A Good Washing

Claire had an absolute blast washing her crayons in her sink.

She just had to show Dad, too!

Ring Around the Rosies

After having a binding accident with one of my piano books, Claire no longer gets to use my music books when she plays the piano. {The accident involved her trying to turn the page, the book falling off the piano, and the back cover getting completely ripped off of the book. To her credit, though, it was on its last few strings of binding holding it together!} So she brings her own books to the piano now. In this particular instance, she was both playing and singing Ring Around the Rosies. Cute.

She is certainly a little musical girl! I love it!

Lucky 7

As of today, Jordan and I have been married 7 years!

What a blessing it is for us to have each other! The past 7 years have been incredible, and I can't wait to see what this year brings us, too! I love every moment I get to spend with you! I love you!

We were able to go on a date over the weekend, and my family took care of Claire. (We were in Dallas all last week). We ate dinner at Four Winds Steakhouse near Wills Point, which is well east of Dallas. The scenery was beautiful, and the food was fantastic - even down to the IBC root beer float!

All the Rest!

We had a lot of other fun times in Arkansas, too. {The events and pictures in this post are in no particular order}.

While Jordan, Steve, and I were gone fishing, everyone else went to the Crater of Diamonds State Park to look for some diamonds! The kids had a grand ol' time playing in the dirt!

It looks like the adults were having a good time, too!

One day we went to Hot Springs to take a bath. I'm glad we turned Steve into a believer!

Stephen and Evan

There was a car show right at the Swaha Lodge one day. So in between turns on the boat, Mel, Liz, and I walked around and looked at some hot rides!

Chris and Rebecca were only able to stay for the weekend. I was sorry to see them go so soon, but  I'm glad they were able to come for a couple of days!

We celebrated Liz's birthday with chocolate cupcakes and homemade ice cream. Yum!

Here's this picture again - simply because I love it! 

The little ones enjoyed playing ring-around-the-rosie. 

It looks like Claire is probably singing "ashes" right now!

Ryan is definitely an expert at falling down in a very cool way. - He likes to jump up and kick his feet out before he falls down! Such a boy! :-)

The ball was nice to have, too. It kept the kids entertained at times.

Kyle with Uncle Bando

Claire LOVES Grandpa! 

And here's the view from our cabin the final night we were there. Goodnight, Lake Greeson. Goodnight, Swaha House. Thanks for being so good to us! 

Family Photos

We made it a point to get some individual family photos while we were in Arkansas.

I like this one! 

 Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandkids. I'm sure this is just heaven for them!

DeGray Lake Resort State Park

We took a day trip to DeGray Lake Resort State Park. The guys left first in order to go golfing. Sadly, a road they needed to take was closed due to a school bus accident, so they took a detour. On that detour, they hit a deer. Thankfully, they were all fine. (-All the guys; not the deer). But the car was damaged a bit.

The girls and the kids came later, and the kids played on a playground. Ryan posed for me on the slide, so I just had to take a picture!

Claire, however, couldn't be bothered to look at me for a picture; she had much better things to do!

Kyle looks like he's ready for a roller coaster!

And McKinley had fun, too!

We met up with the guys for lunch and then headed back to the Swaha House.

Gone Fishin'

I love fishing! I absolutely love it! So when I found out there was a fishing guide service available, I asked around and found some others who also wanted to go fishing. Steve, Jordan, and I went, (we missed you, Stephen!) and the others were kind enough to take care of Claire so Jordan and I could both go fishing. Fantastic!

We went with Action Fishing Trips, and Carlos was our guide. His grandson was on the boat, too, and he provided us with some amusing entertainment and conversation!

All geared up and ready to go!

I know some people's idea of the best day includes lounging out at the beach, the sun shining down on you, with sand between your toes. That's great for them. For me, I often prefer this: I'm relaxing on a boat on a pristine lake, I've got tennis shoes on, and I've got a fishing pole on each side of me. Now that's perfect. 

Just look at this beautiful lake! The Army Corps of Engineers maintains it, so individuals are not allowed to buy land that goes right up to the water. According to Carlos, that's why the lake is so clean.

With our guide's expertise, experience, (and expensive equipment), we started catching those fish!

I certainly caught more than my fair share, according to Steve and Jordan. - But I was manning two fishing poles, while they had just one each. 

It took Jordan a while to catch a fish. I guess the fish just didn't like his bait because they repeatedly passed it up and went for ours instead. And when he finally did catch a fish, he took the hook out of it, and then the fish jumped back into the water. Oops! We gave him a hard time about that! (And so did Carlos's grandson!) But Jordan finally started catching some, and no more fish jumped out of his hands!

We also saw a bald eagle while we were out fishing. We reeled in our lines and went a bit closer to it. When we got close enough, according to the eagle, it flew away. It was magnificent. I did my best with the camera, but it was difficult to get a good shot. Here are the best ones.

And then back to fishing! After half a day fishing, we had PLENTY!

Our catch! I think we have 35 here!

I caught some big ones!

Carlos filleted all our fish for us. Right now they're in our freezer. We need to have a fish fry soon! 

We had a great time fishing!