that it's known for, and then decided to drive up a mountain there which is like a tourist attraction. Once we got to the top Paps was very generous to pay so we could go up this tower thing they have up there....elevators most certainly aren't my favorite thing....but I tried not to think about it and up we went!! Boy it was high, but it was SO neat looking around in the open air from the top. Quite a view it was!!




Saturday afternoon the guys decided to buy a wakeboard to try out behind Paps boat...so they had a lot of fun playing around with that. I tried once...but we'll just say that it didn't go so well for me!! :P Caleb and Daniel got pretty good at it though by the end of the trip.

Sunday we had the opportunity to play two songs at church, which was really neat. It's been so long since we've played in a church before...it brought back a lot of memories. Hopefully the music was a blessing to those there...they seemed to really have enjoyed it. After lunch a neighbor came over and let us use his knee boards and a pretty good sized tube to pull behind the boats...and oh boy, tubing was just right up my alley!! :D We had SO much fun doing that...and we had that boat going super fast!! It was pretty funny though when I was driving the boat with Daniel and Micah on the tube...I was still learning how to operate the thing and I took a curve pretty sharp and then just hit the gas and they wiped out big time!! It was hilarious...the tube went flying up in the air and both boys just hit the water!! :D We had tons of fun doing that, and had some pretty crazy rides going on. :) I'm still suffering from soreness from it...I think practically every muscle in my body has been hurting!! It was sure worth it though. :P



It was a wonderful trip and we had so much fun spending time together as a family. :)

Tons of stuff....

Wow, there has been so much going on lately that I don't quite know where to begin. My dear friend Danielle, headed back to MO on Thursday...needless to say it was really hard to let her go, but we're sure hoping it won't be too long before we get to see each other again. :) We had such a wonderful time while she was here....we did so much that it would take a super long blog post to put it all down, and I'd for sure leave some of it out. We played volleyball most every night, and spent most evenings out in the studio playing instruments. Well not actually me, I just listened. :) I think we probably have around 2500 pictures from the entire time she was here...so I'll just post some of the random best ones. :) Oh and we also got to go swimming several afternoons which was really fun, especially since it was SO hot. And oh, that counted for some good tanning as well. :P


I know your thinking swimming?? Maybe more like "soaking" but hey, if it's all you got, you just make it work!! :D And yes, it was a LOT of fun, and we did the real thing too in the pond, but that can be a little scary with all the snakes and turtles...Dannie claims a fish got pretty close to her while we were in there. :)






A few more highlights were Pop and Nana getting to come spend some time, flying kites with our neighbor David, and going to "Pops" a place along historic Route 66 that has about every kind of old fashioned pop you can imagine.




Also we were able to go to the peach festival in Stratford to spend some time with our friends the Burnett's and go to a rodeo that evening. It was really great, and Hannah and Abbie got to play at the rodeo, after winning 3rd place in the "Peach Idol" talent contest. Actually we got to go to two rodeo's one was a few nights before the Stratford one, it was the International Youth Finals Rodeo, and was a really big event, so big that it was rather hard to follow everything that was going on, because they had 3 arena's going at once. It was neat though, because it was Danielle's first rodeo, and yes Dannie you did scream once when they were riding the broncs!! :D



We also got to go spend some time one day with Katelyn, a dear young lady that both Danielle and I know. We had a really wonderful time with her and her mom, great food, and wonderful fellowship. Not to mention playing around with Danielle's hair!! :P

Well, not to drag this thing out forever, I'd better leave off now. We sure made some wonderful memories that I will treasure forever. :)

Introducing...."Rancho!"

My new Australian Shepherd puppy!! We bought him from some good friends of ours on Saturday while we were down at the Peach Festival with the Burnett family. A rather spur of the moment decision, but I was sure happy!! And even though we already have 4 dogs, (well actually 3, we pretty much decided that Duffy is not a "dog") :D hopefully little Rancho is going to work for his keep and have some fun rounding up the goats. :)

I've just had so much going on lately that there hasn't been time for blogging, or rather I haven't wanted to be on the computer much :)...but don't worry, I have tons to post about whenever I get time. :) Still need to get pictures of the newest two Boer kids that were born about 4 weeks ago...guess I am kind of behind!! :D

Time for Tea...

What a fun day we had yesterday!! Danielle, took me out for my birthday along with Anna and Hosanna to a fancy Tea room in Edmond. We picked up some funny looking hats on our way in to play around with and get pictures, Danielle just looked so cute in hers! :) We started out with some fancy little scones as appetizers along with our peach tea....which I drank WAY too much of. :D And then for our meal we had sandwiches, salad, soup and fruit. Quite the fancy looking plate I must say! And then the dessert was SO good, Brownie Cheese Cake. I'm a big fan of cheese cake and this was wonderful.


After we finished our meal we had a blast walking around in the gift shop and trying on big goofy looking bracelets and stuff. And then that's when we found the book!! A little book called "The Lady's Book of Manners." We were just dying laughing over it!! So much so that I HAD to buy it despite the price...which unfortunately was fixed....so I didn't ask for an abatement. Not to bother the cashier with such a trifling matter. :D Stuff like that in this little book originally published in the 1890's....so proper! :P Actually we were thinking about going up to the cashier and asking if the price could be "abated" just for a joke, but I couldn't bring myself to do it! We were laughing so hard just thinking about doing it though! :D But I must say we were glad that it was just us at our table, because we certainly wouldn't have been following the proper table manners for sure! :P

Afterwards we ran an errand and went in one other store and then headed home to get back in time to give a farm tour to an older couple that is interested in getting goats milk and meat.

It was a fun day, and it was great spending time together! Thanks Dannie! :)