Back home safely in Arkansas

After another long drive following an all-too-short visit, we returned safely to Arkansas yesterday afternoon. We always thoroughly enjoy our trips up north, but it seems like we spend as much time driving as we do visiting...goes with living so far away, I guess.

After a nice visit with Laurie and Mark in Madison, we arrived in Rhinelander Friday evening and spent some quality time with Mom and Dad and John and Jim. On Sunday we met up with our friends the Bennetts and traveled to the Antigo area to participate in a "breakfast on the farm" event that had a pancake breakfast, horse wagon rides, tours of their barns, and other displays of equipment. The kids enjoyed the morning, even with a cool wind blowing and the threat of rain. Kenny tried his hand at fishing for the first time (both he and I need more patience to make that work...). Dad and I went out the next day and measured some tall white pines near Woodruff (after Dad had ordered their new kitchen cabinets) while Hope and Mom took the kids shopping. On Tuesday, we met up with my buddy Kevin and watched his son Coty compete in a BMX bike race. Coty is an excellent rider, and has quickly risen to the rank of "expert", which means that in the race we watched, since he didn't have any comparable 11 year olds to race, he went up against 14 year olds. Coty made the finals and finished third, close behind the older kids.

We then drove to Rich and Ann's home in Whitmore Lake, stopping at a couple spots so I could measure some more big trees. Rich and I (and Hope, who supervised most of the time, and caught wrenches with the back of her head the rest of the time) tore off the old siding on one side of their house and installed new cedar siding. We also did some more shopping and set off a few fireworks for the kids. Kenny, Beth, and Hope spent a lot of time picking and eating raspberries in the backyard (we also made a trip to a pick-your-own place for strawberries and cherries). The picture of Rich and Beth provides ample proof of Beth's affinity for berries--her cheeks aren't rosy because of the sun! All too soon, we had to head south. We stopped at another location in Indiana to measure big trees before stopping for the night in Kentucky. We were so beat after unpacking and mowing the yard after we returned that we skipped the fireworks show and went to bed early. Now we just need to get back into the groove and start our next project--drywalling the kids' bedrooms!

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