Rescue on Beaver Lake

Second rescue in as many weeks....

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Outback

I took three pictures and Phillip had his eyes closed in all of them.. LOL!  The poor people in the booth behind us were probably blinded from the flash - Miranda said she was seeing spots 10 minutes later.  We ate at Outback in Hot Springs with Jayden on Thursday night and back again (this time in Rogers) tonight - we love Outback!
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Housepainting

Phillips has been painting the house since NOVEMBER!  He is making progress....

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Vacation No. 2

We left for Florida on Saturday June 19th.  We picked up Mom in Shreveport a little later than planned....Phillip cut himself with his pocket knife right as we were getting ready to leave Arkadelphia.  This was not a minor cut...blood splatter reached over 5 feet high on the bathroom wall!  He had to have 6 stitches at Baptist Medical Center here in town.  They did a fantastic job - it healed very nicely.  We took I-49 south from Shreveport to I-10.  This is the first time that we've gone this route and it was great.  Not much traffic on 49 and interstate the entire way.  We spent the night in Moss Point, MS.  Sunday we hit the road early and we were in Perdido Key before lunch.  We had a great week hanging out at the Condo with the Pitts and Burris crew, as well as the other families.  Phillip, Mim and I stayed at a hotel in Gulf Shores, but hung out at the condo with the fam all day.  Some pictures below:

This last picture shows the boom that was out in the bay on the west side of Perdido Key.

Although oil was coming on shore to the east and to the west of us, we had no problems...the weather, beach and water were all beautiful.  Phillip, Mim and I headed out on Thursday morning early and we had Mim home by 4:00.  A fun time was had by all....

WOW!

The fireworks on Beaver Lake were awesome!  The people that live around the lake really get into the 4th of July.  Usually we're sitting on our deck and catching glimpses of the fireworks all around us.  This year, however, we took the boat out on the lake just down from our house.  One of the homeowners (or maybe a group of homeowners) put on an unbelievable show.  We've been to the fireworks displays at Lake DeGray, but this was better than any of those.  But to make it even better, several homeowners had smaller displays going on so we had fireworks all around us.  Phillip and I had taken a cooler with some drinks and some watermelon.  It was a beautiful, breezy and cool evening.  The displays started at 8:20 and continued non-stop until almost 10!  A 4th we won't soon forget...

Catching up...

I'm still so far behind on my blogging - maybe next week I can catch up - I've got pictures to post from the beach.  But, this week we're at the lake  and I just haven't been in the mood to blog.  They boys spent the night with us on Wednesday night and we packed a lot of fun into a short period of time.
We stayed outside until 10:15 on Wednesday night - which is extremely late for the boys!  The world is a different place after dark and they boys seemed to enjoy the "after dark fun."  We were down by the water and watched the sun set behind the mountains and the stars come out.  Mr John (our next door neighbor from Australia) was out for an evening swim and the boys got to visit with him.  Jayden said that he was talking Australian to him :).  Fireflies were everywhere and Evan was fascinated.  (on Thursday morning he kept asking "where the fireflies go???")  I bought these little poppers and they were a big hit.  You throw them on the ground and they pop - and in the dark you can see a little spark. 
Even though we were outside late (the boys are usually in bed by 8), we couldn't skip the baths :)  I put Evan in the tub and couldn't believe how black his little feet were...its been a long time since I've seen such dirty little feet...a sure sign summertime!

On Thursday we packed up the boat and went fishing and swimming and then headed to the lakeside park to play and cook hot dogs.  Evan was the only one to catch a fish (again), but we all had a good time!

Lazy days of summer...

I have been so lazy about blogging lately...however, I have finally posted pictures on vacation and Kyler's graduation.  Jayden, Kyler and Evan spent the day with us yesterday while their parents worked.  It was a great summer day.  Phillip and the boys put up the ping-pong table and the boys learned the basics.  In fact, they claim that they beat Pop on that last game.  We swam in the lake here at the house and then took the boat out and did a little fishing.  With three boys fishing, I stepped in and helped Pop keep all the hooks baited.  Yes, I actually put a minnow on a hook (a first for me)!  After we got back to the house, we sat on the shore throwing rocks into the water.  We had watermellon and fresh pineapple on the deck and by the time Melissa got here, they were sticky and stinky from head to toe, and not ready to go home.  But they couldn't spend the night because Phillip and I had to get up at 5:00 this morning to get to the Wal Mart Shareholder's meeting. 

This was our first time to attend the shareholder's meeting  and it was so much fun.  At 6:15 AM we were rocking to a local 70's rock-n-roll band.  Over the next four hours we were entertained by Jamie Foxx, Mary J Blige, Enriche Iglesias, the latest winner of American Idol (Lee DeWyze), Mariah Carey and Josh Groban, with each artist performing two songs.  It was a meeting, so some business was mixed in, but I also enjoyed that part.  More than 16,000 people from all over the world were in attendance.  It's been kinda crazy all week up here in NWA with all of the people in town for the meeting.