Wading in the River

I promised pictures in the last post and I hold true to my word. This weekend was beautiful and full of picture opportunities. Saturday Justin woke up early and took a quick fishing trip with his dad so Katelyn and I stayed home and took it easy. It is the first weekend in a long time that we did not visit vegetable day (or the farmer's market as normal people know it). When Justin got home we took Katelyn to War Eagle Mill. This was not her first trip and probably won't be the last but it was the first time that we visited the mill when it was warm enough to dip your feet in the water. She loved searching for shells and walking on the slimy river rocks. I remember many weekends spent in those very waters swimming and wading and looking for "special" rocks. We also bought some pancake mix and yankee corn grits while we were there. We were able to enjoy the pancakes first thing this morning before going to church. Our pastor, Jack English has been doing sermons this month on marriage, divorce, and remarriage. A very interesting topic to me as it has personally affected my life. After church we went to Margret's house for a family dinner. Katelyn made some new friends and was able to play out in Margret's backyard for the better part of three hours. She has really enjoyed being outside so much this weekend but all of our allergies are taking a toll (hopefully nothing a few doses of allergy medicine won't cure). I hope everyone has a great week!

Mama, do you know this man?

We were driving home from Target this evening when Katelyn asked me, "Mama, do you know this man?" I was a little taken a back by the question so I turned around to see her holding up a nickel with the face pointed towards me. I don't know why but I said yes I know that man. And truthfully I feel like I know President Thomas Jefferson up close and personal. Justin and I were talking about this on the rest of the drive home and we realized that during a persons lifetime they probably touch the faces of our presidents more than they do their spouse or children's faces. Isn't that a scary thought!

I will try to take some more recent pictures this weekend and post them for everyone. I have been getting some requests recently so I will do my best to follow through. We don't have anything planned for the weekend but it is supposed to be gorgeous weather so I am hoping that we can all get outside and enjoy it. Justin is still recovering from his knee surgery so Katelyn and I may just have to go to the park and play for a little while. There is a great little park behind the subdivision across from the botanical gardens where Margret lives that is quiet yet fun for Katelyn. We may just make a visit to Margret and go to that park....who knows what the weekend will hold.....

20!

I recently purchased one of those preschool workbook that is supposed to help your child learn the basics like colors, numbers, letters, etc. to help Katelyn get some extra practice in. She loves it and wants to do color pages all the time now and it has prooved itself useful in the car to keep her occupied. Last night I was helping her with one of the harder pages, color patters. She was doing good in recognizing the patterns like blue, yellow, blue, yellow, blue, ? She would figure out that it was yellow. But she also wanted to count the colored beads and she actually counted to 20 and I only had to tell her one number which was a very big surprise to me because she has always had difficulty counting. So when Justin got home I made sure to tell him what she had done and he asked her about it. He said, "Katelyn can you count to 20?" And she said, "yes!" And he said, "well show me..." And she goes, "20!" She was just showing off and never would count for him but we thought it was so funny. Maybe you just had to be there but it was really exciting news that she was able to do it even if it was only the one time.

Oh today is horsey day at her new preschool and she is supper excited! They are suppose to have a mamma and her baby there so she is wanting to feed them and pet them and all that fun stuff.

Branson Weekend Getaway!

This weekend Justin and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. I know it doesn't seem like we have been married that long but we have and we wanted to do something a little bit different to celebrate our anniversary and the fact that we have now found Katelyn a new daycare. I know I haven't written about what has happened to several of the families there but to make it short we left Community Preschool and had to find somewhere else for Katelyn to go. Not only did Katelyn leave but I resigned from the board....probably too belatedly but time will tell for sure. If you need more information see last week's Fayetteville Free Weekly for the full short of it. (http://www.freeweekly.com/)

So anyway we wanted to do something different but we were both too busy to plan anything and Katelyn has been dying to go to the Butterfly Palace and "Silly Dollar City" in Branson so we decided to make this our last summer vacation and take her along with us. We have to agree with many of the reviews that we read about the Butterfly Palace being too overpriced but it was still fun nonetheless. Katelyn was scared to death of the butterflys too. This was the only picture I could get of a butterfly. But one funny thing that happened was that a butterfly landed on Justin's shirt and I was holding Katelyn right next to him. When he showed her the butterfly on his shirt she climbed onto a stranger's arm just to get away from the butterfly! It was really funny!After the Butterfly Palace we went to a few craft mall. If you have never been to the Branson Mill you should go sometime. It is a big with various local artists and there is some really need booths there. One guy was carving leather which was something new to me and Justin. His work was really nice! We also went to Spirit of the Dance. We both thought that Katelyn would really enjoy this show since she loves to watch Riverdance on Youtube and loves to watch dancing on tv....(Step Up, etc.) but she was bored with the show. There was a bit too many singing numbers for Justin's taste but it was nice and Katelyn was free!

Today we went to "Silly Dollar City" to celebrate KidsFest one last time this year. Katelyn loves all the trains, trucks, and tractors that you can climb on and all the toys and activities that are set up everywhere. We finally broke down and bought her a "berella" as she calls an umbrella with her name on it. She loved it and carried it for shade the rest of the day. We enjoyed many rides this time. Many more than normal but she got totally freaked out on Fire in the whole and was done for the day so we can home just as it was getting way too hot to be outside. Perfect timing!

Justin and Katelyn pulling themselves up the pole...by the Giant Barn Swing.