Arkansas Railroad Museum / 03-OCT

On Monday we drove to Pine Bluff, AR, to visit the Arkansas Railroad Museum.  The museum had multiple trains that we could climb on and look inside.  Here's the entrance to the museum.

 

Logan enjoyed ringing the bell at the entrance.

Logan is ready to turn the brake on the car.

Kayleigh is ready to drive the train.

Here are the guys on a restored caboose.

Here we are in front of the wheel of the last steam engine (#819) produced at Pine Bluff.

This is the last steam engine made in Arkansas.

 

Here they are at the railroad crossing.  There's no stopping these two!

 

The museum also had a small train that Logan and Kayleigh had fun riding.

 

The museum also had an old fire truck.  Logan enjoyed driving it.

After we finished at the museum, we went to a local park for a picnic lunch.  Logan and Kayleigh liked the swings.

After we finished at the swings, we headed over to the slides.

Even Gram got into the sliding act.

We had a fun day and great weather for our visit to the Arkansas Railroad Museum.  We can recommend it as a place to visit. 

Sunday Afternoon Picnic

Sunday we went to church at Barcelona Baptist Church.  Logan had so much fun that he didn't want to leave!  After church, we had a picnic at the DeSoto recreational area that is close to the church.  Logan enjoyed climbing on the rope structure.

After some climbing and swinging, we ate our picnic.  We're digging in.

Kayleigh enjoyed her veggies and dip.

Logan is eating his mac and cheese.

After lunch we headed over to the big slide.  Logan is ready to slide.

Kayleigh is heading down the slide.

We're all finished.  Kayleigh and Logan are shaking off the table cloth and getting it ready to pack.

What a great day at the playground!

Saturday Afternoon / Dinner at the Shack

After a busy morning and a brief rest, it was popsicle time.  Here we are on the deck with our popsicles.

Logan is enjoying his popsicle.

Kayleigh had two popsicles that afternoon.  She especially wanted purple ones.

On the way to dinner, we stopped to get a picture of the kids in the yellow flowers that grow along the road.  Both the kids and flowers are beautiful.

We had dinner at - where else - the Shack.  Logan ate a whole kiddie burger and lots of fries.  Kayleigh ate about half of her burger, many fries and managed to poke a hole in the bottom of her Sprite cup with her straw.  Do you know how quickly Sprite can flow out of a hole in the bottom of a cup?  Very Fast!  But we got a new cup and dry pants and the dinner continued.

The Family Farm Pumpkin Patch / 01-OCT

After breakfast on Saturday morning, we drove to Glen Rose, AR, to visit the pumpkin patch at the Family Farm - a Christian retreat center.  The first thing Logan and Kayleigh headed to was the green train.  They had a great time riding around the farm.

We then went over to the big slide in the haystack.  The guys had fun going down the slide and landing in the hay.  Small pumpkins were hidden in the hay, and they found a bunch.  Kayleigh has one of the pumpkins she found.

 Logan enjoyed climbing up the bales of hay to get to the top of the slide.  He's quite a "mountain goat."

Our next stop (maybe stop is not the right word - cause we really kept moving) was the hayride.  We rode around the farm and up through some of the woods.  We then disembarked (instead of stopped) at the carousel.  All of us had fun riding the carousel.

After the carousel, we went next door to the zip line and swing.  Logan had a great time coming down the zip line.

Kayleigh and Gram are all smiles after their ride down the zip line.

Kayleigh enjoyed playing on the swing.

There were regular horses and some Shetland ponies on the farm.  Logan enjoyed petting this Shetland - who's not a whole lot bigger than Bug their dog.

Gram got to lead Kayleigh around on Cricket the horse.

We then went to the petting zoo.  Logan tried to catch the little pot-bellied pig - but no luck.  However, there were puppies who loved being petted.  Logan and Kayleigh were more than happy to oblige.

After the petting zoo, we ate our picnic lunch at a table under the trees.  It was delicious!  Thanks Gram for packing us such a good lunch.

We then walked around to see some of the other items on the farm.  The guys enjoyed the picture cutouts.  Here's cowboy Logan:

And cowgirl Kayleigh:

We did stop long enough to get a picture of the four of us.

Next visit was to the pumpkin patch where we all got to pick out a pumpkin.  Here are Logan and Kayleigh with our pumpkins.

We then took our pumpkins to the car and headed back to HSV.  Thanks Family Farm (and Stan and Donna May) for a great morning.

Logan and Kayleigh Visit Gram and Bapa / 30-SEP

On Friday, 30-SEP, Logan and Kayleigh arrived in Little Rock (via Southwest and Karen) for a visit with us.  I met them up at the airport, and then we had a picnic lunch in the back of the car with Karen.  After lunch Karen headed back to Houston, and we drove to HSV.

After Gram got home from her meeting, our first order of business was making binoculars.  Logan and Kayleigh did a great got of making their binoculars.  Logan is giving his a test run.

Gram then explained that we were going on a scavenger hunt.  She had nine different items listed on a sheet of paper for them to find.  When they found an item, they put a sticker over it.  

Kayleigh found the color yellow, purple (both flowers in the background) and flowers (another item on the list).

We walked over to Lake Sophia to throw a few rocks, but there was a man fishing from the dock.  We didn't want to mess up his fishing so we threw a few rocks over at the side and then left.

Visiting Ft. Hood / September 14-18

On Wednesday, 14-AUG, Rosie and I drove to Ft. Hood to stay with Adam and Lottie while Amy went to a weekend scrap booking retreat.  We got there in time to go to soccer practice for Adam's team; Amy is the coach.  The team seemed to have a fun time at practice.  Lottie had fun with Rosie's camera.  She especially enjoys taking pictures of feet.  Hey, cute feet Lottie!

Nice feet, Gram!  Looks like they work out.

After evening baths, I got to read books to the kids.  "The Messiest" was a very popular book with both kids.

Friday morning we took Adam to school.  Later in the morning we took Lottie to story time at the Ft. Hood library.  The story that morning was about car races.  After the story, all the kids went outside to race their cars.  Lottie and Rosie are ready to send their car down the track.

Here's Lottie with her medal and car.

We picked up Adam at school then headed for the duck pond - the spot where Adam's class went last year and he wanted to take Lottie.  Lottie is ready to feed the ducks.

We definitely got the attention of the ducks and geese.

On Saturday morning Amy made a quick trip back to Ft. Hood to coach Adam's first soccer game.  Here's Amy and Adam in front of the net before the start of the game.

Amy coaching one of her kids.  She does a good job making the game fun and helping the players learn new skills.

Adam is looking down the field.

Here's an action shot.

After the soccer game, we took Adam and Lottie to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  There was a "cow car" parked there so we had to get a picture.

Saturday afternoon the gang made me "surprise" birthday brownies - since Saturday, 17-SEP was my birthday.  Rosie, Adam and Lottie are hard at work.

I'm ready to blow out the candle.

Adam and Lottie got a turn to blow out the candle.  Great job, guys!

On Sunday evening Rosie got to read books to Adam and Lottie.  I think she enjoyed it more than they did.

Thanks to Amy for letting us stay with the kids.  We had a great time and they survived!