Special Guests

Guess who came to stay with me?? My dear friend Suzanne, from The Joyful Chaos!!
Her family arrived on Wednesday, and stayed until early Saturday morning. I need to write more about the visit, but afraid I'll get all teary right now.

I miss her already.


Some of my kids, Julie's, some of Suzanne's, and Marietta's daughter

The children all got along flawlessly. If you read her blog for parenting tips/ advice, keep it up. :) I {love} her kids, and how they interact with others. The law of the land is Kindness.

Overcoming fears one Wendy Adler event at a time. Suzanne ventured forward on the LookOut at Natural Falls State Park, over a 77-foot waterfall. She braved the tree-top bridge through the trail. She squashed the urge to bolt when a leech appeared at the creek. I'm proud of you, girl! :D

This baby stole my heart. They all did.

More later.

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
— Dr. Seuss

Inside Hobbs Visitors' Center

Just a sneak peak, inside Hobbs Visitors' Center. The link will lead you to more information, a map, pictures, and trail guides. The visitors' center isn't huge, but it's very well done! They pack a lot into a fairly small building, and it's certainly worth a visit. My fellow Nature Notebookers, we're going to visit these trails in a few weeks!

Sheep to Shawl

Last week, we went with the homeschool group to see the Sheep to Shawl presentation, in a nearby town.

The people were amazingly friendly, patient with kids, and very interactive.

Below, a man shears a sheep, and then he passed the wool out to all of the kids, so they could feel the lanolin.

Then we moved on to the "spinning house" and watched women spin on wheels and by "drop spinning."This lady was just particularly sweet, and so very beautiful for an older lady. I just wanted to stay and take pictures of her!!

Next, we headed to the "weaving house" (these are my made-up names, not what they officially called their areas of interest!) Again, we talked to the sweetest old guy, who taught the kids how to weave their cotton strands.

Way to go, Dash! NatureMan tried his hand at the loom. Even LittleLad took a turn, on my lap (his feet couldn't reach the pedals!)


Our group makes this trip every year, but this is the first time we've gone. There are SO many awesome opportunities, and I try to pick and chose, so we don't get too busy. This one is going back on the calendar for next year!

On the way home, I drew another shoe. Maybe I should make a book of shoe sketches?

Or start packing a bag of props for the car??

(btw, my hand is NOT sprouting long white hairs. Those are my ragtag jeans poking out. Just so you know.)

Last but not least, I love these two beautiful, wonderful, mischievous, dirty-faced little boys.

Even if I have to deal with things like this...

Oil paints.

Squirted out and smeared into the carpeting in the Artist's room.

While I was running a quick errand, and Daddy was in charge. Not that it's his fault, or anything. (clears throat and shakes head)

Oh. My. Goodness.

This stuff doesn't come out.

I'm still speaking blessings over these kids, even if it is with gritted teeth at times!

Aquarium Day

Today my Mom and Dad offered to treat our family to a day at the Jenks Aquarium. We've been going a bit stir-crazy in the house, on these insanely oppressive summer days. I mean, really, it was 115 today. I have to hold a sprinkler over my head just to check the mail.

So, we invited Papaw to ride with us. I offered to give him the front seat, but he enjoys being back by the kids, talking to them, reading them stories... napping with them. ;-)
Such a cute, cute picture.
Papaw and Little Lad both fell fast asleep until we got there.

I think these boys enjoyed the statues outside almost as much as the real creature inside.

Dash, the Artist with Little Lad, me, NatureMan, Fred, Papaw. And Mom took the picture. Dad is still in India until next week.


Naturally, every kid's favorite things are the touch tanks. It was fairly crowded when we got there, but had just opened half an hour earlier, so we decided to start at the back and work our way forward. That made a huge difference. (** There's your field trip tip for the day!**)


Octopuses completely amaze me. Did you know that the largest Giant Pacific Octopus ever caught weighed about 600 pounds, about the same weight as a Brown bear??
Octopuses, like chameleons, are able to change their color and even their skin texture to blend into their surroundings so their enemies can’t see them. They can also squirt ink at an attacker, obscuring the predators vision AND interfering with its ability to smell. Because octopuses have no bones, they are able to squeeze their bodies through teeny tiny openings. All very neat stuff!

Ah, Jellyfish! Another of my favorite things. Besides being stunningly beautiful and "graceful," the study of jellyfish has also really advanced medical studies.

Did you know that jellyfish have no brain, no blood, and no nervous system?

And they are made up of more than 95% water?

Below, the shark tunnel, which is one of their best-known & unique exhibits.

Just stunning. Absolutely amazing to me that we have a God who would make such beauty, even in the darkness of the sea. He truly is a Creative Creator.

Stingray touch tanks:

They didn't exactly expect a feisty stingray to start splashing them.

Nemo, of course...

When we were sufficiently worn out and hungry, we rounded the troops and headed to Casa Bonita. I love the atmosphere in there.


After dinner and sopapillas, we spent just a few minutes in the game room. I love being married to an awesome man who truly enjoys spending time with his kids. :-) I used to gripe about dirty socks on the floor. Or the fact that he didn't actually wash the kids when he gave them a bath. All little, unimportant things, really. But then a friend, who is not so fortunate as I am, pointed out to me that my husband LOVES us. He loves to go places with us, play games with the kids, read them books. He loves to hike, camp, swim and raft with us. He also likes to relax at home, talking to us or watching family movies. And he tells us often that he loves us. "Focus on the important things."
Man, I'm thankful. I'm lucky. No, I'm blessed. This is just another of the amazing things in my life that I don't want to take for granted. I love that man.

11th Annual U of A Horse Festival

The Artist-child is slightly (ahem) obsessed with horses. I'm quite sure she would exchange our home and everything inside for a horse, given the chance to do so. Naturally, we had to take her to the horse festival, a couple towns over.

We watched the Mounted Fury Jousting Troupe of Cedar Springs Equestrian Center,

Equine Extremist Tommie Turvey (his "episodes" alone were well worth the cost of the show!! So entertaining!),

the debut of a champion Friesian stallion, Frederik the Great

(you can't even imagine the beauty of this horse!)

high speed drill teams
We also watched the Parade of Breeds, which included the Gypsy Vanner ($30,000 to get one,) Friesian, Arabian, Andalusian, many Gaited Horse breeds, Mustangs, Mules, giant Draft Horses, adorable Miniatures.

We watched dogs rounding up sheep,

horses dressed like sheep (**how embarrassing!**)

...and even itty bitty cowboys roping. This kid is 6-years old!
We walked through all of the vendors' booths and bought a book from an author there, who autographed it for my darling little girl.

The kids pet all kinds of horses outside the arena. This one belongs to the U of A.

To top the day off, The Artist-child was able to meet one of her pen-pals, a fellow horse-lover. :-)Thank you so much, Claudia, for your correspondence with my little beauty.

Woot, woot! So happy we had the opportunity to do something like this for our girl!

Ballet Workshop

My Little Artist had the opportunity this morning to attend a
free Ballet Workshop at a local private college. (Look at Chenoa's feet!)

Each group traveled through different "stations" of dance choreography. They had barre (or technique exercises) which are basic plies, tendus and such. There was also a station where they began to learn and practice movements across the floor, such as turns and little jumps. Then two stations that taught parts of a dance. They chose Beauty and the Beast's "Be Our Guest"

and Casting Crowns "Praise You With the Dance."

The girls were so adorable, all so light and little, carefree and confident, dancing their little hearts out to praise music. Watching it did my heart some good. I really just wanted to jump up and join them, but held back so as not to distract them with my uncoordinated attempts.

Still, my heart was dancing and I'm now determined to dance in praise at home every day.

No window peepers, please.

The instructors did an awesome dance after the girls did.

Fred and I also have the opportunity to take some ballroom dancing lessons starting this week, and I'm really thrilled about that. :-)

Hope your Saturday was special as well!