Thanksgiving 2010 - Opening Christmas Presents!

Since we get together at Thanksgiving and not Christmas, we take the opportunity to give gifts to the little kids. The adults don't need any more stuff!

Logan and Kayleigh got to help decorate the tree before everyone else arrived.

Logan enjoyed putting the red Christmas balls in a single spot. He thought it really looked colorful.

Adam and Lottie are ready for Christmas.

Kayleigh enjoys opening one of her Christmas gifts. Santa Karen is in the background taking photos.

Lottie opens a Christmas present. We love that hat. She looks like one of Santa's elfs (one of the cute ones).Logan is opening a present from Doug and Ashley (FYI - it's a guitar - at least it's not drums).Adam is opening his gift. It's a tool set. How neat is that!

Gram and Adam had fun playing with lightsabers. Adam has a lot more practice than Gram, but Gram is older and sneakier. Be careful Adam!

The kids has a great time opening and playing with presents; the adults had fun just watching them. It was a great time.

Thanksgiving 2010 - Garvan Woodland Gardens

Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, AR, has a fantastic Christmas light display. We took the gang over to Garvan Gardens on Friday night. We got there early to beat the crowd.

The lights overlooking the lake were beautiful.

The grandkids had fun standing on the bench. Looks like Adam is holding Lottie up. Great job Adam!

Amy, Adam and Lottie are in front of a Japanese lantern.

Here's the Flachman family near the gingerbread display.Doug and Ashley surrounded by lighted leaves.The kids had fun playing inside one of the displays.

The lighted James train was a big hit. It was new this year to the Garvan Gardens' display.

Finally, here Rosie and I are with the grandkids in front of the peacock.From here we went to get some hot chocolate and see the model train display before heading back to the cars. Then it was on to The Shack for burgers, fried green beans, fish, etc.

Thanksgiving 2010

As is our tradition, we try and get the entire clan together for Thanksgiving. This year we had everyone but Chris, who was in Afghanistan for Thanksgiving, at our house in HSV for Thanksgiving.

Karen, Shane, Logan and Kayleigh arrived on Monday. Since we had Shane and his truck here, we took the opportunity to add some rocks to the yard. We had a fun day - NOT - and moved about 6 truckloads of rocks. Luckily we had a cool and overcast day; nice day for working outside.

Amy, Adam and Lottie left Ft. Hood on Tuesday afternoon (driving) and arrived in HSV on Wednesday morning. Doug and Ashley flew into Little Rock on Thursday morning.

Obviously, since it was Thanksgiving, there was a lot of cooking going on. We had to have PIES. Karen made 2 pumpkin and an apple pie. They were delicious.

Rosie and Ashley, Doug's fiance, are cooking up something. Looks like they're having a good time.A Thanksgiving tradition around our house is "veggie pizza." Adam and Lottie are helping Gram make the pizza.Adam took over from Uncle Doug the job of making celery with peanut butter. Another delicious Thanksgiving morning treat. Great fodder for watching parades or football games.

Amy was in charge of mashed potatoes, a Thanksgiving necessity.

And Doug got to be the official turkey carver. What a great honor!

The four grandkids enjoyed playing together. We had to go over to Lake Sophia and throw rocks into the water - another tradition at our house. Thankfully, we didn't have any kids fall into the lake this time.

Bath time was great fun. Who can have the cutest hairdo? Adam wins for the spikiest do.We love those neat kid towels Gram has.The grandkids had fun playing with Bapa's old Lionel electric train. Bapa got this train for Christmas in about 1960. So it's about 50 years old and needs a bit of work. But it runs - thanks to some help from Shane.Before everyone left, we had to get a family picture. Here's the entire gang except for Chris:From left to right: Rosie, Bob, Karen, Kayleigh, Shane, Logan, Lottie, Doug, Ashley, Adam and Amy. Thanks everyone for coming; we had a great time. It only took us about a week to recover - such wimps!

Spa 5K/10K Hot Springs, AR

On Saturday, Rosie and I drove to Hot Springs, AR, to run in the Spa 5K/10K. We were joined by our HSV friends Bob and Ana MacKendrick. Rosie and Ana ran/walked the 5K; Bob M. and I ran the 10K (~6.1 miles). The four of us are staying warm inside before the race begins.

Rosie and Ana are waiting at the starting line for the race to begin. It was a cool morning - in the 40'sF.

Bob and I are headed toward the finish line. I typically speed up when the finish line gets close; I want to get the "pain" over with.

Thanks to Bob pushing me so hard, I had a personal best for the 10K with a time of 8:17/mile. I'm not speedy. I came in 1st in my age group (60-64) and got a medal; I was so surprised. Rosie came in third in her division without even trying. Maybe next year she'll train...

Rosie, Bob and I are picking up some snacks after the race.

Lake Ouachita - Fall Colors

On Thursday, 11-NOV, Wayne Jensen and I went fishing on Lake Ouachita with guide, Larry Hurley. We arrived at the Ouachita state park at about 6:20 AM and were heading across the lake at about 6:40 AM. The morning temperature was in the low 50s as we zipped across the lake at 60+ mph in Larry's boat. The wind was chilly. Luckily I had on multiple layers.

The fishing wasn't great on Thursday. However, the fall colors around the lake more than made up for the lack of fish (hey - I have to be positive about this). Here are some photos from around the lake. The lake is about 8-10 feet below normal due to this year's drought. Interestingly, we could see the tree stumps that you don't see when the lake is at it's normal level. Based on what I saw, I will be much more careful when motoring around the lake. I think I've been lucky so far.Hope you enjoy the photos. FYI - We saw one bald eagle on Thursday, but didn't get a picture.

Welcome Hunters!!!!

Rosie and I are always amused (or maybe a bit surprised) by the Welcome Hunters signs at the local liquor establishments. Here's a typical sign:We have visions of "liquored up" hunters roaming around the woods shooting anything in sight. Hopefully this doesn't happen. However, hunting and liquor don't seem to mix from our POV - sort of like drinking and driving.

To paraphrase a drinking/driving slogan:

If you Drink - don't Hunt. If you Hunt - don't Drink.

Maybe we're just a bit paranoid (hey - no agreeing out there!)

Have a great day!

Bull Shoals, AR

On Monday, 08-NOV, Rosie, Sam and I towed the boat up to Bull Shoals for its regular service. For those who don't know, Bull Shoals is very northern Arkansas. In fact, Bull Shoals lake is in Arkansas and Missouri. To get to Bull Shoals by 9 AM, we got up at 4 AM and left at 5 AM.

While we were waiting for the boat to be completed, we drove down to the Bull Shoals dam and the fairly new visitor center. Here are some pictures of the visitor center.The dam was impressive. Also, the water in the White river and Bull Shoals lake was very clear. The White River is well know for trout fishing - especially brown trout.We packed a picnic lunch and ate in a state park next to the lake. Sam enjoyed getting some "people food." Here's a picture of the dam from the park; the visitor center is in the background.

We also drove through Cotter - a small historical town. Rosie took pictures of an old train bridge and a car bridge (completed in 1933).We left Bull Shoals at about 3:30 PM for the trip home. We got home about 8:30 Monday evening. We were all glad to be home and ready to stand up for a while.