Whew long but fun day!!

Ok can I just say that Arkansas is HOT??? Holy cow!!! I thought Kansas was bad but wow, the humidity here today was NUTS!!!!

I didn't blog last night so I'll recap yesterday!! My dad got here and we went to eat at a local little ma and pa restaurant. Yum, it was really good! Then we headed to where he lives which is in Ozark Acres (http://www.ozarkacres-living.com/menu/menu.html). There is a really nice lake there so we stopped at several places to check it out. Then we went to my dad's house and it is SO perfect for him and his doggie, Scarlett. We gave him his birthday present early, it was a bamboo windchime. I think he really liked it!! After we visited for awhile, we went over to my uncles house. It was good to see him and my cousin, it had been many years since I had seen them!! We went back to the hotel and Miranda wanted to swim for awhile, poor Kyler just sat on the side since he couldn't get in with his leg.

This morning the kids and I wandered through Old Hardy (http://www.oldhardytown.net/content/index.html) for just a little bit, the stores weren't open yet. My dad came to pick us up about 10am and we headed to Mountain View (75 miles away) to Blanchard Springs Cavern (http://www.blanchardcavetours.com/). The drive was about 2 hrs because it was through twisty turning roads, but it was a really pretty drive! We decided to do the shortest of the tours which was the Dripstone Trail. It's the first level of the cave. It was so incredible and pretty. Of course we had to hit the gift shop. Miranda got a stuffed animal and Kyler got a wooden walking stick.

After that we headed to the Ozark Folk Center (http://www.ozarkfolkcenter.com/) and wandered in and out of the little shops/exhibits. The kids made some candles, well they got to dip white candles into different colors to make them unique. They turned out really pretty! I bought a candle, Sweet Pea Sandlewood....ohhhh it smells SOOO good!! I can't wait to get home to burn it!

We got back to the hotel about 6ish so the kids hit the pool. I had gotten some waterproof bandaids for Kyler's leg so he was able to enjoy it for a little bit. After they swam we walked over to a BBQ place for some food. Now both kids are showered and almost passed out and it's only 9:30! HAHA! I love wearing them out!!! Kyler has been getting around really well on his leg, I am so glad he is able to. I was worried about him but sheesh, no need to be!!!

Tomorrow we are going to try to hit the shops in Old Hardy again to see what there is to spend more money on LOL then we are going to head to Mammoth Springs Park (http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/mammothspring/).

Of course I have taken a TON of pictures along the way and will continue to do so but I don't have a way to download them to my laptop so (LISA :P ) you'll have to wait until I get home to see them!!

Oh and to answer your question on the last post Lisa, yes I am addicted to blogging! I brought my laptop on the trip for the evenings after the kiddos are crashed out, it gives me time to blog as well check email, surf, whatever else!!

Happy Friday to everyone!!!!

We Made it to Arkansas!!

Whew, long drive but really pretty. Poor Kyler got sick this morning from taking his meds on an empty stomach so we had to make a pit stop for some pepto. He slept most of the trip after that which was probably for the best. We made it in about 6 hours due to the stops we were making.

We got all checked in and are waiting for my daddy to get here!! We are going to go get some food and check out the cute little town of Hardy, Arkansas!!

More to come :)

A Morning in the ER

*WARNING IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH DO NOT LOOK AT THE PICTURES*

hehe ok now that I have made my disclosure...I took poor Kyler to the ER this morning. Since school has been out, he has been going to strength training that the highschool offers. It's an hour a day that middle school age kids can work out with the highschool football coaches. It's a pretty cool deal and he loves it. Today he was doing the agility deal where they stand and then jump onto a box. I guess he didn't make the jump fully and well he missed or slipped and hit his shin on it. The coach called me about 8:45am and I could tell by his voice it wasn't good so I rushed up to get him. Kyler walked out with the coach and just got right into the car. The coach told me it was pretty deep and that I should go to the ER so we headed right over there. He was in so much pain, I could just see it. They got him in a room and when they took the bandage the coach put on, I about passed out. It was about a two inch gash down to the bone. The doc moved the skin and it confirmed that was bone I was seeing. They gave him a Loritab and put the numbing gel all in and around the wound and we had to wait about 30 min for that to work. When they came back to do the stitches, he could still feel everything so they had to give him shots to numb it. I stood there holding both his hands as he squeezed so hard, screamed in pain, and had tears running down his face. I felt SO horrible but assured him it would be over soon. He ended up having to get inside and outside stitches. The doctor was concerned as he was doing the stitches because he said it looked like he has shaved the bone too during the impact so after the stitches he went and got an x-ray. Sure enough, there was a little bit of the bone shaved off. He was sent home with antibiotics and Loritab. He's been doing really good today walking around, of course he's pretty hopped up on the drugs LOL I hope he does ok tomorrow. This kind of changes our plans for vacation as we will no longer be taking a raft trip down the Spring River. There is no way I am going to risk getting that infected. We will still do the cave tour and probably go to Mamouth Springs and do other cool stuff. Just as long as my baby boy is ok...poor kiddo.

Ok here are the graphic pictures of before and after the stitches. Remember...you have been warned!!!

Messin Around

So I was messing around online and found a website to make any photo look like one of those Andy Warhol pictures so here's mine!!

Here's the website as well -

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/warholizer.php

Another Holiday Weekend Gone By

What a nice long weekend...

Friday the kids and I hit the pool almost ALL day long...it was tiring LOL Both kids had gone to see the local fireworks display at the lake the night before so I didn't have TOO much guilt not spending a ton of money to basically burn away so instead we went to the drive in with Randy and his kids. We saw Get Smart and started to watch The Hulk but slowly the kids were falling asleep so we decided to leave.

Saturday the kids and I hit the mall and did some unnecessary shopping which is always fun right?? Then both kids had friends spend the night and wow, we had fun. The boys made the girls dress up in their clothes and then the girls made the boys dress in skirts. I haven't laughed that hard in so long!!!

Today we hit the pool again, I got plenty of sun this weekend! That's ok, I won't be able to go to the pool for the next two weekends so it was worth it.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!!!!

A Year of My House

I saw a picture somewhere where the owner of a house took the same picture during each season...I thought it was a cool idea so here is my shot at it!!!

Fall October 2007

Winter January 2008

Spring April 2008

Summer July 2008