St. Louis

Memorial Day weekend, we ran up to St. Louis for a one-nighter. The Rib America circuit begins that weekend and runs through Labor Day weekend in Reno (Sparks), Nevada. The teams that we used to work for are some of the original teams that began this whole circuit thing and since they were so close, we thought we would go see them. They have become very dear friends to us. So dear, in fact, I have ZERO photos of them. Grrr. Anyhooo... it was fabulous to see all of our "ribbing" buddies and Joel got to stay out and talk restaurant business with some of the older ones who have very successful restaurants back home. It's always good to pick the brains of those who have paved the way! The St. Louis Rib Show always has really great bands and the night we were there Brett Michaels played. He played for EVER and did great. I guess he appeared on American Idol before St. Louis, but this was one of his very first shows back after his brush with death. "People" Magazine was there covering the event. So that was cool. Once again, no photos.

We went to the arch:

And then to this awesome kids water park in the city garden. Forgive the abundance of photos. I went a little crazy and this is just a sampling. Enjoy!

"Hey Dad, what's this?"

"Whew! That was kind of cool!"

"Oh! Oh! There it is again!"

"Daddy, I don't need to hold your hand, I can go explore by myself. I"ll be fine."

"Wha....!!!!!" (mommy note: btw this is my favorite picture EVER. Going on the fireplace for SURE)

"Holy cow! What just happened?"

"OK. I got this. It comes out of there...."

"Dang it!!!"

"OK. I guess it's pretty funny. At least I'm not thirsty anymore!"

"This is SO Much fun mom and dad!"

The girls

My Mommy and Daddy!

We had a lot of fun in St. Louis even though we were there less than 24 hours :).

Blow Creek Cave and Falls

Another Adventure! We took Jaydia on another hike on Memorial Day. It was about a 6 mile round trip hike that was SO beautiful. We truly live in a gorgeous area.

The first "attraction" on the hike is Blow Creek Cave. It's a small cave that apparently goes way back in the mountain (we didn't venture that far). It has a natural spring flowing through it that comes out here and flows down the valley creating waterfalls below it.

This is Blow Creek Falls and there isn't a lot of water flowing right now because it is so hot and we haven't had a lot of rain. It's still really pretty! As we came from the spring to the falls, we saw some chickens, a horse, and eventually a really awesome wall tent, and then a lady standing outside! At first we were weirded out but then we started talking to her and she was SO nice! Her and her husband (they're probably in their mid-30's) decided to move out to the boonies and raise their 3 kids away from media and stuff like that. We've talked to WAY loonies before who make that choice, but these people were pretty "normal". They have a laptop that they watch movies on and they use solar power. Their water comes from the natural spring. They are really devout Christians, they dress normal and are really cool to be around! We ended up visiting with them for a long time and they invited us to come hang out on their property (apparently this was no longer public lands...oops) and stay the night, bring the youth group, whatever. How cool! And what a gorgeous place to live! Their front porch hangs out overlooking these falls, though you can't see it in the photo.

That family sent us to this overlook. It wasn't on our hiking map, but it was super cool and I'm so glad they directed us here. The view just went on and on and on...

That was the view to the right, this is to the left.

I L-O-V-E these flowers. They look like little fireworks!

Joel and I fell in love with Vibram's Five Fingers "shoes" about 3 years ago and haven't stopped wearing them since. We hike in them, run in them, everything (I'm pretty sure Joel's even preached in them. Ha!).  There are times when the bottoms of your feet do get poked or prodded, but you learn to maneuver better and it's SO much better for your body to walk/run/hike using the true muscles of your feet and ankles. Before I go on and on about them, look up barefoot running, or the book "born to run", or just do some prodding around on google about the topic. It'll blow your mind. Anyways, sometimes you do get leaves caught in-between your toes and it's kind of cute :)

Here's the family!

Eden Falls

Also a few weeks ago, we went on a hike with Joel's young adult class to a place only about 45 minutes from here called Eden Falls. It was incredible. Joel and I hiked to some pretty incredible places in Maui that I never thought could be rivaled, but this area was pretty close. There were probably 7 waterfalls from the base to the top, and at the very top there is a cave that you crawl, squeeze, and maneuver through until you end up in an open room that has a waterfall coming down inside of it. It is absolutely pitch black in there and the only way you can see where you're going is with a flashlight. It's breathtaking. It's also only 58 degrees in there so it feels like mega-air conditioning compared to back outside the cave!

This was Mia's first time in the hiking backpack. She loved it!

This is one of the first pools you come to. You climb up the ledge, and through the "cave", and out to more pools and waterfalls. This cave is open and they call it a natural bridge.

This is the view back out from the natural bridge. It's so pretty!

There are Joel (and Mia) and Jaydia (more on her later) maneuvering through the cave to the other side.

Here are the crazy kids climbing on the bluffs. Kortnie and Sadie got down carefully and safely, but as Braden and Brian were coming down the bluff they lost their footing (oddly at the same time) and came falling down the bluff face. Luckily, Ricky (at the bottom) stuck his arm out and caught them both up against the rock and let them down carefully. Holy Moly Ricky! You DA MAN!!!

Here are more falls that we came to. I like this photo. It's all artistic and pretty :)

The falls from the above picture with our group.

I love love LOVE this photo. Ahhhh! So sweet!

This is Jaydia. We started doing the Host Home thing again but now we are only taking girls (or at least that's the plan). She's 15 and a real sweet girl. She stayed with us for 5 weeks and got to go home Monday, which she was real excited about. Anyhoo... this is her in a hollow tree... We miss you dear!!!

It was a long day of hiking and adventure and one little girl was worn out!!! So cute...

Stay tuned, more adventures to come (but as always, please don't hold your breath. I'm so slow!)

Fishing!

Being that I grew up in Alaska, I truly do love to go fishing. It's so relaxing, the water is so peaceful, and all the cares of the world just go away when that line starts tugging... ahhhh.... love it. Anyways, although nothing on EARTH could ever top fishing in Alaska for REAL fish (you with me Alaskans!?), Arkansas is known for its fishing and there are tournaments held all the time all around us. Now, it's hard for me to get used to a 20 inch fishing being huge, BUT... I'm working on it.

All that being said, we haven't gotten out and fished really since we've lived here. I think Joel threw a line in the water a few times from our lake boat, but I don't remember him catching anything over a few inches. SO, a few weeks ago Joel surprised me with a guided fishing trip on the White River. We are good friends with the guide and it was a fabulous day. It was real foggy in the morning and almost chilly, though by noon I had a ridiculous sunburn that I'm still peeling from.

Joel caught the first few fish of the day, but I came back strong and started just bringing 'em in. I caught the first Brown Trout of the day and it was pretty decent at 19.5 inches. Once again, they tell me that's good :). Well, after my run of luck, the luck went back to Joel and he caught several more towards the end of our trip, including a nice Brown also (not as nice as mine though, tee hee!).

 

Thank you Babe for such a great day on the river! I had so much fun!!!!
P.S. I'll let you catch the big one next time :)

Wedding

Joel was asked to officiate another wedding, this one was for a beautiful young couple, Lance and Trista. They had a very fun wedding outdoors. It was H-O-T though, and I felt terrible for the guys in black suits. But it went really well and I believe they are off to a good, God-centered marriage.

Mia's Birthday

Well, our little girl turned 1 May 15th. Wow. What a crazy year. It has gone by very fast, but at the same time I can't remember life without this little creature that only showed up a year ago. She gets to be more and more fun every day. Ashley Myers once told me that every stage will be your favorite stage and you'll think that nothing could ever top that stage - until the next day :) She's so right. Anyways, enough sentiment... here's the birthday party!

I didn't want to use up any of the REALLY cool birthday theme ideas on her first birthday where she really doesn't "get it"... so since she's into bubbles I thought I'd do a bubbles theme, which kind of led to a rubber ducky theme. So here's the cake:

Well, Joel didn't exactly ask what I was planning to do for Mia's birthday, so when his mom asked if I had a theme, he said "no". SO...she showed up with a whole theme set up for Madagascar, complete with a 4.5 foot tall giraffe pinata. Whoa. So at the party there was a bubbles and rubber ducky area with a kids pool full of all sorts of different rubber duckies for the kids to play with (or chew on), and then a Madagascar area. Classic... :) If it wasn't totally random, it wouldn't be our family, right?!?

Anyooo, here are some other photos from her party:

Mia hitting her ginormous pinata!

Then after the party we went home to open gifts. I swear Joel's mom bought all of WalMart. I had to pack up all sorts of toys in boxes for future use as we only let Mia have a few at a time. At least she won't get bored! AND...we won't have to buy her another toy until she's 8! Ha!

I'm always getting sneezing pictures! (I think they're cute...)

And at the end of everything, she gave us a little recital. Awww.

Well, we've been doing a lot of adventurous stuff, so stay tuned, I shall be posting!