Count down

Yippeeeee! Only 2 weeks left as of Thursday until we head home. That feels good! See you soon, Tucson!

Ozark Vacation

So I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures from a vacation we took recently to the Ozarks here in Arkansas. First let me say that Arkansas has an awesome state park system! They have very developed camp grounds that are so clean and plentiful. If you want to experience some really comfy camping - Arkansas is the place. We went as the leaves were changing, and my dad was able to come visit to see the great Ozarks. Our first stop was the Ozark Folk Center. It was so fun! They had a band that only plays songs older than 1940. One of the fiddlers/dancers/singers was an 11 year old girl - and she was AWESOME! John has some video of here that I'll have to post.

Anyhow, gotta go run (we've got a 1/2 marathon in Jan to get ready for!) I'll post more later.

Manipulating Baby

Okay, manipulating is a bit harsh, but it's close to true. She's started throwing tantrums for things she wants and it is oh-so-sad to watch. My sweet little baby has become a little girl-crabby tantrums and all. If she doesn't get held or get a bite of our food or get a toy she wants, out come the tears. Little does she know that those blue eyes would get a lot more if she didn't sit and scream. She also had this great way of puckering her lips. It's hilarious!

Hot Springs, AR

Okay, I'd better apologize ahead of time because I'm going to make this a picture-loaded post. There was just so much to see in Hot Springs. Arkansas can be a seriously beautiful place - once you get out of the swamps. Hot Springs is about 3 times the size of Camden at about 30,000. It is surrounded by 3 lakes: Lake Ouchita (Wah-chi-tah), Lake Hamilton, and Lake Catherine. The city was founded on some geysers, so there is a street in downtown Hot Springs with Bath Houses (like in Rome... kinda) called 'Bath Row'. Although they weren't the original structures from the early 1800's, it was fun to see something a little older than the 70's.

Our first night in Hot Springs, there was a Jazz concert and a boat tour on Lake Ouachita. In our kids' interest, we decided the boat tour would be best, so we headed out... LATE. We missed the tour and spent the sunset on the beach throwing rocks and then on the playground. Dallin was so upset about missing the boat that he started crying. I told him it was a good lesson to us, the ever tardy McNeill's, to make punctuality a priority. I don't think he cared for my lecture. Throwing rocks helped him quickly forget, though.

After an awful night in a hotel - not because of the hotel, but because Mia is getting her two top front teeth (yeah!), we went driving in the 'mountains' around Hot Springs, and then eventually ended up at Garvin Botanical Gardens. Oh so pretty! It was great fun. They have some awesome waterfalls, a Koi pond with Koi big enough to eat you. Seriously. I think they have mixed them with the alligators. We had so much fun we spent almost the entire day there!

They have a garden that you have to take a long walkway to get to, and then it has boulders and fun bridges and a cave for the kids to play in. We could have come back the next day and spent another playing in that park. And now I'll be a little indulgent and show you how cool the park is and my pretty nature pic.

Dallin's Big Race

So John and I have been training for a half marathon that we'll be running in Phoenix in January. I've been trying to do as many 5K races as I can between now and then. They inevitably have kid's races in them, and Dallin ran in the last one that John raced. So there is one coming up in October, but this time it's a full mile. So we've begun training Dallin. He is SO cute in his running clothes! We had to get some pictures. The first one is of the house we are renting... a little run down, eh? but green!

Birthdays

Ok, so it's a rainy Sunday in Arkansas, and we just got done building a nice dresser with plenty of cubby-holes for Dallin and Mia's clothes out of cardboard boxes (I love living in temporary housing). So I thought I would sit down and write about the birthdays we just celebrated.

Mia is officially ONE year old! We went to the store to get her a cake (since I don't have a cake pan that will really fit the toaster over... or flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, etc.). We held up a small container of colorful muffins with sprinkles on them. Dallin was very excited for that one, and thought giving Mia a choice was just to torture him. But we did give her a choice. The other choice was a small cream-cheese frosted carrot cake with small orange frosting carrots on top. She looked at them (we weren't even sure if she cared at all) and she formed a little

pointer with her hand and chose... the carrot cake. AWWWW- NO FAIR!! (that was Dallin's

reaction.) So Mia blew out one candle and put her little fists into a nice slice of carrot cake.

John's birthday is the very next day, so we had to celebrate! I started by letting him sleep in and taking the kids shopping at Wal-Mart first thing in the morning. We got some yummy mushrooms and peppers to make breakfast burritos for him (his fav breakfast). We chose a pound cake and some raspberries for his birthday cake and unfortunately he had to deal with the same candle (but it's because he's No. 1 in our books).

Welcome to Arkansas!

So our little family is in Arkansas - we made it! We are living in Camden, Arkansas until December. Raytheon sent us on a little adventure. So we decided to drive from Arizona to Arkansas so that we could have two cars while here (Raytheon is renting me another). So here are some of the pictures from our long, long, loooooooonnnnnggggg car trip (did I mention that it was long?)

We loaded up a U-Haul, hitched it to the poor Suburu, and drove across four states. Ok, so really we didn't drive all the way across Arizona or Arkansas. We did get to stop twice; once in El Paso (hallelujah Holiday Inn!), and once in Dallas. We stopped by Chuck and Tami's house in McKinney for breakfast and we got to see Alicia too (although we missed her kido and hubby). Then it was off to Arkansas!

I started work this week - and boy, was it a busy week! It was Mia's and John's b-day on Friday and Saturday, and we had to find a more permanent place to stay (we're staying in some really nice long term hotel right now that's a little pricey, although cheaper than a hotel by far). So here is a picture of Dallin outside of our hotel/apartment. I'll post some pics from Mia's and John's birthdays next... I promise this time.