The Gopher's favorite toy

The Gopher really likes this farm toy. He recently learned how to make the bottom part spin all by himself. Sunday morning I put him on his tummy in front of it and he stayed on his elbows and played with it. He looks so cute and really likes being able to play on his tummy. He can now get on his elbows all by himself and will play until he gets tired. We are so proud of him.

Goats and Ponys

Well who says you can't be stylish while goat herding. The adventure has begun. Now that the Bear is going into the third grade she can show an animal in the fair. So we decided to try goats. We spent the weekend building the goat pen. Congratulations to Daddy he worked very hard and did a great job. We had a few minor setbacks when it came to actually getting the goats, but finally the first one arrived.

Here is Waddles Walle Wallace, or WWW or any other name that starts with a W that you can think of. He started out as Waddles, because of the little things hanging down from his neck, but then Daddy started calling him Walle and Mommy just calls his Wallace or Waldo. He started out very afraid of us, but now he likes to eat out of your hand and get his head scratched. I don't have a picture of the second goat, but his name is Flash Gordie. He is white with a brown head. He is smaller and they were fast friends. Goats like to be together, so they follow each other around. Waddles is like the big brother and where ever he goes so does Gordie. The girls are having fun taking care of them. Sarah is in charge of scooping the poop and checking and refilling the food. So far she still likes it, but she has until October to get tired of it.

Now for the Pony. It is a new trainer they got at his therapy. He really seems to like it (he didn't cry while on it, so that is a good sign). He doesn't know how to work it yet, but he likes sitting on it and trying to reach for the toys, so hopefully he will figure out how to make it go. He looks like such a big boy sitting on it.

ArkMoTenn

Well it is 5:00am and time for another Family Road trip. Every summer we take a family trip to a different state. So far we have been to New Mexico, Georgia, Alabama & Mississippi. This year we decided to head to Arkansas, Southern Missouri, and Western Tennessee. Everyone was bright and chipper for an early start. See that little space between the Goose and the Bear, that is where I had to sit. The Gopher and Daddy had it easy with their seats to themselves. We drove for a few hours and then stopped for breakfast at McDonald's.

We made it to Texarkana by lunch time. We found that there isn't much open on a Sunday afternoon on the Arkansas side. But we found a great restaurant and had lunch. Since we were spending the night in Texarkana, we decided to add a short hike to the afternoon.
We visited Millwood State Park. It was a short 1 mile hike around a lake with beaver lodges. It was nice to be out of the car and this was the Gopher's first experience in the backpack carrier.

He did very well over the whole trip. He would get a little fussy when he got tired, but as long as Daddy kept moving he would fall asleep and be happy.

Day two involved Diamond hunting. The Goose was really looking forward to this (or at least the idea of this). But after about 20 minutes in the heat, she was tired of looking. The bear lasted a little longer, but no one struck it rich.

But luckily there is a wonderful little water park right next to the field of diamonds. So as soon as it opened, Goose and Bear were ready to go. We had lunch first and a little water fun in the car (the plug on the ice chest came open and drained in the car - luckily we had put towels under the ice chest just in case and they were the only thing that got wet). We spent about 4 hours playing in the water and I think the Bear went down the water slide at least 50 times. Afterward we decided to go dig a little longer while Daddy took the Gopher for a stroll. He called me a little later saying that he needed rescuing. They had had a diaper explosion that went everywhere including his shoes and all over the stroller. So we turned in our mining equipment and went to find them. Luckily they made it to the campground laundry facility. So after cleaning everything up, I put everything in the dryer for awhile. We had a short drive to our hotel and that was the end of another fun day in Arkansas.
We headed north to Lake Catherine State Park. After a short hike, we found this small waterfall. The Goose was not too excited about getting close to the water. We stayed here for quite some time. Daddy enjoyed damning up the water for a big water release. The girls practiced skipping rocks across the water and making a path with large stones.

The Gopher decided he had had enough hiking and took a nap. He was getting heavy and there wasn't any grass to lay him in, so I improvised by laying him on the backpack carrier.

After hiking, we continued north towards Hot Springs. There is a beautiful view from Hot Springs, here is the Gopher "On top of the world". We walked around Hot Springs and saw the old bath houses and a display spring. The water was so hot that there was steam coming off of it. We ate lunch and stopped at a candy store (there always has to be at least one candy store on every trip). Then it was back in the car and onward and northward.

Next stop was Mt. Magazine the highest mountain in Arkansas. The Goose and The Bear enjoyed the gift shop and then we had more driving to do. We stopped at Petit Jean State Park. We climbed the Turtle Rocks and saw the Rock House Cave. It had several cave drawings, but it was getting dark so we couldn't find them. We also hiked over to Bear cave, and fortunately didn't see any bears.
All the trails are marked by Blazes. It was the Goose's job to find the Blaze and keep us on the right trail. They did a great job during all the hikes. We had a few grumpy moments, but I would complain too after a 2.5 mile hike if I was only 7 or 5.
On our way to Missouri, we stopped to see the Pedestal Rocks. This was the longest hike, but had a great view. After we finished, we headed to Branson to see Dolly's Dixie Stampede. It was certainly the highlight for The Gopher and the girls. He really enjoyed to juggler that did the pre-show and the food was really good.

Thursday, we spent the majority of the day in the car. We had to get from Branson, Missouri to Jonesboro, Arkansas. We had lunch at a super catfish buffet (one of Daddy's favorites) and then it was back in the car for more driving. Thanks to Wal-mart for being so easy to find in most places. We used many as rest stops for potty breaks and diaper changes. I had to include the above picture because I had never seen a turtle ride on an alligators back. This was at another one of Arkansas's great state parks. They were all free and very well maintained with visitor centers and bathrooms.

Next we headed to Tennessee. Memphis is right across the border from Arkansas, so we thought we would cross over. Memphis has a great zoo, so since we always go to a zoo on our summer trips, we added it to the list. While we were there, we had BBQ at the Neely's (as seen on the Food Network). Daddy had the signature BBQ spaghetti and BBQ nachos. They were both really good. We also drove by Graceland, so that we could say that we say it. Our mantra for the Zoo was Penguins, Polar Bears and Pandas, and we weren't disappointed.

The Penguins were outside swimming around. They are South African penguins, so they prefer temperatures in the 80s. They were small and when they swim on the surface they look like black ducks.
I didn't include a picture of the polar bear, because I didn't get a very good one. So instead here are the sea lions. They had a great show including tricks and a lesson about the difference between sea lions and seals.
The Pandas certainly did not disappoint. Ya-Ya was very active and came right up to the glass for a picture. She posed and walked around a lot while we were there. Ling-Ling the other panda, was asleep every time we went by.

They had a carousel and Goose and Bear both rode on pandas. The Gopher really enjoyed watching and he smiled and laughed the whole time they went around. Overall we had a great trip. On the way back we stopped in Dallas to have lunch with Marcus and Kelly and meet baby Grant. We had great weather the whole trip and everyone had fun.

Little Boy Blue and his new doo

Well now that we are completely recovered from surgery, thanks to everyone for all the prayers and thoughts and support. We were very blessed. The Gopher is back to his old self and his smile did return along with a new interest in making noises. The ENT that operated on his nose said that she goes for the 10 foot rule. They try and make it look good from ten feet away. They can make it look prettier when he gets older. We think that she did better than that. This picture was taken after only a few weeks. It looks even better now. All the redness is gone and he only has a small little bump on the bridge of his nose. He will probably need another surgery later in life to "pretty it up", but who knows, maybe he will like this way.

Here is a picture of the Gopher in his Thera-tog. It helps him with muscle support and trunk control. I think he is a future member of the Blue Man Group. All he needs is the face and arms. He also looks very cool in his shoes.