Arkansas...

HERE WE COME..

The day that summer semester ended for me, Brett and I headed to Aurora to meet up with Tracy and Cheryl to head to Arkansas for 10 days.
Our trip went as follows:

Travel 24 hours to get to get to Branson, Missouri
Spend the day at Silver Dollar City
Travel to Mountain Home, Arkansas
Hit the road for Saffell, Arkansas
Spend about a week
Travel to Amarillo, Texas
Start the journey back to Utah
...All in 10 days...
whew

Cheryl and Tracy's amazing dessert at the 'Rib Crib' in Springfield
... Just down from the Bass Pro Shop...

This is a buck statue in Bass Pro Shop.
I wish it would have been finished. It was still pretty amazing.
It was huge!!

Turtle at Bass Pro Shop.

Alligator at Bass Pro Shop.

Top: Grizzly and me.
Bottom: Grizzly hug with Brett.
(Bass Pro Shop)

Us at Silver Dollar City after lunch. They had amazing lunches for a theme park. I was expecting hot dogs over done and chewy hamburger's not 'Calico' and chicken. Yum!
(Calico was a blend of potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and peppers)

Ha ha ha. . I thought this was kinda cute. It's cute when you're 2.
Gunner with the grin. Gage gold diggin'.
They were happy to be in their stroller this time around. Long day and full tummy's.

Lance and Morgan on our train ride through Silver Dollar City.

Gage and me on our train ride.

Morgan and Lance on the infamous "Wild Fire".
Cheryl, Tracy, and Brett went on this one too but I didn't have my camera with me at the time.
They all said it made them a little 'off' for the rest of the day.
There was no way I was going to go on this one.
I did 'Powder Keg'. That one was enough. Made me hoarse for 3 days.

Top: Tracy and Lance on 'Lost River of the Ozarks'.
Bottom: Brett and JaLee

'K. quick explanation.
This was really hard to get pictures of them on this crazy super-powered swing but I wanted what I had of them. Brett and Lance are on the left end.
'The Giant Swing' ... 'nough said?
Powered by hydraulics.
Ha... Not for me either.It took them up one side back down the other.
The first picture shows them at about max. They had one more up and back that put them just about parallel with the ground.

Back: Lance, Morgan, Tracy, Brett, JaLee
Front: Grandpa 'Gene, Gunner, Gage, Cheryl
We stopped at Grandpa 'Gene and Shirley's place for a little while.
We talked for a quite some time about kids/grand-kids and life for all of us the past little while.
They live in Mountain Home with Brady. (Shirley's son)

The only armadillo we go to see.
It was walking through the field outside Grandma Earline and George's place right when we drove up. Brett jumped out to grab this photo. Lance was a few steps behind him. The second Brett got close to it, it started to take off so he tried to get in front of it to herd it away from the forest where it was heading.
Bad idea!
It turned on him. That was all it took from Brett. He decided it wasn't worth it.

Shortly after we got there, Grandpa George took us down to his pond to feed the fish.
The minute he got on his lawn mower, the fish started to go crazy 'cause they knew
..mower = George = food..

Brett fishing at the pond.

Gunner and Gage down at the pond waiting for their turn to catch a fish.

After Lance had a fish on, he would let the boys reel it in so they could 'catch a fish'.
Gage went first. Then it was Gunner's turn. It was getting to be later and later in the morning so the fish weren't biting as well so it was taking longer to get a fish on for Gunner.
Here is his 'catch a fish' pouting face because he wanted to catch one so bad.

Gage after catching his fish.
Ringing wet.

Gunner

They had all kinds of bird feeders and bird books at their house. Here is a humming bird. I think George filled up the humming bird feeder 4 times while we were there.
Notice: The trees in the background is how it is all over out there unless the residents have cleared the trees around their property.
How nice would that be to not have to plant trees and worry about them growing?

Grandma Earline, my Cowboy, Cheryl

Father and son fishing. They fished every chance they could get.
They all three loved it. (Tracy, Lance, and Brett)

Tracy with his great catch.

Lance, Brett, Sandy (the dog), Cheryl, Tracy all at the pond.

Gage, Brett, Gunner with their cowboy hats on.
The boys loved Brett's hat so much that Tracy and Cheryl bought these for them.
Lance wasn't really too fond of the idea but the boys sure do love 'em.

Gunner's beautiful baby blue's.

Brett, Gunner, and Gage wrestling while Grammie Cheryl watches on in the basement at Grandma Earline's.

Gunner with the grin and Gage enthralled in Grandma's game while we were all resting.

Uncle Junior and Aunt Glady came to visit while we were there.
It was so fun to meet and get to know them.

Cousin Lenney's boat.
The guys all got invited by cousin Lenney to go bass fishing. They all had a great time watching him in his 'pro' ways of catching fish. They weren't as successful in the fishing department but were successful at having a blast spending time together and catching a ride on his boat.

The lake they went fishing on.

The catfish out of the pond they were catching.
Thanks for the picture Lance.
(Took pictures of fishing at the pond only to discover, after he had taken a few, a 'pink' camera)

The 411. Grandpa George saved his lawn for Brett to mow. He heard how he likes to mow.

The Kempf residence

They have such amazing sun sets out there!! I was always snapping pictures of the sunsets.



We went for a cave tour...

Each room we went into had a name.
(Don't remember them now.)
As we would walk in, the guides would turn on lights for us to better see the formations and for pictures to work better. We caught the hint of taking too long when they would turn the lights off and start us into the next area. Ha ha ha..

Charred wood that explorers believe are from Indians.

A pile of 'guano'
aka: years and years of piled bat poop (Phew!)

The only area where natural light enters the cave.

The explorer's used char to write their names on the cave wall.
When they explored the cave, they had to use head lamps. Seems kinda crazy since a flash light is just a way of life now.

A salamander. The only animal we got to see.

Us on the bus back.

Brett, Jimmy, Lenney, JaLee
At Lenney's auto shop...What a busy, busy couple. We were so glad we were able to spend a little bit of time with them. Now we need to get them out here to visit us.

Sandy and the sunset at the pond.

Brett fishing at the pond. Look at these colors! So beautiful! I had another great one but I DELETED it!! Ah. . I was so mad at myself. Oh well now.

Brett's catch.

JaLee, Grandma Earline, Grandpa George, Brett
Right before we went to for lunch at the Chinese buffet the day before we left.

Lance, Gunner, Grandma, Grandpa, Gage, Morgan

Cheryl, Grandma, Grandpa, Tracy

Such a cute couple. I loved listening to the stories Grandma Earline and Grandpa George would tell me about how they met and how much they are in love. She worked for him on his egg farm in Arizona. So yes... she married her boss. They are so good for each other. So cute.

Us fishing the night before our trek home.
My catch.

The rice fields upon leaving Arkansas.

This cross was HUGE! It was off to the side of the freeway before we got to Amarillo.

'Howdy!' Me and the huge cowboy at the Country Barn Steakhouse.
That dinner was rather eventful. Ha.. They sat us next to 2 big tables worth of drunk cowboys and their dates. To say the least, we didn't converse over that meal. Ha ha ha...

UTAH!!
See? We have beautiful sunsets too.