Vacation to Hot Springs, Arkansas

We had a wonderful get-a-way to Hot Springs Village this week. We spent lots of time with John's Aunt Rosie and Uncle Bobby and his furry cousin, Sam. We hiked, went to the lake, swam, the girls made homemade sugar cookies and decorated them, saw fire works, made hand cranked ice-cream, and enjoyed the beauty of God's creation. I think that we saw at least one deer each day. The kids got to compete in paddle boat races and even a BIG splash contest at the pool! (and John won 2nd place int he adult division after a splash off...the kids were SOOO proud of their Daddy and his ginormous splash!) Rosie fed us some wonderful meals (all of which John got recipes for) Blayne got to spend some time playing the Wii with Uncle Bobby and John got to drive their really cool Mini Coup car (isn't that what all little boys dream of?) The kids did great on the trip and rolled with the plan for each day. This was Reagan's first trip to see big fireworks up close and personal, and after her initial tears from the first BOOM!, she recovered and enjoyed the rest of the show. She fussed when we came home today because she didn't want to come back to THIS house, she wanted to go to our "new" house (which was our little rental house in the village). John made the remark this week that he needed to figure out a way to work and support our family from vacationing full time. We love to go away and be together.

On a sad note, we did receive some sad, but happy news while we were gone. John's sweet Poppa went to be with Jesus on Friday. It was very fast and he did not suffer. We are happy with for him as he is now in Heaven with his Creator and singing in that heavenly choir, he is reunited with his love, and other family members, but we are sad for us and will miss his sweet, sweet bald self and the gentle man that he was always known to be. I am thankful that we had been to see him recently and that Savannah and Whitney got to see him just this week!!!! So, we will head back to Arkansas at the end of this week to attend his funeral and honor a man that we all love and miss.

Poppa and Baby Jack last year at Savannah & Blayne's birthday party.

Poppa made this hat for Blayne at the nursing facility where he lived. Blayne was so proud of his cowboy hat that Poppa made!
(Our summer vacation history is not looking too good: last summer we got the call that my grandmother had terminal cancer, this summer Poppa died....maybe we will stay home next summer!)

Here are pictures from our trip:
(you might want to grab some popcorn and a coke...it is a LONG slideshow...sorry!)