Sunday, April 19, 2009

Rachael and Blake's Wedding

Zach and I went to the wedding of a VERY good friend of mine from high school last weekend. Her name is Rachael. It was nice to catch up with some old friends and the wedding and reception were beautiful. Here are some pictures.

Zach and I in the car between the wedding and reception.


There were so many people there that the reception hall was full as well as the outdoor patio tent. This is the tent before it was filled to the brim with guests.


The bride's cake. Notice the bowls of water filled with white flowers holding up the glass platter for the cake. Cool, huh?


A view of the gorgeous satin covered chairs in the reception hall and the calla lillies and tulips at each table. WOW!


Zach and I in the dark reception hall in one of the sitting areas. Sorry it's blurry, the flash on our camera is broken. (Please refer to the rock climbing blog from a few months ago where I dropped the camera off a 30 foot cliff).


Rachael and Blake being serenaded by her family, "I say a little prayer for you!"


Here are a few pictures of the gift I made for the Jones'. It's a magnet board. I bought flat sheet metal and an open-backed frame, cut the sheet metal to size, fit it in the frame and then, I made personalized magnets for them of their engagement photos and some quotes about love. It was fun, easy, and between you and me, pretty cheap!






And, to finish...A picture of some of the flowers growing in our yard. In my favorite hand-made vase. Come visit us and you can see them in person! :D

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Camping at Petit Jean Mountain

"If it wasn't for Zachary...." that is what most of my sentences begin with. But, this particular sentence ends with, "you guys would never know what was going on in our lives."

Zach and I went camping with our very good friends, the Powells. Justin and Claire are friends of ours from church. I went to high school with Justin, but didn't know him very well. His wife Claire is the sweetest thing. She is from Mississippi and she sounds like it too. Her name has two syllables according to her. 'Clay-air.' :D LOVE HER! Anyway, some pictures from our camping adventure:

Zach and I were up before 7am and I think Justin and Claire slept until 9. :) We enjoyed some alone time. It was sooooo beautiful!


Stick biscuits of course. Zach likes his with little smokies inside and I like butter and strawberry jam. mmm :P


Ah, yes. The glory of campfire cooking. We had hot dogs for dinner and then, for breakfast I made scrambled eggs, stick biscuits, little smokies, and coffee. That's better than when we're at home and I make cold cereal for breakfast.


We were camping at Petit Jean mountain, so the next day we went hiking! It was really breath-taking. A little bit for the scenery and a little for the hiking. The view from the top of the trail.


The only picture I got all weekend of all 4 of us. Not a great picture, but that's the whole gang.


I love this mess. I'd like to plop a house on the side of this creek. Too bad you'd have to hike in with your groceries. No easy unload from the car.


Aren't they cute and sweet? We are so glad to have some good friends here.


This is Zach's happy face. You want to know how I can tell? He has a fish in his hand. That's how.


This was at the end of our hiking trail. Cool, huh? Claire and I sat on a rock in the middle of the river and chatted and just listened to he waterfall while Zach and Justin finished fishing. It was very relaxing.


There were A LOT of people there that day, so I had to crop little heads out as much as I could without making the waterfall look squatty.
Good trip. Pretty things to see, some good exercise for our bodies, good friends. God is good.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

BOWFISHING!

Over the past year or so I've really been interested in bowfishing but I haven't had much of a chance or much knowledge to really get out there and do some damage. Well the best way to learn is to get out there and try so I have been. I've went a couple times since I've been in Arkansas with no luck. But this time was different....


These are the four fish my friend John Madill and I shot. He shot the alligator gar and the smaller of the other three. I shot the two big ones. We don't really know what kind of fish they are but we think may be bonefish.


More pics. Anyone have any ideas what they are?


I didn't get to weigh them but they were definitely bigger than anything I've ever shot before.


This was a very funny story.

We were in the canoe and one person would paddle while the other stood up and looked for fish. Well standing up in a moving canoe is really hard and it gets even harder when you are excited about a fish, as Madill was. He was the gar and shot at the same time he almost tipped our canoe and fell into the canoe. We laughed about that and he said he had missed to the right and started collecting himself and bringing in the line. When he got it in he pulled the arrow up and to our surprise there was the gar on the end. We started laughing even harder. He had hit it through the head so we assumed it was dead and the threw it in the boat. It wasn't. It went crazy and we both started trying to pin the fish down with our feet. After we gained control and stopped laughing from that we looked and Madill had dropped his bow in the water during the escapade. I lost it at that point and couldn't see I was laughing so hard and the tears were rolling and he pulled his bow in with the line that was still attached to the fish. So he caught a bow with his fish, fishbowing. When he pulled it up I had to snap this picture and relax from laughing so hard.

All in all it was one of the most fun and most memorable times I've had on the water. I'm pumped to get back out there and try again! Dad, you have to get down here and try this!!!