Kenny's look on Super Bowl Sunday says it all--don't mess with the Packers!! More on this later... It has been a busy 2 weeks since I wrote the last blog posting while fretting about the Packers' chances in the NFC title game. Below, Kenny and the rest of his Cub Scout den learned about the basics of pocket knife safety, and carved pieces of soap:
Of all the kids there that day, Kenny was only one to nick his fingers--twice! Fortunately, they were mere minor flesh wounds. The last weekend of January was unseasonably warm--we hit 75 degrees on that Saturday! Such a nice day seemed to be wasted on staying home, so we drove to the neighboring county and did some outdoor activities. First, we went down to a place called Green's Island, which has a large Indian mound that we hiked to the top of:
We then went to nearby Moro Bay State Park, which had an old ferry that once transported cars to the other side of the
Ouachita River:
We also had a nice picnic supper at that park that evening, and an ice cream treat before we headed home. The following Monday was the local Pinewood Derby, which Hope ran and Kenny participated in:
Kenny's car took third in his age class, which he was quite proud of. The other big event of this week was Stephen's starting of preschool. Below, he is pictured with his teacher Shelly Mullins:
Shelly was also Beth's preschool teacher last year, which means you'll see a familiar stuffed green turtle in many of the following photographs:
Tucker the turtle is a stuffed animal that the kids in the preschool class are asked to periodically take home on the weekends, and the parents are to photograph the adventures of Tucker, and write up a story to accompany these pictures. In the photo above, Stephen is looking at a real (but empty) turtle shell at the
Chucalissa Archeological Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. We were in Memphis to pick up my youngest brother Bill, who flew down to visit us over the first weekend of February. We had some time to kill, having left Monticello extra early to minimize any chance of being delayed by the snow falling in Monticello that Friday morning. Below, the kids stand in the mound site at
Chucalissa:
We also had a nice walk on a nature trail at this park:
This trail actually passed through a prehistoric Indian village site, and we marveled at how many small pottery
sherds and chipped stone flakes we saw in the dirt of the trail (don't worry, we didn't pick any up!). We then went to an Italian restaurant for lunch, which Stephen and Tucker both enjoyed:
We arrived at the airport with about a hour to wait, so we spent time going up and down escalators, and the kids posed with Elvis:
Look at the thrill in Kenny's eye!! Bill's plane arrived on time, and he was greeted by his nephews and niece, and Tucker:
We got back to Monticello before the freezing rain got too bad that night, and the next day (Saturday) the weather cleared and warmed into the low 40s. After a quick tour of the Monticello area, we then went down to Monroe, Louisiana, to see the sights and have lunch. Below, Bill, Stephen, and Tucker pose by the Morris Pine, a 300+ year old, very large
loblolly pine in Ashley County, Arkansas:
We took Bill to a favorite Monroe
eatery of ours, Cypress Inn on the Bayou. This restaurant offers a Cajun/Southern "seafood" menu, and Bill wanted to be adventurous, so we treated him to alligator,
crawfish, and pickle appetizers (all deep fried) and an fried oyster
po-boy (a type of sub sandwich). Below, Bill is taking pictures off of the back deck of this restaurant, which hangs out over a cypress filled bayou:
Tucker also got to meet the business end of a stuffed alligator snapping turtle:
Now you can clearly see why you don't mess with snapping turtles! We still had a lot of daylight left after lunch, and we wanted to stretch our legs a bit, so we drove out of our way a little to Poverty Point State
Archeological Park northeast of Monroe. This old mound site has a neat museum:
and a number of mounds, including the very large one below:
The high point of this mound is over 70 feet tall! The cut logs in the foreground of the picture above are the result of a restoration effort the park is doing--when this site was occupied several thousand years ago, the mounds would not have been covered by trees, so the park has had them cut off. Bill and I walked around the trails by this mound, which was very interesting. The warm sun also brought out some of the local wildlife, including this armadillo:
That evening, after returning to our home, Uncle Bill played some board games with the kids:
The next day was THE big day--Super Bowl Sunday, featuring our beloved Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh
Steelers. The day was warm and sunny, so we spent much of the afternoon outside enjoying the weather. Bill, in particular, enjoyed the warmth, especially given the cold Minnesota climate he had just escaped from. Below, he enjoys the smell of one of the first wildflowers of spring, a small purple violet:
We were hosting a Super Bowl party that evening, so everybody (including Bill!) put on some green & gold, and the kids put on their Packer temporary tattoos that their Uncle John had sent them:
We had a good party, although all of our guests left before the very end of the game--I'm guessing they didn't want to see Packer fans melt down as the
Steelers attempted a comeback... Which, of course, didn't happen... After much rejoicing, we finally settled down for the evening. Bill and I drove to Memphis on Monday, and he got onto his flight back to Minnesota. Just in the nick of time, too--we had a winter storm blow in today, with several inches of snow here in Monticello, 6+ inches in the Little Rock area, and over 2 feet (yes, feet) of snow in northwestern Arkansas!! Below is a picture of our front yard this afternoon:
They canceled school for the kids today, and we suspect they'll probably cancel it tomorrow, too. This is a tiny amount of snow by northern standards, but here in the South they have almost no snow removal equipment, and very few drivers know how to handle the road conditions. Rather than risking the safety of people on the road, most schools and business shut down until warm weather clears the roads, which usually happens in hours or a couple days. Our kids have missed multiple days of school this year due to snow events, and will have their school year extended in June to make up for this... Let's hope that this ends, so they have some summer left!!
Kenny's look on Super Bowl Sunday says it all--don't mess with the Packers!! More on this later... It has been a busy 2 weeks since I wrote the last blog posting while fretting about the Packers' chances in the NFC title game. Below, Kenny and the rest of his Cub Scout den learned about the basics of pocket knife safety, and carved pieces of soap:
Of all the kids there that day, Kenny was only one to nick his fingers--twice! Fortunately, they were mere minor flesh wounds. The last weekend of January was unseasonably warm--we hit 75 degrees on that Saturday! Such a nice day seemed to be wasted on staying home, so we drove to the neighboring county and did some outdoor activities. First, we went down to a place called Green's Island, which has a large Indian mound that we hiked to the top of:
We then went to nearby Moro Bay State Park, which had an old ferry that once transported cars to the other side of the Ouachita River:
We also had a nice picnic supper at that park that evening, and an ice cream treat before we headed home. The following Monday was the local Pinewood Derby, which Hope ran and Kenny participated in:
Kenny's car took third in his age class, which he was quite proud of. The other big event of this week was Stephen's starting of preschool. Below, he is pictured with his teacher Shelly Mullins:
Shelly was also Beth's preschool teacher last year, which means you'll see a familiar stuffed green turtle in many of the following photographs:
Tucker the turtle is a stuffed animal that the kids in the preschool class are asked to periodically take home on the weekends, and the parents are to photograph the adventures of Tucker, and write up a story to accompany these pictures. In the photo above, Stephen is looking at a real (but empty) turtle shell at the Chucalissa Archeological Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. We were in Memphis to pick up my youngest brother Bill, who flew down to visit us over the first weekend of February. We had some time to kill, having left Monticello extra early to minimize any chance of being delayed by the snow falling in Monticello that Friday morning. Below, the kids stand in the mound site at Chucalissa:
We also had a nice walk on a nature trail at this park:
This trail actually passed through a prehistoric Indian village site, and we marveled at how many small pottery sherds and chipped stone flakes we saw in the dirt of the trail (don't worry, we didn't pick any up!). We then went to an Italian restaurant for lunch, which Stephen and Tucker both enjoyed:
We arrived at the airport with about a hour to wait, so we spent time going up and down escalators, and the kids posed with Elvis:
Look at the thrill in Kenny's eye!! Bill's plane arrived on time, and he was greeted by his nephews and niece, and Tucker:
We got back to Monticello before the freezing rain got too bad that night, and the next day (Saturday) the weather cleared and warmed into the low 40s. After a quick tour of the Monticello area, we then went down to Monroe, Louisiana, to see the sights and have lunch. Below, Bill, Stephen, and Tucker pose by the Morris Pine, a 300+ year old, very large loblolly pine in Ashley County, Arkansas:
We took Bill to a favorite Monroe eatery of ours, Cypress Inn on the Bayou. This restaurant offers a Cajun/Southern "seafood" menu, and Bill wanted to be adventurous, so we treated him to alligator, crawfish, and pickle appetizers (all deep fried) and an fried oyster po-boy (a type of sub sandwich). Below, Bill is taking pictures off of the back deck of this restaurant, which hangs out over a cypress filled bayou:
Tucker also got to meet the business end of a stuffed alligator snapping turtle:
Now you can clearly see why you don't mess with snapping turtles! We still had a lot of daylight left after lunch, and we wanted to stretch our legs a bit, so we drove out of our way a little to Poverty Point State Archeological Park northeast of Monroe. This old mound site has a neat museum:
and a number of mounds, including the very large one below:
The high point of this mound is over 70 feet tall! The cut logs in the foreground of the picture above are the result of a restoration effort the park is doing--when this site was occupied several thousand years ago, the mounds would not have been covered by trees, so the park has had them cut off. Bill and I walked around the trails by this mound, which was very interesting. The warm sun also brought out some of the local wildlife, including this armadillo:
That evening, after returning to our home, Uncle Bill played some board games with the kids:
The next day was THE big day--Super Bowl Sunday, featuring our beloved Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The day was warm and sunny, so we spent much of the afternoon outside enjoying the weather. Bill, in particular, enjoyed the warmth, especially given the cold Minnesota climate he had just escaped from. Below, he enjoys the smell of one of the first wildflowers of spring, a small purple violet:
We were hosting a Super Bowl party that evening, so everybody (including Bill!) put on some green & gold, and the kids put on their Packer temporary tattoos that their Uncle John had sent them:
We had a good party, although all of our guests left before the very end of the game--I'm guessing they didn't want to see Packer fans melt down as the Steelers attempted a comeback... Which, of course, didn't happen... After much rejoicing, we finally settled down for the evening. Bill and I drove to Memphis on Monday, and he got onto his flight back to Minnesota. Just in the nick of time, too--we had a winter storm blow in today, with several inches of snow here in Monticello, 6+ inches in the Little Rock area, and over 2 feet (yes, feet) of snow in northwestern Arkansas!! Below is a picture of our front yard this afternoon:
They canceled school for the kids today, and we suspect they'll probably cancel it tomorrow, too. This is a tiny amount of snow by northern standards, but here in the South they have almost no snow removal equipment, and very few drivers know how to handle the road conditions. Rather than risking the safety of people on the road, most schools and business shut down until warm weather clears the roads, which usually happens in hours or a couple days. Our kids have missed multiple days of school this year due to snow events, and will have their school year extended in June to make up for this... Let's hope that this ends, so they have some summer left!!
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