Water Wars

What's summer with at least one water war, right? Mike divided us up, 2 against 2, but it didn't really matter because once I stepped onto the grass it was 3 against me. I don't even remember what the teams were. It about 1 minute for Mike and Braden to have me soaked from the top of my head to my toes.

It took a minute for them to soak me and a minute and half for me to surrender and hightailed it into the house. I guess Ashlyn became the next target because I wasn't even out of my wet clothes yet when I heard her yelling "I lose too!"

So the girls changed and watched the boys battle it out from the safety of the kitchen. I'm not sure who won but Mike sure looked intense and Braden was all smiles.

More Arkansas.

Even with full week in Arkansas we still were not able to do everything we wanted to. It didn't help that I was sick the entire trip. Even though I was sick I did still take almost 300 pictures. Here are a few from the trip.

My kids get so excited when we go to Arkansas because of Chucky Cheese. We see the commercial on tv but we don't have one locally. The only time we go is in Ft Smith.

The trolley ride is really cheap and was pretty fun. Braden got to ring the bell as we crossed streets. We didn't know that it was a tour though. We thought it was just a little ride on the trolley. So after we got off of the trolley to look at different trains and the trolleys they are restoring we were all starving. We missed lunch.

I haven't been to the Ft Smith museum since was a kid. Our school went on a field trip one year. The kids of course didn't really care to read and look at the exhibits but they had little dress up areas in a few parts of the museum that the kids loved!

A trip to the museum wouldn't be complete without a root beer float from the soda fountain. Braden and Mike both got root beer floats. Ashlyn doesn't like root beer so she went with a coke float. They were really good.

Mom and Greg took us to the Alma Aquatic Park one day. We had been there before but it was like 5 years ago. They had added another water slide called the toilet bowl which Braden was to be flushed down!

We made a quick stop at the Huckabee center. We didn't have long because it was closing. Next trip we will have to give ourselves more time to check things out.

Fish Tales

One night someone got the great idea to go fishing. Neither of my kids have been fishing even though they each have a really cute Shrek fishing pole. So we loaded up and off we went to Modean's (gotta love Arkie names) pond.

Ashlyn was the fish master. As soon as Dad handed her the pole she caught a pretty good size bass. Not bad for a city girl. Of course she would not hold it up for a picture but she was happy to pet it.

A couple of days later we were visiting my grandparents and Papa asked her if she caught a fish.
"Just a wittle one. Two wittle one." she said.
"No, no, no. That's not how you tell a fish story, Ashlyn. I explained. "When someone ask how big your fish was you hold your arms out really wide and say It was this BIG!."
So now when someone ask her how big her fish was holds her hands out wide and says "THIS BIG!". She's learned the all important lesson of how to tell a fish tale.

I don't remember if Dad or Mike who showed Braden how to cast but it only took a few tries and he did it. And it only took a minute for him to have a fish. Mike helped him get it in and Dad took it off the hook. Then he tried to hand it to Braden so I could take the ever important "first fish" picture. Braden gave Dad the best "are you smokin' crack?" face I've ever seen. (he made me proud. ha)

There was no way on God's green Earth that Braden was going to touch that fish and he certainly wasn't going to put his finger in it's mouth. So Dad put the hook back in it's mouth so I could take a picture of him with it.

Then it was time to throw it back in. Braden started screaming "NO NO NO. It has a hole in its mouth it's going to die. It needs medicine." Of course Dad threw it back in the water and Braden stood on the bank waiting for it float to the top. After a few minutes he was satisfied that the hole in it's mouth must be better since the fish wasn't dead and he was ready to try for a second one.

The problem then was that since he had caught a fish on his first try, he was sure that he was an expert. He was slinging that hook all over the place. He looked like Goofy doing the perfect cast.

No one was hooked and they both caught a fish so it was great evening.

that picture is Dad showing him how to hold the fish and Braden giving the "are you smokin' crack" face.

4th of July

It's not the 4th of July without new shirts, swimming, bar-b-q, and of course fireworks. It rained part of the day so things were a little slow but Mike, the Canady boys, Braden and Ashlyn found some swim time.

Actually I don't think swimming is the correct word to describe it. It was more like a water body slamming marathon. There was water everywhere. They were jumping and wrestling. Poor little Ashlyn looked like a lost little boat in the middle of a hurricane.

Last year we had a trip to the ER because Braden busted his chin open. This year I thought we were going to make it through the night without any accidents but Mike had to continue the tradition. He learned the hard way that shoes are a good idea when lighting fireworks. He stepped on ...something and burn the bottom of his foot. He acted like it was no big deal but when I saw him hand over his toys to the boys and soak his feet in the pool, I knew that he was trying to be cool.

He had a couple big blisters on the bottom of his foot and was in a lot of pain. He had to wear badges on it all week long but he seems to be all better now.