Crystal Bridges Art Museum

Great!  I really enjoyed our outing to Crystal Bridges.  I could not believe that there is no admission fee! Of course pictures from my phone cannot do it justice, but this will give you an idea of some of the different exhibits.




This artist self-sculpture was amazing...so realistic, but larger than life.  It even had real hair (wiskers and on his head).

The picture below is by Jackson Pollock...remember the scene in "All I want for Christmas" when they are in the gallery?  So funny that I remember the artist's name:




This painting was a BUNCH of dots:

The exhibit included an original  Norman Rockwell - the Rosie the Riviter painting.  I have seen that picture a hundred times, but it was different seeing the original!

This is a picture down one of the hallways:

The building is very modern and beautiful.  We will definitely go back!  The grounds are not totally finished yet and I know they will be beautiful.  The building includes a restaurant and Phillip and I both enjoyed our meal.  Wear good walking shoes and enjoy all the trails (or bring a bike).

Blu

Isn't he cute?

Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless

Mt. Magazine

Phillip and I left early this morning for Mt. Magazine. The weather is perfect for hiking...or whatever. This is my first time to visit the lodge. It is beautiful! I felt like I was in Colorado or Montana...the views were outstanding. We had lunch at the lodge and then went for a hike with Blu....

Christmas 2011

I have been a little off this year....didn't get my decorations up as early as I usually do....just wasn't as well prepared....maybe next year...

I had to work until December 16th.  We left LR around 11:30 am going to NWA.  I had picked up my car from the dealership (I thought a fairly minor warranty repair) on Thursday afternoon.  Phillip and I kept smelling something as we got in the car, but couldn't figure out what is was.  We stopped in Ozark to get a Dr. Pepper and found out.  I had oil all over the side of my car!  Calls to Onstar and the Dealership and a tow to a GMC dealer in Ft. Smith and we found out that they had not replaced a gasket correctly on  Thursday.  The car had lost 4 quarts of its 5.5 quarts! It took a little over an hour to complete the repairs.  This could have been a very aggravating afternoon, but thank goodness for smartphones and books on CD.  I sat calmly in the dealership listening to my book. :)

The rest of the weekend was spend enjoying time with the family...basketball game with Jayden, birthday party with Kyler, lunch with Miranda, Christmas shopping, dinner and the Nutcracker Ballet with my girls:

 relaxing at the lakehouse, and more Christmas shopping.  Jayden spent the night with us on Saturday night and spent the day with us on Sunday.  We headed back to Arkadelphia on Monday afternoon.  On Wednesday I went to visit Mim and Mike in Shreveport and Mim decided to come back with me.

Miranda arrived on Saturday, so we had a little quiet time with her before it got wild [meaning when the Pitts arrived :)].  It was very quiet Christmas morning without the Pitts around.  BUT...we had a new puppy to play with that Santa brought Phillip!  The Pitts arrived around 1:30 on Christmas day.  I did not get as many pictures as I usually do, but it was still a great holiday with my family!

Visiting NWA

Phillip and I love visiting NWA....we get to spend time with Miranda and the Pitts crew!  I took a vacation day so that I could attend grandparent's day with Kyler this year.  Since Jayden has moved up to another school, he  didn't have a grandparent's day :(

Notice that Kyler has on cowboy clothes (it was the theme for the day) including some really cool new cowboy boots!

 Look at the writing assignment completed by my little sweetie:

 And there was a gift:

 Kyler's Birthday is not until the 28th, but he had his party before the Christmas

break.  Blue is his favorite color and so I made his cupcakes blue:

Jayden/Basketball

Football season is over for Jayden and he is now playing basketball.

Pitts Family Photo shoot

A few of my favorites:

Fall

I love the fall...the cool mornings sipping coffee on the back deck, walks in the woods around the house, football and basketball with the Pitts boys, hiking....

View from the deck at the Lakehouse:

Hiking at Devil's Den State Park:

 Scenes around the Lakehouse:

 Hiking at Lake Catherine State Park

Trouble

My day is not going as planned....

---sent from my phone

EARTHQUAKE!

We felt the Oklahoma earthquake! It was at about 11 pm last nigh, centered just east of Oklahoma City and a magnitude 5.6.  The shaking woke me ....I didn't know what was happening!  I thought the tree next to the house was falling because I could hear tons of acorns falling on the roof. I jumped out of bed and ran in the other room...the whole time the house is shaking. It was so scarey...and lasted a lot longer than I though an earthquate would last! 

We had visitors this weekend!

Yes, it was our favorite little boys.  Their parents had a Halloween Party to attend, so Pop and I got to spend some time with the boys in Arkadelphia.  It was a little chilly this morning:

 After warming up we made homemade donuts - so we were all on a sugar high :)  We decided to do a little exploring around the property.

After all of that hiking we were exhausted, so we cooked hot dogs over the fire in the Chiminea and played Monopoly on the back deck so that we could enjoy the beautiful day

After our little break, we walked out to the garden spot to see if anything was left.  

Boy were we surprised! Tons of green tomatoes and WATERMELONS!  

Thanks to Mr. Bright, we had watermelons again this year.  I was so surprised that these small watermelons were so sweet!  Yummmmmy.....

Thanks Pittsboys....it was a great day!