After Thanksgiving...

Mim's favorite spot for viewing all of the chaos. It was cold this weekend :)

Warming by the fire...

Mim and Mike arrived on Friday afternoon before everyone. This gave us a chance to visit before everyone else arrived. Melissa and the boys came back on Friday evening without Kerry since he had to head back to Fayetteville. It was too late to do much, but we did get a chance to play Uno and read lots of books before bedtime! Saturday morning we were up early. The boys headed to Hardman's to buy lumber to build a treehouse. Jenny, Richard, Matthew and Molly came over around 10:30 and the kids all checked out the treehouse and then played along the creek. It was around 48 degrees and all three of the boys got wet! Afterwards they got sodas out of the soda machine and sat on the front porch. After lunch everybody was down for a nap (except for the cook - I had work to do). Miranda and James Alan arrived at 4:45 and dinner was served by 5:10. After dinner the boys asked Uncle James Alan to put together his roller coaster set (it has about a million pieces) so the rest of the evening was devoted to putting it together.

All of the boys have been fascinated with my pantry. I have a stool in there that they can climb up and get into stuff. If you can't find one of the boys, the first place to look is the pantry. Here is Evan - checking it out.

Saturday morning everyone was up early. Melissa, Miranda, Kila (Miranda's dog) and I went jogging. We plan on doing the 5K jingle bell run on Dec. 13th. I know that I will not be able to jog the entire way - I'm just going to try for 5 minute intervals. I wish I had the girls to jog with me all of the time - they push me to do more. I have not been jogging fast enough (I had no idea until I went with them) so I've got some work to do....

I didn't get near enough pictures again. It is always so chaotic that I forget. Remember when I used to get group pictures for every holiday? Girls - ya'll need to remind me to do better.

Thanksgiving Day

Phillip and I spent our first Thanksgiving by ourselves. We started out the day with a nice walk around our trail. It is so pretty with the leaves covering the ground - and we still have some color on the trees. When the leaves get like this Phillip wants to start raking, but I gave him his orders: NO raking until after this weekend! Phillip spent the afternoon working on his Bronco and I spent the afternoon working on a paper with a December 1 deadline. This is a paper on corporate sustainability that I'm doing with Nancy. It was an ambitious project to try to complete by this date, but it looks like we're going to make it.

I talked to Mother last night and she and Mike enjoyed spending turkey day with Aunt Janet and her family. She and Mike will be here this afternoon, Melissa and the boys a little later, and last (but certainly not least) Miranda, JA and all of their kids will arrive tomorrow. Kerry had to go back to Fayetteville (frydaddy duty) so we'll miss having Kerry here this year! I better go get busy - I've got lots of cooking to do!

The Pitts crew left today and it seems so quiet. I don't think they were ready to leave and I certainly wasn't ready for them to leave. Melissa had Jayden and Evan in the car and Kyler ran over to a small tree and wrapped his arms and legs around it and cried "I don't want to leave, I want to stay here!" Melissa had to peel him off the tree.

Little Evan is talking so much! I can't understand everything he says, but Melissa serves as his interpreter. He is a very early riser - up around 6:00 am. He and Melissa were in the basement this morning playing with the toys, so I joined them. He is so funny hamming it up when he's not having to compete with two older brothers.

I had to work yesterday (yes, it was terrible to be working when I knew they were at my house and I was missing out on all the fun!). Jayden waited up for me (9:30) so that we could go to Wal Mart to get Melissa's birthday present. Jayden and I were having a discussion about the benefits of being the oldest in the family, since we are both the oldest. I mentioned that Uncle Mike is my little brother and that he is 6 years younger than me. Jayden's response, "Then why do you look younger than him?" Sorry Mike....

They'll be back on Friday - I can't wait!

Weekend in NW Arkansas

It's been a busy weekend! Mim drove up Friday morning and as soon as she got to Arkadelphia we headed to LR because I had a meeting. She and Phillip went out to eat while I attended my meeting. Afterward Mim got the grand tour of the UALR COB building. We arrived in Fayetteville at 6:00 and picked up Jayden and Kyler. We went to Madagascar 2 - Escape to Africa. The boys loved it. They spent the night with us at the lakehouse and Saturday morning it was off to Wal Mart Corporate to meet up with Auntie M and attend the Toy Fair. WM vendors had their toys out for all of the kids to play with. They also had the REAL batmobile. I can't believe it, but I didn't get a single picture of the batmobile. Everyone had a good time!

The weekend was extended a little for Mim. She went out to leave on Monday morning and her car wouldn't start. This is the second time that her car has not started when she was leaving here. It's not that her car is a klunker - the Lord is watching over her and making her car break down while she is here and has Phillip to take care of it (added bonus was that it extended her visit)! Thanks to Phillip and Gildner Ford she is up and running and will head home tomorrow morning.

Sunday Hike

Phillip and I drove up to Albert Pike this morning and hiked up to "window rock" and then drove over to the Little Missouri Falls and hiked there. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed it while looking over the Little Missouri River. We have been to Albert Pike on several occassions over the years, so I am posting a couple of the older pictures.

This is me and Melissa(5 yrs 6 wks), January 1980 and the other picture is me, Phillip and Miranda at another time, (Melissa is taking the picture).

Halloween fun!

Aren't they just the cutest???

Leaves in Arkadelphia....

There is really no need to travel to view the changing colors this fall. This is the view from the house.

Fall is in the air....

A few more pictures from our hike on Yellow Rock Trail...

Beginnings

After seeing several of these blogs, I have decided that this might be an easy venue for keeping up with family and friends. I think that every day is a great adventure (hence the title) and I'd like to share that adventure with you.

This is picture from Devil's Den State Park. Phillip and I hiked the Yellow Rock Trail this past weekend. It was an absolutely perfect day for hiking and the leaves were at their peak!