Our trip to Texarkana

This weekend, Andy and Jessie went to Dallas with Andy's dad to see a professional baseball game....a tradition for the 3 of them since Jessie started playing baseball. So my mom picked up Joshua, Noah, and I to go to Texarkana to see my sister, Jennifer and her family, who was visiting her in laws while her husband Chris was working in Texarkana for a few days. Jennifer and Chris live in Houston, TX. But I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get there. We got a few miles down the freeway and Joshua says he has to pee and there isn't an exit for another 10 miles so we pull over on the side of the road so he can pee and we resume our trip...well another 20 miles down the road Noah throws up out of no where in my mom's car!....not good....she handled it well though and we were about 25 miles from Benton where I live. So we pull over at a rest stop and get Noah and the car cleaned up...and wager whether we should resume our trip or turn around and go home. I also was feeling under the weather...sinus's is my guess and wouldn't have minded going home and going back to bed...but considering Noah seemed fine and I knew my sister would be disappointed if we didn't come so we decided to resume our trip...again! Then Joshua says he is hungry and Noah had thrown up his breakfast so instead of being close to being there we still have another hour or so of driving. So we pull over at McDonald's in Arkadelphia and let the kids get out of the car and get something to eat...by the time we got to Texarkana we had been on the road for 3.5 hours for a 2 hour trip...Below are some pics of the trip and a video of the boys playing in the back yard.

The rest stop...


Joshua, Noah and Austin playing in the backyard


Mom showing Jennifer how to make a border around the luvie she is trying to make...

Funguns aren't what they used to be

So we like to go to Sam's and buy in bulk and the boys like Funguns...except what you get in the box isn't what it used to be....though it does strangely resemble Joshua...

Outside Fun

So our backyard as a pretty good incline and the kids like to get in their dump truck or anything with wheels that they can fit in and ride down the hill. Well my neighbor has a garden wagon that the kids will sit on and ride down the hill on....I have been known to do this a few times myself...and here is Maranda my 14 year old neighbor....we have the same birthday....riding down the hill with my younger two boys and our BF's kiddos that I watch during the week, Harmony and Seth. It is hard enough to ride on it with two people but she had 4 kids on there with her. Also, there are some photos of Jessie playing football with our other neighbor TJ.

Maranda trying to get everyone situated

Them going down hill...

The end of the ride...

Noah deciding to push instead of ride...he is wearing Maranda's head band on his head...who knows why...

Another pic of Noah with a shoe and hat change

Maranda and Seth

Jessie getting ready to throw the ball

TJ catching the football

Martin's take over at Traveler's Game

So my brother in law Ryan hooked the family up with some Traveler Game tickets tonight that his company has seats for right there in front of 1st base. Andy's Grandma Martin, his teenage cousins Reed and Grant, and his Uncle Roger and Aunt Pam came to Cabot Monday from Ohio to visit Andy's parents and siblings here. So we all went to the game and it turned out to be a family event. They have a between inning activity where someone in the crowd participates. So my nephew Bayliss raced the Mascot from 1st base to 3rd base and of course won at the end of the 1st inning. Then his dad Tony had to catch balls with a big net that they used a sling shot to send flying through the air at the end of the 2nd inning and he caught 2/3 which was REALLY good because he recently had knee surgery this month and he had to hop, skip, and a jump to catch the 2 he caught and almost got the 3rd one. Then Reed and Grant had to dress up in banana customes at the end of the 3rd inning to race each other from 3rd base, around home and on to 1st base for the win and Reed who is the youngest gave his older brother a run for the money...he almost beat him. Then they had some guy who we didn't know....had to guess what the name of the song was at the end of the 4th inning. So on the end 5th inning Andy had to toss 3 bean bags through a board with a hole in it that was standing up. If he made it through the 1st hole he would get a year supply of Moe's Burritos, if on the 2nd time which is closer he made it he would get catering from Moe's for 15 people, if on the 3rd try he made it he would get a free Moe's burrito.....he got a free Moe's burrito....but was so close to getting one of the other prizes...apparently nobody has made it yet either....now I may have my innings mixed up on who went on which inning but you get the idea...I forgot my camera but hopefully I can get some pictures from my in laws. Also, during the Anthem Andy who was standing holding Noah got on the big screen and later Joshua got a major close up of his blue face from eating cotton candy...the camera man was standing there pointing the camera at him and I said, "Don't get a picture of me sweetpea it better be all him"....and it was....which was good for the camera man...so Jessie and I didn't get any screen action or game action though we could have if we wanted to but we didn't....maybe next time...

My Birthday Weekend Sunday

Sunday morning it started raining around 6am but it let up enough for Andy to make us some yummy breakfast burritos....he cooked for me all weekend....so sweet....When we arrived Saturday it was pretty crowded and people where in rafts, kayaks, and canoes all over the river. But since it was cool outside and misting/sprinkling nobody but us went on the 8 mile canoe trip at 9am. Which was nice because we only saw people fishing and a raft full of people from another campsite. It would have been nice if the sun was out and it was a little hotter but it was better having more privacy and it was like we had the whole river to ourselves. So after our canoe trip we packed our stuff and on the way out grabbed so Mexican food from an all you can eat buffet...and Andy made sure he ate his $8 worth...:-) And then we headed to Cabot to pick up our kiddos who at this time were at Andy's parents house...our parents are so great about watching our kids for us overnight and we don't get to do that very often except our parents have watched them 2 weekends in a row....not typical but we are very thankful for them we couldn't ask for better parents and grandparents to our boys. I don't have any pictures of our canoe trip because if we tipped over (which we didn't :-)) then I didn't want to ruin our lose my camera but we saw 4 deer...1 a baby...an otter, baby ducks, and turtles. It is so beautiful up there and especially around the river. We hope we can take the boys for the first time before it gets to cold...we have the camping fever now. Below are pictures we took of the boys wearing a squishy ball that had busted and they put it on their heads Sunday night after we got home.

Jessie being silly...

Joshua being sweet...

Noahness....his nickname

My Birthday Weekend Saturday

So on Friday night when we were driving to Gaucho's I mentioned to Andy that I had 2 guesses on what he had planned and he told me to tell him but he wasn't going to tell me if I was right or wrong. So I told him that I thought at first he was going to take me to Branson and then go eat at Lambert's but when he said we would probably spend around $200 I thought we are going camping/canoeing instead....after I told him this he was really quiet and said that I had guessed it and I said which one and he said both...he was going to take me camping at the Spring River and we go canoeing Saturday afternoon and then get up after breakfast on Sunday and go shopping in Branson and then go eat at Lambert's before we headed home....so I was excited...(side note: we used to go camping a lot when we where dating but hadn't gone in 5 years and I really enjoy it and love to canoe/kayak.) So after dinner and putt putt we went home and got up early Saturday morning so we could get our camping stuff together which he bought me a new, big tent and a battery powered ceiling fan that has a light on it that you hang from your tent...so cool I didn't even know they made anything like that and I am big on sleeping with the fan on at night. So on the way to the Spring River we stopped at Walmart in Cabot and the meat market. And when we were fixing to get back on the road I mentioned, "Don't we head toward Searcy to get to the Spring River?" He said no that we needed to head toward Harrison so I said Okay but was thinking that it has been 5 years but I thought we drove on the highway for a bit before it was more back roads, which going to Harrison is all back roads...so we get to Harrison 2 1/2 hours later and stop to eat and I ask him how much farther so he gets his iphone out and looks it up and from the look on his face it wasn't good. We were on the other side of north Arkansas then were we needed to be so it was another 2 hours to get to the Spring River. He didn't look it up before we left and bless his heart he really thought that Branson and the Spring River where close to each other and we could do both. Since, we had our camping stuff packed and food in the cooler, we decided to go ahead and go to the Spring River so we could get setup before dark and cook the steaks he bought for us....even though we were only 30 minutes or more from Branson. So we got to the Spring River around 3:45 and got our campsite set up and Andy made dinner for us and we sat by the campfire and watched the river and had some s'mores! :-) Below are pictures of our trip from Harrison to Mammoth Springs and of our campsite...

This is the view of our drive from Harrison to Mammoth Springs it was sooooooo pretty!

Here is a closer view...

A view of our campsite...

Andy making our dinner....and it was SOOOO good...

A bad picture of me....I think I was eating my yummy steak and potatos...

Our little campfire...



It sprinkled some and later there was a fog over the river...

My Birthday Weekend Friday Night

So in my "Surprise" post I mentioned Andy had plans for me this weekend for my birthday. He had called me back later that day and told me to not try and figure out what we where doing and said that he would pack me...so I knew we would be going on an overnight trip. So we had plans to go to dinner at Gaucho's with our friends Josh and April who recently moved here from OKC for their son Seth's 1 year b-day and my b-day on Friday night. And all of our parents joined us along with our kids and a friend of Josh's family Katie...my son Jessie wasn't able to come with us. Andy also told me that he had plans for me after we had dinner with our family and friends and that he had arranged for our kids to go home with my mom. Below are pictures of Friday night and Gaucho's is awesome...if you don't know, it has 5 different kinds of meats cooked 13-15 different ways....not sure on that number and they walk around with meat on the skewers and slice off as much meat as you want and they keep coming until you flip your flag from green to red....

So here is Josh helping Seth open his present since Seth was more interested in the rib bone he was gnawing on...

He got a little thomas the train toy and that is April's mom talking to him...

This is everyone at the table...

Andy and I smiling but ready to pop we ate so much...

Josh and April

We couldn't get Noah to smile he kept making funny faces...

We finally got him to smile...

My mom with Joshua who is chewing on 1 of the 5 different meats available...

Andy's parents...

Josh's parents with his daughter Harmony who wasn't up to getting her picture taking :-)

Andy's plans for after dinner where to take me to Cold Stone for some ice cream...which we didn't do I was to full and Josh and April and brought cheesecake and chocolate cake to the restaurant. So his next plan was to take me putt putt golfing so this is Andy's pic from there my picture didn't turn out so good :-(

Surprise

So I just called Andy to see if he had plans for tonight...that I was thinking of grilling hamburgers/hot dogs tonight and inviting our friends Josh and April to come eat and he said that was fine that he didn't have any plans. So he asked me if I have plans for this weekend and I said, "no" and he said, "YOU DO NOW." And I said, "I DO!!!!.....oh I do have to pick Jessie up from his dad's Saturday" and he said, "No you don't I already took care of it." I said, "YOU DID!" I would like to add that Sunday is my 28th birthday....so when Andy says that I have plans this weekend well all I can say is that I am stoked...I don't care what his plans are....I am just ecstatic that he has taking time to plan something!....especially since he is SOOOOOOOO busy at work.

My Weekend in Alma

So this weekend Andy and I were going to celebrate our 5th anniversary and our parents had offered to watch the kids for us. But the closer we got to the weekend we realized that Andy was going to have to work all weekend....his busiest time at work is during the summer when all the teachers and students are out....and it is crunch time right now trying to get everything ready for when everybody comes back. So since he wasn't able to do anything this weekend we decided we would have date night Friday night and I would go to Alma and stay with my BF Monica. For those of you who don't know we lived in Alma from 2004-2007. And I LOVED living there and had a hard time moving when Andy got a job offer here. So I went and visited with Monica and we ate...visited...did some shopping and then we ate and visited some more and went to our favorite restaurant in Alma....La Fiesta. :-) I went to church at Living Word River Valley where we went when we lived here and it was great getting to see our pastors and our friends from when we lived in Alma and seeing how big all the kiddos where getting....if I remember right 5 of us at the church where pregnant at the same time and now those babies are 2 or fixing to turn 2. I also drove by my old house and all I can do is shake my head...see below for the pictures and you can click on them to see it better....except for the 1st pic...



This is what our house looked like before we sold it. It sits on 2.5 acres that has a creek that runs through it. It was a year old when we bought it and has 5 bedrooms/2 baths and around 1950 sq ft. It also has a koa pond with a water fall by the front door.

This is what the house looks like now....and according to reliable sources they let the grass grow a foot before they cut it and have NEVER weeded....so sad...I loved that house

This is a close up of the landscaping...it doesn't look like they ever pulled the weeds out of the flower bed....their used to be flowers in there somewhere...Also they had a bad hail storm so they replaced the roof which doesn't look bad I really never liked the green roof but it doesn't match the green shutters and door...

The apparently don't own a weed eater either and the tree in the back split and it has probably been laying there for months...the storm happened in the early spring.

This is the swing set Andy designed and built for the boys and you can see how grown up the grass is all around it...such a shame

Here is a picture of Monica and I...we won't discuss how many pics we took or the different positions or heights her daughter Sophia had to be in to take the pic or the different sitting/standing arrangements we were in to hid...I mean to get a close up of our beautiful smiling faces....:-)

Lunch with Grandma

On Friday the boys and I went to Cabot to have lunch with my Grandma along with my mom, my aunts and cousins at Burger King. Then we went to Grandma's house where we let the kids play together and the adults played Mexican Train Dominoes. My family loves to play games and we can be pretty competitive, that having been said. My grandma who doesn't "cheat", because cheating is done intentionally, kept forgetting where she could play her dominoes. And she is really good a playing regular dominoes but doesn't play Mexican Train Dominoes. So I laid down my domino to start my train and I don't recall that I played it where the trash train was but maybe I did.....but all I know is I left the table to change Noah's dirty diaper and "someone" played a double 10 on my train. Which lead to everyone else playing on my train so when I got back to the table I no longer had "my" train because it was turned into the "trash" train....and I had a KILLER hand too :-(....but I won the next round so it kinda made up for it :-) We had a good time though and I always enjoy spending time with my family.