Horseshoe Canyon Ranch

This year we decided to zip line for the first time while we were in Jasper. We literally had to hike up a canyon to get to the top. I was so proud of Olivia. She was so excited! She kept saying, "I am scared, but I want to do it". She had I went together. She is asking Santa for a zip line.

I was so proud of Mamaw for taking the plunge as well. She hiked that canyon in dress shoes. I mean this woman never ceases to amaze me. I had tears as she went down the zip line. I kept telling her, "Mamaw, you will not regret doing it, but you will regret if you don't". I could tell she wanted to but kept trying to talk herself out of it. I am so glad she did it.

We are ready to do it again next year!

{Mamaw with three grands and a great grand taking the on the Iron Horse!}

Our First Family Camp Out

 

The weekend of Liv's birthday was a busy one. We attended a Boo Bash that some friends hosted. It was amazing. We also attended little hayride at Woolly Hollow park. While we were at the park, we noticed a lot of campers with their tents and Liv wanted to  have a camp out. So we talked about camping out at home that night for our first family camp out. So we did. Everyone stayed out all night except for Liv and I due to her excessive coughing.

We loved it so much. I definitely see camping elsewhere in the near future.

 

Olivia's Tooth

This has been a super busy week. We are wrapping up VBS tonight (Adam and I are over games), Papaw Randy was here the first part of the week, and we have tried to have some fun summer days.

 

Yesterday afternoon, I took the kids to see Planes Fire and Rescue. Liv has been wiggling her first loose tooth for several days. As soon as the movie started, she looked at me with a worried face. She had bit into the popcorn and her tooth came out. No pain nor blood... Just a tiny tooth.

She held on to it with dear life until she placed it safely under her pillow.

She was very excited to see that the tooth fairy left her a five dollar bill. I believe the tooth fairy was fairly generous since it was her first tooth.

This morning, she bags up her $5 and some change and says she is putting in into the offering at VBS tonight.

Summer

The summer days are definitely not slow around here. Wes is in school throughout the summer. We do have a few Fridays planned for him to miss for Fun Fridays.

The girls are just as busy around home playing, reading and other fun stuff we manage to find time to do.

It is blackberry harvesting time. Since we have started picking wild blackberries several years ago, we have found several other patches throughout the woods. We have been out picking two times this week.

 

Winter Days

We were out of school Friday and today.  We  have enjoyed our time at home.  Adam and the kids made a homemade ginger bread house. We also went out to get our fresh tree from the woods.  I hope to share a little Christmas home tour soon.

 

 

Jasper

We had another wonderful year at the cabin in Jasper.

The weather was nice. The trees were at their peak.

The food was fabulous and of course the best part was all of us being together.

 

 

We love hiking Lost Valley.

 This makes the second time our brave girl hiked to the back of the cave.

She talked bravely about seeing bats but said she wasn't scared because she has been learning about them at school.

 

Adam carried Superman on his shoulders the entire hike.

 

 Amelia was quite the entertainer all weekend.

 

 

We will be back with more later.

Late Summer Days

I am the first one to say that Fall is my favorite season. Or at least it was. I am really having a hard time seeing summer wind down. We have loved boating and swimming on Greers Ferry. The weather hasn't been too unbearable this summer. And I could have used some more days home with Olivia. But, she is loving school. We start soccer next week. And I have an itch to pull out my fall décor and buy a pumpkin candle. So I will just enjoy these late summer days while they last and welcome Autumn with my arms wide open. But for today...

 

We celebrate late summer days.

 

 

These are the days childhood memories are made of.

 



Springfield Bridge

A while back we watched a documentary on PBS on the old bridges in Arkansas. Adam found this one that is close to home one day while he was driving for work.

We took a little hike on Saturday for a closer examination.

It was neat to see this structure still in existence even in non working order.

 

Cove Creek

So part of this post was meant for the photos on the missing SD card. But since that card may be at the bottom of the lake, I will go ahead and share.

 

It was our first adventure on our new fifteen year old Crownline.

After about five summers of Adam and I toying with the idea to one day buy a good used ski boat...this was the year. The kids are a bit older. We live twenty minutes from the boat launch at Cove Creek. So it seemed the appropriate time to make a fun purchase.

 

On our first Saturday out we were all so excited. Adam stayed up the night before until 3 am getting prepped. We asked Paw Paw Barney to join us. We were all excited to get out into the water to find that we were sinking. Long story short... Wal-Mart saved our boat with a seven dollar plug!

 

 We had a lovely day. I have never seen Liv more excited. Wes and Amelia finally warmed up to the boat and loved it.

Yes, no pictures of that day here. Remember stinking misplaced card. argh! I hope to find because it has a precious photo of Wes and Paw Paw Barney.

 

Anyway, here are some photos of our second day out.

Our third day, Paw Paw Randy came out with us and we were caught out in a lighting storm with engine problems.

Yep,

boat is in the shop!

 

Branson

I was hoping to post our first few days on the lake today, however I have misplaced that SD card. Our house looks like a tornado hit it since we were gone all last week. My dad came up and visited when we returned from Branson. We were sad to see him leave yesterday.

 

So today I thought I would share our Branson memories.

I have learned that traveling and vacationing with three little excited kiddos can be challenging with taking photos. So here are just a few things that we did where I took the camera along.

 

We stayed at Grand Country Inn. The indoor water park surpassed our expectations. Adam and I enjoyed it just as much as the kids. We may have went down the water tubes a few times.

We also enjoyed their on site arcade and pizza.

 We will definitely stay here again!

 

We enjoyed dining at the Krispy Diner and watching them make the donuts.

 We love to visit Bass Pro Shop in Springfield.

Amelia was scared of the bear. Liv and Wes thought he was cool.

 

 

We also did quite a bit of school clothes shopping for Olivia. She is very picky with clothes. So the fact that we were able to find several things was a success in my book.

We also enjoyed the Kirby and Bambi Illusion Show. Olivia said it was her favorite part of the trip.

I especially loved Kirby's testimony in Jesus Christ at the end of the show. He explains that there is no such thing as magic that it is all an illusion. 

We had a memorable time!