ARKANSAS - Missouri and Oklahoma too

Every two years Matt's family gets together for a reunion. This includes his parents two brothers and a sister and all their kids. His sister Ann and her hubby Craig hosted this year and it was fun, fun, fun! Here's a little run down of the weeks activities. I don't have pictures for a few things because I wasn't there or our camera wasn't there. However, everyone loaded their pictures off their cameras onto Ann's computer and she will burn us all a CD with all the pics. Is that not awesome! Here we go....

Sunday/Father's Day: Ruby and Joe at the airport waiting for our plane that was over an hour late. Joe just could not wait to "blast off".

We flew into the Tulsa, OK airport, rented a car and drove to Springfield, MO. Along the way we stoped in Carthage, MO where the Precious Moments Chapel is located. Matt and me had been there before but we thought Ruby would enjoy it. She did! And we let her pick out a figure to buy for her birthday. Here are Ruby and Joe listening very intently to the tour guide.

In Springfield we meet up with all of Matt's family for a minor league baseball game. Joe is showing off his "foot-long" corn dog we got for dinner. Yum! At the end of the game they let the kids go down and run the bases. When we went though the gate onto the field Joe said "WOW" with the most amazed voice and look on his face I have ever seen. It was too cute.
We then drove to Harrison, AR, yes we were in four states in one day.

Monday/Matt's Birthday: Canoe Trip on the Buffalo that was just about 30 min. away from Ann's house, I don't have any pictures of it but when I get them I will put them here. At first Ruby and Joe didn't want to go because I think Matt totally freaked them out when he was telling them all about how the rivers in AR are so much bigger then the rivers in AZ and they have never seen a river this big. I know this because on the drive to the river they kept asking me if there are sharks in this river and if it goes super fast and if there are jellyfish and whales and again if there are sharks. After we got there and they saw the river, that really wasn't that big, they were fine.

Tuesday: Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO and this picture illustrates what happens when you bring both grandparents and small children to a amusement park...they end up watching each other while everyone else rides the rides. Matt's dad, Larry, actually did ride one of the biggest coaster I think they had there. He loved it!!! (this is typed with complete sarcasm) I am also very grateful to Karlee for demonstrating for Clara the proper way to sit in a stroller.

There was also a place to do some crafts and a really cool tree house play place that I don't have a picture of.
We saw a live Veggie Tales Show and then Joe meet Bob and Larry. I don't believe they have arms and legs in the cartoons but they do here at Silver Dollar City.

Ruby found something pretty to pose by.

Joe found something to stick his head through...
...and got stuck. Matt had to rescue him.
I guess we'll keep him.

Clara found it all very relaxing.

Wednesday: Lake Trip and boating and skiing and tubing and swimming and don't forget eating.....

Ruby is a FISH. She loved jumping off the pontoon boat into the lake over and over and over again.
Joe absolutely did not want to go into the water. He kept saying he wouldn't float (please note his life jacket and arm flouties) I did just force him in where he just whined at me until.... magical aunt Ruth came, took him and whispered something magical in his ear.

There was also of course some birding going on in the morning. Matt got 16 new birds just this morning and a total of 40 new ones for the whole trip. This was his first time doing any birding out side of Arizona. He was like a kid in a candy store. Clara liked the water and the boat too. She liked crawling around and being passed from family member to family member. And also taking long naps on/with uncle Alan.


Thursday: was a day of hanging out at the house, playing lots and lots of games, eating, napping, a 70th birthday celebration for Larry and a big family photo session.

You have to be careful around Alan he likes to try and steal other peoples babies. Here he is trying to convince Clara what great treatment she will get if she goes home with his family. Sneaky.





Friday/Ruby's Birthday: We played some more games in the morning. Mainly Status Pro Baseball which I won by some freak accident. This post has become very long so I will do Ruby's birthday on a separate one. Many, many thanks go to Ann, Craig and Karlee for showing us a fabulous time. And thanks to everyone else for being such a fun family to belong to.