Snakes And Trains

We were in Pine Bluff, AR today and visited Cane Creek State Park to do a little hiking. The boys are collecting medallions for their hiking sticks and we thought it would be neat to check out some trails in the southeast part of the state while we're visiting Phillip's family. Unfortunately, it's way too hot to do anything outside. Instead, we hung out in the visitor center and Nathan got his creepy crawly fix. He petted an alligator, fed minnows to turtles, looked at snakes and a tarantula, and helped the park ranger put the baby turtles back into their aquarium.

Thomas watched from the gift shop area.

Giant spiders are not his idea of fun.

To make it more enjoyable for him we went to the Pine Bluff gravity yard and spent an hour watching railroad cars being sorted onto different tracks. Nathan loves trains, too, but if there were snakes IN the train cars he would love it even more.

Tomatoes, onion, and garlic...

...oh my! I've got this roasting in the oven for soup right now. Yes, I'm aware that it's 103 degrees outside but inside my house it's a comfortable 78, thank you very much. Besides, I needed to reclaim my kitchen window sill. Our tomato plants are producing a ton of romas this year and I love it!

Just Peachy

We had a great time at the peach festival yesterday. It started early with the 4 mile run. Phillip took off work just for this race so he ran and I watched. My yoga teacher had asked us to walk in the parade to help hand out fans (it was hot!) and so I brought along Phillip and Nathan to help, too. Thomas joined us later for cotton candy, a train ride, and a few minutes in the bouncy house. I managed to limit myself to one funnel cake even though the foot long corn dogs and fried Snickers were calling my name. As were the fried Oreos, potato curls, fried ice cream, lemonade, AND sno cones.

Wordless Wednesday: Fun At The Waterpark

What's Growing

We've had some much needed rain this week and I hope we have more to come.  In this drought I've managed to keep a few things growing like my crepe myrtles and vincas.  I don't know why I bother with anything other than vincas, I ended up killing my impatiens this year but I always have good luck with vincas.  We are having good luck with tomatoes this year, too.  As a matter of fact, those plants provided our dinner tonight--roasted tomato soup.  Thankfully, we've only seen one hornworm in the garden and plucked him off the plant before he was able to do much damage.  The basil is growing nicely, too.  If only I'd make myself get out there and harvest it.  I hope your garden is growing, too! 

Vietnamese Iced Coffee

There's this Vietnamese place that Phillip likes to go to for lunch when he's working days.  It's in a former '50s themed restaurant and the Vietnamese folks never bothered changing the decor.  It's kind of bizarre to be eating my egg roll salad with rice vermicelli and fish sauce while listening to the Big Bopper, but it works.  Their Vietnamese iced coffee is so good that I've been making my own at home with a recipe from allrecipes.com.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee (original recipe found here)

4 cups water
1/2 cup ground coffee beans
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
ice

Just go ahead and add the sweetened condensed milk to the coffee pot and then brew your coffee right into it.  Give it a stir and let cool for a bit then pour over ice (it's okay if it's a little warm because the ice is meant to dilute it).

What I Like To Call...

Saturday Night

Fun On The Fourth

Of Arkansas' 75 counties, all but 2 are under a burn ban so we didn't get to have fun with fireworks on the Fourth.  But we did get to enjoy some fun family time.  Phillip had the day off from work, I didn't have to go to class, Angie came up from Little Rock with her crew, and we had some delicious food at my parents house.  The boys had a lot of fun, too--confetti poppers, whipper snappers, and water guns--what more could 2 little boys want?!

Happy Finding Day!

Three years ago today I was walking back from the mailbox and noticed a wild critter sleeping underneath the car.  It happened to be a very friendly, loving, playful border collie mix.  We named her Indie in honor of Independence Day.  It was either that or Thomas' suggestion of Firework.  Getting to know her these past 3 years I would say that 'Firework' would have been just as fitting.