Our latest trip to the Ozark foothills

Here's a firt. We went to our vacation home in Cherokee Village, AR and stayed the entire time in it! We didn't have to take advantage of my brother's place while we are working on ours. Another first is we had a guest! Alyssa invited her friend, Haley, to spend the time with us. Everyday I tried to have something for the girls to do. On Sunday we stopped at the falls in the city center of Cherokee Village. Not a lot of water falling right now, but the girls enjoyed checking it out.

Everywere Alyssa goes she can make a Titanic moment out of it.

After having fun taking pictures at the Falls we went to Griffin Park and the girls went on a horse ride. Haley's horse's name was Hiram and Alyssa's was No-Ears.

After a ride of abour 40 minutes, the girls were back. They had some stories about the horses being horses that I won't discuss here, but a typical complaint they expressed was sore butts. Alyssa was also jealous of the name of the horse in back of her being Ozzy. Apparently that's really cool.

Monday we went to downtown Hardy (try to control your laughing at calling it "downtown") and did a little shopping. Alyssa had been looking for a "dream catcher" to match her bedroom in Arakansas. The last time we were there the Native American shop was closed. This time it was open so we stopped in. The door greeter wasn't doing her job that day, so we had to go to her. Cheyenne is a little sweetie, just a little slow.

Tuesday we went to a natural wonder called Grand Gulf State Park in Mossouri. It's nickname is the Little Grand Canyon. I don't think I'd go that far, but it was fun to explore. To the bottom of the crevice is 70'. To get there you have to take 119 steps. There was a nice breeze blowing at the top, but nothing at the bottom. That equals HOT. No complaining by Alyssa - yeah right. She is NOT on my list of traveling partners. Nope, doesn't even make the list.

We did make it to the bottom, but we didn't stay long.

I think it might have been getting to be a long day. I had to stop the girls from throwing Don over the edge.

After the Grand Canyon we went to Mammouth Springs, AR. We went there last time we were in Arkansas, but thought Haley would enjoy seeing it.

A new tradition is to feed the ducks while we're there. That is the most important thing for Alyssa, actually. We had to plead with her to get her to go see the rest.

The spring has a couple of muskrat inhabitants. If you think of them as otters they are a lot more cute.

We got the flooring in! Huge in my book. Trying to sweep the OSB clean is next to impossible. Plus, it looks great. We are getting it that much closer to complete.

As you can see below, we also have a refrigerator now (way to the right in the pic)!!! No more daily runs to get ice for the cooler. I made and hung the curtains and got some decorations up on the walls. The chairs for the table were reupholstered in blue denim. Adds a little color and is more durable - definitly need durable.

Thursday we headed back. We stopped in St. Louis and went up into the Arch. Haley was never there. Just over a year ago we were there. Little did I know I would be passing the Arch SEVERAL times since then to our new place in Arkansas!

What did we see at the top of the Arch? The Cardinals stadium for one.

And the paddleboats and barges for another.

Hopefully everyone had fun. We got a lot of work done again,too. Our next trip is sceduled with Mom and Brian in November. The leaves will be coming down then and we'll be able to see more of the foothills. Then only a month later we'll be down at Christmas. Eric requested I post the pics from our lastest trip asap (preferably while we were down there) so here they are. We only went to one place that had free Wi-FI so I didn't post earlier. Thanks for looking, Jill

Wineless at a winery

The weather Saturday night was beautiful. We went to my brother Eric's and helped him pick up rocks with the the bonus of getting to drive the Skidsteer around! I think I did pretty well! After we went to Parallel 44 Winery for a free concert. It was a jazz band called "The Salernos". The sound system could have been a lot lounder, but what we could hear was very nice.

The winery set up a tent with a variety of wines for people to purchase.

The vineyards are gorgeous. Don and Eric took a self-guided tour.

And here are Don, Eric, Lys, Mom, and Aunt Kay enjoying the music.

Too bad it was the last concert of the summer. I would definely go again. Jill

And fun was had by all!

I have some really tallented nephews. On top of that, they are some real sweethearts. I was invited to their last baseball game of the season. A championship game, and they won! Couldn't happen to a nicer couple of guys!

I think Lys should spend more time working on her photography skills. She caught this picture of a hummingbird on our trumpet vine in the rain. Very cool. The vine is messy when it loses it blooms, but so worth it to see the hummingbirds and how happy the blooms look, even in the rain!

This past weekend we went to our place in Athelstane. We hadn't been there in months. Rolling up to the camper we saw what a jungle it had become.

Pay-up time . . . . .

Saturday we had an AWESOME time on the 4-wheelers. We stopped at McClintock Park for a breather.

Sine we had boots on, Don and Lys checked out the river.

Lys is also infamous for her ability to catch all manner of wildlife. We had seen some small schools of fish while we were walking along the bank which must have given her the idea to catch something. She eventually cornered this little guy. Don't worry, no crayfish were harmed in the catching of this river life. She let him go a little bit later.

On the road again . . . .

This morning Don and Lys went fishing. It was apparently a successful venture. They count who catches the most fish. Doesn't matter how big the fish is. Just has to be a fish. Lys won.

Very fun weekend. Only two weeks till we're off to Arkansas! In between we have Alyssa's birthday party and going to Parallel 44 for a free concert with my brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Michele. Jill