Following the Johnson Family

Last weekend, Aaron flew in from PA to run the LR Marathon.  He joined Jonathan's team of about 20 that were running in support of Surround the Sound.  We went out Sunday morning to cheer them on at Mile 12.

Tracking Aaron's progress

Watching from the truck - it was cold!

Mile 12 - almost halfway 

Ash trying on the medal

We had Dad and all the Johnsons who were in AR (Aaron, Jonathan, Mandi, and Mary Beth) over for dinner on Tuesday night and had the craziest video chat yet with the rest of the Johnsons that he left behind in PA.

Mountain Views

Last weekend, we went up to Mountain View to see the Fowlkes new house.  It's beautiful and has a wonderful view.  We hiked some of the trails on a cold, sunny day.  We even had to call on Dad to identify the droppings of an unidentified critter.  (Turns out to be a bobcat, but I will spare you the "scat" photo I texted to him for confirmation.)

Oh Lord Jesus, It's a Fire!

Another February event that went undocumented, Jeff finally got a new car.  The 11-year-old, 200k+ Altima finally bit the dust.  Well, actually, as this work order reads, "CAR CAUGHT ON FIRE REFER OUT".  

No pics of the new car yet, but just for Renee:

February Family Fun Fest

I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon.  I know it's mid-March, but I'm going to backtrack to February.  For the last three years, we've been getting together with Jeff's extended family for a weekend in February.  It's always a fun time, but we don't really know what to call it.  It started out as a belated Christmas gathering but has become it's own thing with lots of eating, card/game playing, etc.  This year, we added a new element to increase the competition even more: trophies!  They were all homemade and very, well..."special".  For example, Jeff came home with the Golden Plunger.  It looks great on our mantle. ;)

Beautiful view from Canterbury Lodge

Winner's Circle

Ashley at the playground

Everybody got in on the competition!

Be Mine

There's a big difference in the way a 6-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy prepare for Valentine's Day.  Ashley spent time choosing her cards and addressing each one to her classmates by hand using both first and last names.  Nate couldn't care less about the cards...he was only concerned with the candy!  To make both of our lives easier, I didn't even try to get him to write out his cards this year.  I printed these stickers for him with a Valentine's/Mindcraft (his latest obsession) theme.  

The first graders had mini cotillion this week learning etiquette and a dance.  Today, they were paired up and showed off their dancing in a ball before the party.  I bounced back and forth between the first grade and fourth grade parties today to get a few pics of each:   

I can see the etiquette lessons have really paid off for some of them :)

Now that's a sundae!

Daddy Daughter Sweetheart Ball

Last night was the 3rd Annual Daddy Daughter Sweetheart Ball.  Ashley had been looking forward to it for weeks!  For the first time in three years, we were not delayed by a snowstorm, rushed by other family events, or touch-and-go due to illness.  Yea!  As soon as I got home from work, it was full-on prep time: hair, nails, and make-up.  Well, the "make-up" was just a little blush and lip gloss, but the hair was a major production.  In case you haven't noticed, this girl has a LOT of hair, just like her momma!  She usually likes to wear it curly for special occasions such as this. 

Reading a sweet card from Daddy

Getting her corsage 

A special "Thanks" to Meme for picking out this super cute dress!

As you can see, both her hair and dress had excellent "twirlablity"!

My "date" ditched me for the evening to spend the night with a friend.  Though I felt slightly rejected that he chose his friend over his mom, it was nice to have an evening to myself.

Let's Hangout!

Our long distance family has dabbled in video chatting via Skype and FaceTime, but Renee told us about Google+ Hangouts.  We are now able to three-way video chat with all these crazy folks at once!  You get a small screen of each person at the bottom, and whoever is talking pops up on the big screen.  I think you can add up to 9 people.  I guess it stacks the video feeds up Brady Bunch-style as you add more people.  I can only imagine how crazy that would get!  We've been trying to "hangout" once a week, and it has been working pretty well.

Oh, The Places You Have Gone!

One of Jeff's Christmas presents from me was this set of maps.  I framed them in with no glass and with foam mats behind them.  I also got everyone their own colored thumbtacks so that we could pin the states and countries that we've visited.  Ashley was disappointed that she has only been to 15 states and 1 country.  I reminded her that she's six!   

There's a lot of this big world left to see!

Jeff (blue) is leading the states race with 29.  I've got 27 yellow pins, Nate (green)  has 18, and Ashley (red) has 15. The kids are hoping to get passports soon and start pinning some other countries.

A few more pics

I forgot about the pictures on my actual camera.  Here are a few of them:

Our home for the weekend: Cabin 8

An early birthday celebration for Jennifer

Racing down the trail

Marker at the peak

Back to Mount Magazine

We just got home from a weekend getaway to Mount Magazine.  After consulting the blog for reference, I realized it was exactly 3 years since our first trip.  This time, we went with the Fowlkes and stayed in a cabin instead of in the lodge.  It was so nice to have our own space and still have access to the lodge amenities.  If you are looking for a place to get away and unplug (not literally - there's electricity and WiFi), I highly recommend it! It is only a 2 hour drive from WLR.  Now for the pics...

We made it up the mountain on Friday night just at sunset.  After looking at the weekend weather forecast, I was afraid this was the only glimpse of sunshine we would have the entire weekend.

The wet weather held off long enough on Saturday morning for us to take a quick hike up Signal Hill to the highest point in Arkansas.

Found a geocache near the top

Signal Hill

Clouds rolling in at the Lodge

Nathan, Evan, and Ashley enjoying the big, indoor pool.  (That's Will swimming out of the frame.)

We asked someone to take a picture of all eight of us.  That never happens!

Flashback to 2009

And here we are today

The rain turned into sleet overnight and coated the trees - but thankfully NOT the roads - with some ice.  We made it down the mountain with no problems and are looking forward to another trip.