Ozark Folk Center

On Friday we went to the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas. When we left our hotel it was raining and lightening. We went anyway, hoping that it would clear up (it eventually did). We had quite a lightning show on the 45-minute drive. Some of the unfortunate things that happened while we were there: Mike watched a woman split her thumb with a hatchet, Sydney fell down and skinned knees, elbow, & hands, and Kathryn got stung by a wasp! Despite all of those things, we had a pretty good time. They have all of these little houses that display people making different crafts such as: brooms, soap, candles (my favorite), dolls, woodworking, quilts, and much, much more. bla

 

Kathryn loved the school house and we visited it twice.

 

The girls playing with clay at the pottery house.

 

The girls eating their ice cream that Aunt Kelly bought them.

 

Horseback Riding

On Thursday we went horseback riding. Kathryn rode with me and Sydney rode with Mike. The girls weren't scared at all and we had a good time. The girls got a little bored near the end, but they enjoyed watching all the other horses and kids. The trail is in the woods, so we were in the shade most of the time. Our horse's name was Dollar and Mike can't remember the name of their horse. Aaron & Zack (Mike's cousins) went with us too. Aaron ended up near the front with the little kids, and the rest of us were at the end. Zack was the very last horse and it kept falling behind. It seems like every single horse pooped or peed when we were out on the trail. But for the most part we just trudged along and enjoyed the scenery. I don't have any pictures of the actual ride because I couldn't take my camera and have Kathryn sitting right in front of me. The brown horse is Dollar and the white horse was Mike & Sydney's.

 

 

 

Girls on the boat...

The girls really loved being on the boat. Sydney even took a nap. They both enjoyed riding around and swimming in the lake. Kathryn can keep her self up in her life jacket, but we had to hold Sydney (in her life jacket). She sat with me in the tube most of the time when we were swimming.

 

 

 

Here's another pic of the planes.

 

Boating on Greer's Ferry Lake

On Wednesday we rented a pontoon boat and went out for the whole day on Greers Ferry Lake. It was really fun. We went tubing, knee boarding, and we stopped and went swimming twice.

 

 

We saw 4 C-130s fly over around lunchtime. It was so cool! They came really low and flew right over us. They were close enough for us to wave and they saw us and dipped their wing at us.

 

 

Grandma Karen & Feeding Fish

We got to spend time with Grandma Karen while we were in Arkansas. She bought the girls those cute shirts from London.

 

One day we rented a pontoon boat (pics to come) and fed the fish before we departed. These fish were so big and aggressive! You could just go and stand by the edge and they would come to you with their mouths open, waiting for food. If you walked around the railing, they would follow you.

 

 

 

Hike to the Indian Cave

We hiked down to the 100-foot-wide, ninety-foot-deep, and ninety-foot-high Indian Rock Cave. It was formed by springs that eroded the sandstone cliff. Groups of Indians may have occupied this cave up to 4,000 years ago. The trail head is in the parking lot of one of the golf courses in Fairfield Bay. Mike got to play 3 rounds of golf while we were there.

 

 

 

 

Arkansas Vacation

We just got back from our vacation to Arkansas. We had a lot of fun and are kind of sad to be home. The next few posts are pictures from our trip!

70-78

70-78 is Kathryn's idea of a really large number. As in, "Whoa, if you ate 70-78 of those, your tummy would hurt!" The following picture is just plain cute and has nothing to do with 70-78, but I wanted to post it. It's Kathryn on the potty at the zoo.

 

Goggles

Here are the girls practicing with their new goggles. Kathryn asked for them so that she could go under water. I'm hoping that she gets to use them lots on our vacation. Sydney, of course, couldn't be left out. She is more comfortable with her face in the water than Kathryn is.

 

 

Our New Swingset

We got a formerly loved swingset this past weekend. We got it from a friend of Mike's from work whose kids have outgrown it. He was kind enough to drive it to our house from his house in Illinois. Kathryn and Mike went to Home Depot on Monday night and bought new swings for it and we put it together that night. I bought the baby swing a long time ago at a garage sale for $4 and haven't gotten to use it until now. Both of the girls like to swing in it.

 

 

 

Kathryn taught Sydney how to swing like this tonight and Sydney couldn't stop laughing. It was so fun to listen to.

 

Kathryn was wearing a skirt when we went out there and she was having a hard time sliding down the slide because she was sticking, so she went in the house by herself, went up to her room, and got a pair of jeans. She was proud of herself and I was too!

Sisters

Here are our sweet girls. Despite how they may treat each other sometimes, they do love each other. When I got them up from their nap today, Kathryn was having a hard time waking up, so Sydney laid (layed?) down beside her and was rubbing her back. Then, when Kathryn woke up, Sydney laid on top of her and Kathryn just kept hugging her. It was very sweet.

 

 

Tuesday

This morning we came down to find our camera sitting in a puddle of water! Yikes! So Mike took this picture of Kathryn to make sure the camera still worked. Thank goodness it did.

 

Mike has school on Tuesday nights so he usually gets home after the girls go to bed. But tonight I took them with me to church (we had Enrichment) and we got home about the same time as Daddy. Kathryn asked me if she could do her new puzzle with him so they did it together before bed, with a little help from Sydney.

 

 

Baking Cookies

On Sunday we made cookies for a fireside, for the people I visit teach and for our vacation. I quadrupled the recipe and the girls helped me. (With mixing, not with the math!) They were very excited to do so and were chomping at the bit while I was getting the kitchen cleared out. I love the look on Sydney's face.

 

 

 

Sydney mixing...and spilling. I promise that the drool hanging off her chin didn't make it into the cookies.