Summer Picnic

Lake Winnie, here we come.  C and A had a most marvelous time.  Here are a few snapshots of their frivolity. At the top of the long slide!  This was A's first time to Lake Winnie.

Time for the caterpillar rollercoaster (A's first time on a rollercoaster in her life)....whee!  Fortunately this one is quite mild!

This ride always reminds me of "Mr Toad's Wild Ride"....don't know why!!  Our driver today is Ms C.



Then it was time for lunch!  "Hotdogs" or "hamburgers" (all vegetarian on our row), "chicken" nuggets, cole slaw, potato salad, corn on the cob, baked beans, chips, drink and finish up with an ice-cream!

And this is what it leaves behind!


Cooling off in the Cool Zone.  The fine cool mist was invigorating (and extremely necessary in the blazing heat).


On the large ferris wheel.  This was most enjoyable and gave an awesome view of the park.
The only thing I worried slightly about was becoming a lightning rod during the hintings of a nearby thunderstorm.  We survived, thankfully.

This is part of the view.  See the large, very large cat (?) fish in the pond ("lake")?  They were mostly at least 2 feet long.  Perhaps they're brownish goldfish....

A happy coincidence - they climbed into elephant number 9 - what a lucky number!

Another wild "toad" ride. This time driven by gentleman "D".  No accidents and they arrived back safely!  Whew!

The temps were in the 90's; it was extremely muggy; and I didn't take photos of all the rides they went on....but you get the picture.

Happy Sabbath to one and all.

Trip to Arkansas

Jiggity Jog, last week we were off to see Arkansas.  Actually to see our dear relatives - S's sister and their family.  They happen to live on a "farm" of 60 acres, and this is what they do and have there: 2 cows, 5 horses, 4 dogs, 1 hamster and 2 cats.  They grow hay in a couple fields, catch fish in one of 3 dams and that about sums up their farm.  Very cute.  Here are some photos from our trip there last week.

Heading out to catch Pony Boy

Got 'im

Getting ready for a real country mornin' breakfast!

Getting Pony Boy cleaned up.  He's about 3 yrs old and a real gentleman!

Pony Boy got a real workout on our visit!

This one's Sam.  He's about 6 yrs old I think and a bit more frisky.  But he has a lot of potential for showing.

Working out during a beautiful sunset. Pat and the kids built this corral from scratch by themselves.  Pretty neat!

Getting Pony Boy to go between the poles.

Oops, I guess we have some ticks to deal with here.  Uncle Pat is good at finding ticks!

The other "horse" was also given a workout - just to be fair, of course!

On the swing. The truck is J's and they borrowed the trailer to take the horses to the rodeo that evening - alas, the truck's brakes went out so we didn't risk it. J has a driver's permit at age 14, which he is very proud of.  Has a lot of limitations on it but around the farm it's very useful. The one photo of him in this blog is in the fishing picture.

OK, some more bareback riding.  Learning to fall off in a safe way (how is that possible?) and also to jump on without help.  Of course a little hill was strategically placed!

C's first fish!  She caught a BUNCH more.  The Perch were biting a lot this particular evening. Of course we threw them all back in and prolly caught several over and over!

A peaceful fishing scene - after all, that's what fishing is all about.

And that's our trip to Arkansas!  Yee - HAW!!