Chris Stapleton at AMP

The year of the concerts continued in June with Chris Stapleton!

He put on a great show, but next time we know to buy actual seats at this venue in Arkansas. Several couples went with us and also there was Shiloh and Chris!

White Water with the Owens

Somewhat "new" friends to our life is the Owen family. Chris and Karla moved back to the area (Karla grew up here) after both retiring from the military. They built a house shortly after ours and the connection was made via Eric. They have 2 adorable sons as well: Logan-who is in 1st grade and best buds with Griffin, and Austin is in 5th Grade this year. 

They are A LOT of fun and we've enjoyed getting to know them. Most of our closest friends have daughters, so Cooper and Griffin have really loved spending time with these rowdy boys who have similar interests.

Best thing we found about White Water......rent a cabana. Totally worth the money to have a table, chairs, locker, etc! Our only pictures came when we were taking breaks. The boys rode almost everything in the park, and with a little height they will probably do it all next summer. 

Happy 9th Anniversary

We don't typically have a crazy anniversary celebration. This year was pretty big though. 

Justin Timberlake went on tour and it just so happened that he would be in Memphis on the night of our anniversary. Drew agreed. My heart was happy. 

We tried 3 different BBQ places in less than 24 hours. Rendezvous for dinner before the concert, Blues City Cafe for a middle of the night snack with new friends, and Central BBQ for lunch before we left town the next day. It was definitely our favorite. 

I have a whole bunch of video from the concert, but I ruined it all by singing very loudly. The 2 seats beside us were empty up until a couple minutes before Justin came on stage. It turned out to be a very cool, non-married, no kids couple named Cedric and Robyn. They were locals and walked to the concert from home. They also showed us around Beale Street afterward. I included our pic before we said goodbye. So much fun!

Another spontaneous treat was the Lorraine Motel, which is right beside Central BBQ. I had a really great coach/history teacher in high school who made me love all things historical. Super cool to experience that bit of history. 

It was an awesome overnight trip. Also, added a handful of Drew/Sarah selfies to the collection. We rarely take pics together-just the two of us, so we should be good for a while now. 

 

 

May 2018

May is always a good month. School lets out, the weather gets warmer, and we celebrate our anniversary just to name a few nice things. 

And the military starts flying helicopters right through the backyard....

Work on the memorial garden continued, and I finished my part. All that is left is a rock border around it to match the rest of our landscaping. 

Here's the Japanese Maple that I ended up picking as the focal point. 

 This is our beloved Kinley. She started babysitting for us last year. Her very first "job" was to go with us to the Dakotas. At the time, she had only watched the boys at the YMCA during my weightlifting class. Big shoes and she filled them. The boys took to her right away and since then she has really developed a bond with Cooper. This photo was at her graduation party. We will miss her but she is destined for great things as she moves off to college this fall. 

The Phillips family FINALLY came down for a long overdue visit. We had some fun with friends and of course spent out time outdoors. 

 Hard to see them all, but Mike has quite a herd of deer in his front yard every night. 

Griffin got on a fishing kick and wanted to go several times throughout the month. Briley helped Cooper catch some fish. Hopefully we can do this more often!

  Boomer loves to be next to me, even if it's up in the tractor. 

Another perk to working from home, all of the volunteering I get to do as part of the Elementary PTO. This day in particular was extra special since it was one of my favorite days of the school year. Field Day! It's a little different now because the kids compete as a class. Boo. Still a great time and good lessons learned being active. 

We finished out the first season of Coach Pitch. Griffin did great. I can't wait to see how he improves between now and next year. 

 

The Owen family hosted an end of school laser tag party. Chris and Karla have become good friends of ours. Eric built them a house right after he finished with us, so we met talking about house stuff. Karla also is part of PTO and I see her quite a bit since they are both retired military and have flexible schedules. Their youngest son Logan is in Kindergarten also. She sends me great photos from different school functions that I've included in the blog. Our whole family ended up playing laser tag and it was FFUUUUUUUUNNNNN. Cooper worked for both teams. He ran around and pointed out where people were hiding. Good times. 

The horses have already gained back everything they lost over winter. 

I didn't get any pictures from our Mother's Day dinner with Grandma Kathi and Grandpa Don. We did take a few at the Honeycutt lunch. 

My boys suprised me with beautiful fresh flowers and some hand made goodies. 

Griffin received many awards at the end of school Awards Ceremony. 
-Mrs. Darter's Counting to 100
-Mrs. Darter's Super Reader Award
-Kindergarten Artist of the Year from the art teacher Ms. Gammon
-Courageous Performer from the music teacher Mrs. Presser
-Library Citizenship 

And the final report card has all good remarks. Whew!

 I'm probably repeating myself from a previous blog, but newsflash, I have jury duty this summer. My term is from 5/1 to 8/31 and I have already been called once. I didn't get picked. I had to raise my hand for the "Are you related to a law enforcement officer?" and then explain that, and then also because one of the witnesses was a kid that rode my Mom's school bus. Apparently he is a city cop now and was testifying. Maybe I won't have to actually sit for a jury trial. 

Tipper has the best of both worlds: lives in the house, but plays like a farm dog. 

 Drew's horse is very sneaky. He's found that he can wedge himself in the smallest door of our old barn to escape the heat and other horses. 

Tammy's pool has been a hot spot for the boys. Griffin loves that he can touch. Cooper loves to use "his power" to kick around in his life jacket. They are going to be great swimmers and love the water. 

I guess Griffin was feeling like a supermodel in this month's pictures. At least they were as clean as they can ever be!