Self-inflicted busy day

Busy days usually make us grumpy but this one was self-inflicted so it just made bedtime easy. We went for a bike ride at Lake Fayetteville. Noah is becoming quite the bike rider. He made it 3 miles without nary a complaint. He had to walk up the big hills and had one good scare going down another but overall he's rockin and rollin. When we were done, the climbing wall at Lewis and Clark was open so we gave it a go. Jenna rang the bell and Noah made it about halfway. His legs gave out on him so I figure next time we'll do the wall first. Throw in church, 2 workouts, choir, and Cam's nap and it was a pretty full day.

 

Cozy couple

Jenna has been tossing around the idea of flipping our living room for the past few months. I fought it as long as I could since it would require rewiring the TV. As much as we love the open area from our kitchen to the living room, it has never felt cozy and comfy and I suspected she wanted to change for changes sake.

So after we took down the Christmas tree we decided to give it a whirl and live with it a bit. Obviously the DirecTV isn't hooked up but we have plenty of stuff to watch with the AppleTV.

It's a little hit and miss. It feels much more cozy but it also has a different flow. We are closer to the TV the stairwell wall is a little funky shaped for it.  Then the 3rd night I walked in from the bedroom and caught Jenna reading next to the fireplace in the chair's new location. She looked right out of an LL Bean catalog-minus the clutter on the old TV stand. She looked just like my mental picture of what life would be like when I grew up. Kid's asleep in their beds while myself and a hottie read books by a fire.


I think we'll keep it like this and wiring be damned.

Happy Holidays 2011

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.  We were able to see almost every family member over the past week. We enjoyed Christmas morning at our house then we loaded up for the LA tour.  Last night I was going through the aftermath and was amazed how blessed our children are.  Not just from the gifts but from the large number of people who love them and want to contribute to their holiday. I'll put a gallery up soon.  Until then, I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year. Cheers.

p.s. If you want a little holiday game, click the picture above for a larger view and try to find Noah.

Watch Noah's Christmas Program Live

Noah is in the Crown Kids Singers at our church. It's kindergarten through 5th grade and they have been practicing hard since Thanksgiving.

I'll post pictures tomorrow but you can watch it live on Ustream. The link below is the channel which is currently offline but the program is during the 630 service at the Pontiac campus. It should be up at 630 or shortly before.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pontiac-church

OT Reunion-Part Deaux

Another year and another Arkansas-LSU matchup.  This year the stakes were the highest ever and unfortunately it didn't go our way.  Jenna and I actually headed down for the game.  After my college buddies from south Louisiana, Scott and Gino, came to Little Rock last year; Brad and I planned a reciprocal trip to cajunland this year. We even had another college friend, Javier, show up and I saw my high school buddy Kenneth for the first time in about a decade.  

Despite the outcome of the game we had a blast. It was Jenna's first trip to Baton Rouge and it was exactly what she pictured with the huge oaks and an ancient southern town. My personal favorite part was having my little southern girl with her Texarkana accent thinking my friends talk funny. We had another whole adventure of her trying to prounounce the streets to Scotty as we drove from Chimes.

Can't wait to get back to the kids and NW Arkansas but it was a great trip we'll always remember.

Buffalo River-Fall 2011

Buffalo River Photo Gallery

Ron and I have decided we want to get the boys involved in backpacking.  To get from point A to point B is going to require a lot of babysteps  We've done a lot of hiking the past few months. We've slowly been collecting gear when we find good sales.  Noah and I even spent the night a few times camping in the backyard (on the trampoline which is surprisingly comfortable). Our next step was to go camping but we missed that window this year.

Or so we thought. On Tuesday the weekend forecast stared to creep up to lows in the mid-50s.  So with a little trepidation from us and a lot of understanding from our wives we charted a course for the Buffalo River National Forest. We roughed it a little more than typical camping calls for but it was a learning experience for us and what works when camping with little kids.

Saturday was spent hiking to Hawksbill Crag and Sunday we explored the riverbed. We had rain come in Saturday night but the equipment held up to task. The boys had a blast and the dad's returned them safely to their mom's. Bring on the Spring!

Fresh air

On Sunday we had to take Finley back to her mom. We met in Clarksville and made the switch. Afterwards we stopped at McDonald's for lunch. There was a trail head we noticed so we decided to have an impromptu picnic. It really was a pretty day, so we decided to explore the paved part of the trail.

I'm sharing this story for two reasons. First I wanted to share this picture of Campbell with her 'walking stick' because it was pretty cute. Second was a pretty funny story crom the hime.

We are far from tree huggers but we've always told Noah not to kill bugs and such for no reason. All creatures great and small, yada yada yada. We leave animals in their habitat unless a spider is dumb enough to come in the house then it's survival of the fittest vs my size 13.

On this day, Noah yelled at his mom to stop in the middle of the walk. She complied and he rescued a grasshopper that somehow avoided the stroller and her feet. He was amazed the bug survived and he showed it to Campbell who dutifully bent over to inspect it. He shared with Cam his entire knowledge of grasshoppers and then told the little guy to "hop off the sidewalk before you get hurt." Right on cue Campbell swung her walking stick overhead with both hands and with truly amazing accuracy smashed the grasshopper into a dozen or so grisly pieces. It was the first time (I'm sure not the last) I had to restrain Noah from attacking his little sister.