The first two weeks of May were filled with homework! Ben and I had finals and thankfully did very well. As soon as our tests were taken we packed up and headed to Arkansas!
The last time we saw Ben’s family was before we moved to Utah last summer so we were all very excited to spend time with them again. We pulled out of our apartment around 8am on Tuesday, May 12th.
We headed out of Logan, down through Ogden, and northeast through Wyoming. Boy was it windy! There were 45+ mile per hour winds through the entire state of Wyoming and Nebraska. We made pretty good time our first day and stopped after 12 hours of driving in Kearney, Nebraska. It was so stinkin humid!!!! We stopped at our motel, got the cat and dog situated (yes, we took both animals with us), had a little snack, and headed to bed. The next morning we got up and ate a yummy breakfast then hit the road a little after 8am. We made excellent time on our second day, beating mapquest by an hour and a half! By Wednesday at 2:30pm we had arrived at our first destination. Ben’s sister Sarah and her husband Eric, welcomed us to their home for the first couple nights of our trip. Our first evening there Sarah made us hamburgers on the grill.
As awful as they look they were honestly the best burgers I’ve ever had! After sitting in a car and eating nothing but junky snacks for two days straight they definitely hit the spot! The next day we all went skeet shooting at Eric’s parent’s house. Maddie designated a pair of pink tenni-shoes her “shootin shoes”, drove Eric’s truck (very slowly on the property), and had a blast pulling the rope to release the skeet.
Eric let Maddie borrow his sling shot so she could try to shoot frogs in the pond but her little arms weren’t quite strong enough to pull the sling shot back. Either way she had a blast. She even found a big rock. For some reason she really likes rocks so she thought it was great!
The next morning we said goodbye to Sarah and Eric, and goodbye to Springfield. We were off to Mountain Home, Arkansas to visit with Ben’s mom! After spending some time with her we headed out to Rea Valley to stay with Ben’s dad, Little Papa, and step mom, Grandma Cookie. The first exciting thing that happened while there was watching Ben shoot a 7 foot black snake. Little Papa went to walk out the front door and just as he got ready to step onto the stairs he let out a "choice word", walked backwards back into the house and shut the door. Both he and Ben ran and got a gun. Little Papa jumped up on the roof of the cab of his truck while Ben took aim from the front steps. A few minutes and 5 bullets later the snake was finally dead.
Maddie had a lot of fun gathering and saving the "snails" from the guns.
The next thing we did was head over to Ben’s other sister’s house. Hannah and Patrick have three kids. Rachel is 8 months older than Maddie and the twin boys, Micah and Matthew, are 8 months younger than Maddie. They had a great time jumping on the trampoline and then we headed down the street to a little pond with lots of ducks! The kids loved seeing the fuzzy little ducklings.
Micah was so funny! He found a stick about twice the size of his own body and began chasing the ducks around with it. When he saw this duck that had been hit by a car he declared, “We need to eat it!” What a funny little kid.
We stayed most of the time at Little Papa and Grandma Cookie's house. There's no tv there so Maddie got a little silly keeping herself entertained. Here she is modeling for us on the back porch.
And here she is helping Ben get ready for some fishing!
Then we headed out for the river! Maddie caught 10 fish that night! She took home the prizes for the first caught, the most caught, the biggest caught, the smallest caught, and the most variety. She even hooked about a 28in trout all by herself. Once she started reeling it in she quickly handed the pole to me because the fish was so strong. As she handed me the fishing pole the fish jumped up out of the water. After holding the rod for 2 seconds I realized that this fish was too big for me to reel up also so I then handed the pole over to Ben. After a big struggle Ben got the fish about a foot away from the boat when the line suddenly snapped. Dangit! Here's some of the other fish that she caught. She was really excited to catch them, not so excited to stand next to them.
We went fishing a couple other times in the two and a half weeks that we were there so here’s a compilation of fishing pictures from our trips on the river.
This is what I got for not putting sunscreen on right away!
Also during our trip Hannah’s husband Patrick brought the kids out to Little Papa and Grandma Cookie's and we had a bonfire dinner down by the pond on the property. Hot dogs, cake, and lots of fire!
Maddie and I also enjoyed spending some shopping time in Branson with Ben's mom and other sister Chelsea while Ben and all the guys went on a 3 day fishing/canoeing/camping trip down the Buffalo River. After a great two and a half weeks it was time to head back to Utah. We left Arkansas on Saturday May 30th at about 8:30am and this time we headed through Oklahoma and into Denver. After being on the road for over 14 hours I was WAY past my limit! My ankles looked like an elephant’s and I was exhausted! We stopped at our motel and went straight to bed. The next morning we got up and headed out, again, around 8am. We finally pulled into our apartment at 5:30 that evening and I was so exhausted that I sat on the couch while Ben unloaded the whole car by himself. What a great husband!
We had one day to rest before going to my youngest brother, Sean’s, high school graduation. We got to see my dad for the first time in almost 3 years!
One highlight of the week after we got home was that Maddie got her first pair of roller blades. She strapped them on and proved to us that she is definitely not quite ready for them!
July has been pretty uneventful. Ben is in school 3 days a week trying to master calculus 2 and doing very well so far. He has 2 class periods left and then his final. I have reached 35 weeks in my pregnancy and have 27 days until my c-section! So close, yet so far. This little guy has definitely outgrown his home! I am constantly shifting in whatever seat I'm trying to sit in. I sleep very sporadically at night and I can't sleep past 8am. I am plagued with more and more heartburn everyday. And boy can he kick! I have yelped out in pain on more than one occassion! He has definitely settled into the head down position and should now be somewhere around 5 lbs. 4 oz. and about 18.5 inches long. All his organs are mature and ready for use. For the next 27 days he'll just be busy putting on weight and probably a little length. At our last doctor appointment we discussed the c-section. My doctor said that we won't find out until 3 days before the surgery what time it will be scheduled for but he knows it will either be 7:30am, 8:45am, or noon. I'm really hoping it's 7:30 since I can't eat after midnight the night before! Until then, we are looking forward to Maddie's 5th birthday on August 19th and just trying to relax and get some good rest before things get crazy!
2 comments:
Sounds like an eventful few months for you guys! I love the picture of Ben holding Maddie in his lap in the boat...very cute! I hope that the C-section goes well. Let us know if there is anything we can do to help!
It looks like you guys have had a busy summer. That snake is crazy! Maddie is so cute. We hope your C-section goes well also, and although we are on the other end of the state please let us know if we can help.
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