We have now been back in the school routine for a week. Things are going great! I have just forgotten how busy we really are during the school year!!! Layne started Kindergarten and has done extremely well. I prayed for him LOTS during the summer, because he is very introverted (unlike his sister!) and I didn't know how he would react starting kindergarten. But so far...so good!

My kindergarten boy and 2nd grader
Isn't he handsome?!?

During our Arkansas visit, we found time to visit Mt. Magazine. I lived in Arkansas for over 30 years and never visited this amazing place. (If you live in Arkansas, you HAVE to visit this state park!!!). It was a working vacation for Ken. There was a high school coaching staff that wanted him to do a clinic with them, so Ken talked them into meeting him here! He spent several hours with them, while the me and the kids swam in the pool and did some hiking. So...they only had to drive one hour for the clinic and we got to stay in this neat lodge.

It was beautiful!!!

Anna & Layne on the balcony of our room

While we were in Arkansas, we got to catch up with some dear friends of ours from Conway. Because of facebook, word got out that we were going to be in Arkansas. So, Andrea and April organized a mini-reunion of some of the families that were in our Sunday School class at our Conway church. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! One other couple had moved an hour away, and some of the others still live in Conway, but had changed churches. So it was really a mini-reunion. Kenny & April were very gracious to open up their beautiful home to all of us and all of our kids!! All of the kids loved playing on the golf course...I think most of the golfers just skipped over that particular hole!!

The girls (front row) Richelle, April, Felicia, Melinda (back row) Andrea, Melissa, Sherri, me
The guys Jay, Casey, Brooks, Ken, John, Greg, Phillip, Kenny

Each summer one of our favorite things to do is go to the lake. My parents have a lakehouse that we LOVE going to and relaxing. Ken loves going because he is close to the Little Red River, so he can go fly-fishing everyday!!

This picture pretty much sums up what we do the entire time we are there!!!

Ken and the kids on the jet-ski...or as Layne says jek-ski!!Kids enjoying some popsicles with Snow (aka my dad)

When Ken joined us, we left my parents home and headed north with my family to Branson, Missouri. We planned to go for a couple of days and spend most of our time at Silver Dollar City. We had a BLAST!! The kids were so great and they were all tall enough to ride most rides by themselves (or with each other). That was a sad moment...our children don't even need us to ride with them anymore :-(

This was at the ticket office on our very first day. Don't they look SO excited!!

Waiting in line for the roller coaster





Layne and Anna on the first car of the coaster
Abigail, Lexi, Anna. They wore matching outfits!
Anna & Abigail

I have been going through my vacation pictures and found this one. I had to scan!!! It is us (along with my niece, Abigail, sitting right behind me) going down the log ride at Silver Dollar City. I don't usually buy the pictures of us on the rides, but this one was too good!! It looks fake! The look on Layne's face is priceless!!

On June 20, the kids and I made the trip to Arkansas for an extended stay. Ken had to stay in Texas for a little while longer, but he joined us later on. We went to my parents house first to visit. The kids love it there because they have a pool and lots of land to play around on. They also love to ride the Ranger.

Anna and Layne in the pool

Anna & Abigail (Layne in the background)
All of my parents grandchildren with the exception of baby Will. He was napping. Lexi (4), Abigail (6), Brady (5) Layne (5), Anna (7), Lauren (18 months), Jackson (2).
My siblings and their families came to visit us on Sunday. While we were enjoying the pool, someone made a comment that we have so many people in our family, it looks like a city pool!!

Well, I am MAJOR behind on my blog!! My goal is to be caught up before school starts! This is our trip to Seaworld that we took May 30-June 2. We went with Ken's family, but he wasn't able to go...he had to work :( There were eight of us (Me, Anna, Layne, Ken's mom, LeAnn, and my 2 nieces and nephew). We left on a Saturday afternoon, so we could be there when it opened on Sunday. We planned it so Sunday was our "water" day. We all wore our swimsuits and did all of the water rides and the water park. The next day, Monday, we wore regular clothes and saw all of the shows and rode other rides. We had so much fun!! It was hot, but not as hot as it would be later on in the summer.

Here's all of the kids

Anna (7), Layne (5), Ben (13), Jaci (10), Molli (15)

Before the Shamu show. They were sitting in the "splash zone" and got SOAKED!!

Last week, Anna went to Kidquest which is a leadership day camp at ACU. She attended this camp last year and LOVED it! When we were planning our summer schedules, her only request was to attend Kidquest again! Last week (Mon-Wed) was also football camp at ACU. I was filling in for another girl at work (which I normally do not do b/c I am off the entire summer), and needed childcare for Layne. Ken suggested he take Layne with him to camp to be his "helper". That lasted for about 30 minutes. Ken said he wanted to do all of the things the bigger kids were doing. Here he is doing a running back drill.

Here he is learning how to tackle
This is him and Ken is behind him (the one about to hit him with the dummy!!). Layne LOVED football camp and is already asking when he can go again!!!