4th of July Weekend 2016

We went to my Aunt and Uncle's home on Lake Loch Lomond in Bella Vista, Arkansas for some family lake time last week.  We had a great time, ate way too much good food, and spent hours in the water.  I wouldn't expect anything different!  Thanks E & J!  We all had a fantastic time!
Day One

Fishing from the dock...

We caught lots of small to medium sized Perch.  The kids did great fishing.  Silas is becoming quite the fisherman.  He is very determined and loves to reel in his own fish.  Phoebe has the most patience of all of our children when it comes to fishing.  She can sit in one spot forever waiting for a fish to come take her bait.

My parents were there too.  Dad enjoys fishing with us, especially his grandkids.

Ernie helped Silas get set up on the end of the boat for some fishing.  Right after I took the picture Silas reeled in a fish on his own and promptly announced with a huge smile on his face, "This is my BEST DAY EVER!"

All three kids liked keeping their fish in the 5-gallon bucket then helping Popee let them all go back into the lake.  Silas is still a little unsure when it comes to touching the fish.  Sometimes he will and sometimes he won't.  So he used a net on some of the bigger fish to help let them go.

We headed out in the boat later for some tubing.  Silas was anxious to help Ernie drive.... He got his chance right away to help out... Sarah and I were first up in the tube and Silas got to drive us around the lake!

Sarah and I had fun and shared some laughs while we rode the tube together.  (In the picture above you can see E & J's dock in the background as we took off, heading out of the cove onto the lake.)

Next up, Silas rode with Sarah.  (I took a lot of pictures of the kids tubing.  It was hard to decide which pictures to share because I loved their facial expressions in so many of them...serious, happy, joyful, laughing, scared, frustrated, and just plain silly.  So in abundance below you can see how much fun they had.)

Thumbs up.  Sarah ALWAYS wants us to drive faster when she is in the tube.

When the boat starts to go pretty fast water sprays up into the faces of the riders!  This is hilarious to the onlookers and sometimes to the riders.  Silas wouldn't let go of the handles, and eventually Sarah tried to block the water from spraying on his face.

Phoebe's turn to ride with her sister....  Last year Phoebe was all about going fairly slow, but this year she didn't seem to mind Sarah giving the thumbs up and taking on some water in the face.

That was fun!  Ha! Ha! Ha!

Below Sarah is giving her "What, the ride is over?? But I want to go again, and faster this time!?" face and hand gestures.

There was lots of swimming, jumping, and diving off the dock.

Day Two

Eric and I decided to visit a couple of places in Bentonville, Arkansas.  First we headed for Walton's 5-10 store and the Wal-Mart Museum.  It is a self-guided tour through the Museum.  The Museum is full of memorabilia and information on the history of Wal-Mart and the Walton family.  Free admission.  To find out more about the Wal-Mart Museum or Sam Walton
Click on this link, www.walmartmuseum.com.

Silas liked Sam Walton's Ford F-150 on display inside the Museum.

Next up, The Museum of Native American History.  We started outside the Museum searching for arrowheads around the tee-pee.  We found several.  Kids under 10 get to keep one for free and any others kept cost $ .50 each.  We ended up finding a lot of them and then having to pick out our favorites to keep.  There were many colors, and sizes.

Inside the Museum we got to view a huge collection of authentic Native American artifacts.  There were stone tools, arrowheads, and pottery.  We viewed artifacts from Apache, Cherokee, and other tribes.  This Museum also had free admission and featured free self-guided audio tours.  To find out more about this fantastic Museum, its owner, and the collection 

Click on this link, www.monah.us.

Back at E & J's house it was time to get the water ski's out!  A few of us went in the boat and a few of us watched from the dock.  Judy watched and took pictures from the dock.  Eric watched and took pictures from the boat.  It is fun to look at the pictures below from two different angles.  I was up first.  I knew I'd get up with no problems and planned on skiing around the lake twice.  I also wanted to try a couple tricks my Dad taught me growing up...

Below, me up with E & J's dock and some of our watchers in the background...

It was a fun to ski around the lake.  I love showing my kids what I can do, and my husband that I sill got it going on, on water ski's.

Next was Matt's turn.  He started out on one ski, then went to two.

And, yes folks, he's still got it too!

Go Mattee, go Mattee! Go Mattee!

Sarah and Phoebe both took a couple turns driving the boat.

Then we spent more time back at the dock swimming and playing in the water.

1 - 2- 3 JUMP!!!

Day Three

More fishing from the dock.  On this day in particular, Silas was even more determined to catch fish.  He found a few places on the dock to try and caught several smaller Perch.  Sarah likes to spend time with her Popee and if he's on the dock fishing she wanted to be there with him trying to catch a fish or a crawdad with her bait.

After lunch we headed over to Tanyard Creek Nature Trail.  There is a great hiking trail along flowing water and a large waterfall.  Due to the big rains that they had been getting there in Bella Vista the falls were roaring and rushing.  It was beautiful and amazing to see.

There were signs along the hiking trail and near the falls that clearly said "STOP".  But were and are ignored by many people.  We watched them walk right past these signs, trying to get as close to the falls and water as they possibly could to take selfies...stretching out those selfie sticks, leaning over the rocks, holding small children, reaching out to try and touch the water, forging trails through the forested areas....  I wondered ALOUD many times, "Do you think that these people can't read or do you think that they just don't care?"  Of course no one answered, but some of them did hear me.  One mom halfheartedly tried to call her teenage son back unsuccessfully.  I don't get it.  Apparently the answer is that they just don't care.  Sad.  But, this is the way a lot of things are going...and this could be a whole other blog post sometime....

There were a few spots were the trail went right along the flowing creek below the falls, and no "STOP" signs were posted.  In one of these safe spots we allowed our children to step in for a few seconds and wash the mud and dirt off their legs.  This was right before one of Sarah's flip-flops accidentally came off and almost floated downstream...thus abruptly ending the short wash off time.

And, later that day back on the dock for some more swimming, jumping, and playing...

This game of trying to catch the ball in the air when you jump of the dock lasted FOREVER!  Surprisingly, there were no injuries to report.  Thank goodness.

We enjoyed many great lunches and dinners prepared by Judy out on the deck overlooking the lake together.

And, the fireworks!  The moments we all had been waiting for....but first some 4th of July glow-in-the-dark light-up masks!

The weather was a little iffy at fireworks go time, (some lightning was in the sky and a few sprinkles of rain) so we decided to watch the fireworks from the dock this year instead of out on the boat in the lake.  It was still a great show and brilliant fireworks!

Silas watched from different spots all over the dock, but mostly enjoyed sitting with Daddy.

The girls both liked watching, but covered their ears for part of the time.  Phoebe was a little nervous and a little scared of the big boomers.  She sat right beside me and really wanted the show to end after about 5 minutes.

Happy 4th of July!  "America, America, God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!"

We all had fun and made some great memories at the lake again this year.  We were happy Uncle Matt and Ziggy could be with us this year too.  We missed Lindsee and EP but already are making plans with them for 4th of July 2017.  Can't wait!