- We struggled to find seats this morning at church-there were offering baskets saving every row. We might just have to start getting there earlier which would make the girls very happy. They are never pleased with how early we leave for church even though we always get there at least 15 minutes early.
- We didn't have Sunday school today because of the holiday so when church was over we visited for a bit and then headed to Nonna and Pops for Sunday lunch. They had hamburgers and all of the fixings. We ate and visited, and then we headed home because it was a busy afternoon for the kids.
- Keaton and I left first to run to Walmart for her to buy a birthday present for one of her friends. While we were gone, Robby and Anderson washed the cars that were left at the house. Then not too long after we got home, Anderson and Graham left all dressed up for a wedding.
- Campbell left next to go to a party and then she went to another place to watch fireworks-while she was there, she did lose her glasses, but she does have another pair plus she has a coupon to order another pair. She did the right thing and went back to look and spoke to a worker, but I think that she was a bit bummed about it.
- Robby took Keaton to her party next. She ended up at the same fireworks that Campbell was at so they played some volleyball with all of their friends and are now on their way home. When Robby returned from taking Keaton, he worked outside for a bit, but then the Wilsons came over for our Sunday night supper.
- There was only 4 of us eating, so we had way too much food, but we might eventually eat it. The boys and Brett all came back from their wedding and told us all about it. They all stayed for a while, and now we are just waiting on the girls to come in and everyone will be in for the night.
July 5, 2026
July 4, 2026-Happy 250th Birthday America!
- I had quite a long list of things that I wanted to accomplish today, and I was still pretty tired and sore when I woke up (I had an incredibly long list of ailments-my shoulder hurt, I had a blister, my ankle hurt, my ear was itchy, and my neck was sore) I still went right to work, and everything thankfully worked itself out.
- My list was long, and I thought that it would take me most of the day. However, I zoomed through my list and even completely reloaded the camper while Robby was shopping. Then it started raining and since my list was done, it was rest time for me and Marley.
- When Robby came home, Campbell helped me make brownies, and Keaton helped me make muddy buddies. Robby also helped me make a dip for tonight. Since we had everything ready to go, I sat back on the couch and watched some soccer before getting ready to go.
- Tonight's festivities happened at the Wilson's house. There were lots of people there, and the rain ended just in time. We were able to be outside, and goodness, the food was plentiful. After we ate, there was quite a bit of visiting.
- Then it was time for fireworks, and there were so many. The show was great and pretty loud! It was a great end to the holiday!
July 3, 2026-Plant Mission Trips and More State Parks
Robby and I were up early this morning moving around the camper quietly so we wouldn't wake up Marley (she definitely heard us) and so we wouldn't wake up Whitman (it would take a bomb to wake him up.) Robby worked on the outside, and I worked on the inside, and soon we were hooking the car up.
We had about an hour drive to our 8th state park to visit on this trip. Robby had read that it was one of the smallest state parks, and indeed it was. I scoped out a nearby church for us to park out, so we parked there, woke Whitman up, and walked to Lower White River State Park.
It took us all of about 10 minutes to walk around the museum in the park and that included me going to the bathroom. This place was so small that they didn't even have a bathroom. I believe that we were the first visitors that had come through today. And yes, when I handed the visitor center worker my passport book to stamp, I was very careful that he didn't have my book long enough to read any of the words that I had written-I didn't want to get in trouble again.
Then we had around another hour until we made it home. Robby and I went to work-he always talks about how he possibly has ADD when he works in the yard, and I feel that way about when I work emptying the camper. Today, he got out the tractor to put up the tow dolly and ended up mowing the yard. And as I worked in the camper, I would take one load in the house and then work in the house for a bit before going back for my next load. It took us longer to finish fluttering around doing all of the things, but when we were done the camper was empty and clean, the yard was mowed, and the house was straight and fairly clean.
Robby ran a few errands, and then he picked up Graham from the airport. He landed around 4, and the boy had stayed up all night since they had to wake up at 3 this morning to get to the airport. Graham came in and took a nap, and now he went to play basketball with Anderson-and no, I didn't let him drive.
Robby dropped Graham off at home then I left with him to pick up the girls. We were home long enough to get Graham's clothes in the washer. They are now dry and folded ready for him to put up. The girls arrived around 5:30, and we brought them home and ate supper.
Campbell was able to stay at home until about 7:30, and then she missed her people too much and went to meet everyone to play volleyball. Keaton thought about going too, but I think that she was too tired, or maybe she just missed Bentley and wanted to stay home with her.
I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up on a pillow-my feet are tired today! Robby just walked by the window with the blower, Campbell is at volleyball, Graham and Anderson are at basketball, and Reagan left this morning to go back to camp for the rest of the summer.
July 2, 2026-Plant Mission Trips and More State Parks
So we will start with the story of the day...we were at Parkin State Park, and I had the ranger at the desk stamp my little passport book. As he handed it back to me, he said, "Have y'all been to a lot of parks today?" We politely answered telling him about our trip.
Then he asked, "Why does Lake Poinsett need a little TLC?" So as he was stamping my passport book, he read my comment from the park right above: "Quaint park but needs some TLC." It has a few lines to write, but I just write a few words about each park. He continued by saying, "The reason I ask is because I'm the Assistant Park Superintendent for Lake Poinsett."
I believe that I could have died right then and there. I guess I will be much more careful about what I write. We told him exactly why we had both agreed that park did need some TLC-road conditions, campsite maintenance, trial signage. He was nice, but I think I hurt his feeling some.
From now on I will not write anything negative about anything again! Ha! He was a nice guy though and showed us some pottery from the park and taught Robby and Whitman how to throw the atlatl (an Indian spear type thing) Whitman was able to throw it pretty good on his second try while Robby didn't make it as far as Whitman. Then we went on a 3/4 mile walk around the mounds in the blazing sun-it was hot!
And yes, when we left Parkin State Park, I wrote in my passport book, "A sunny Toltec mounds."
Back to the main part of the day-we again had a little bit of a slow morning. Robby and I walked to the horse camp area. They have lots of campsites, plus they have 3 huge stables to keep horses in. It was completely empty, but I would love to see it when it is full of horses.
Then we loaded up for our Parkin State Park visit. It was about 30 minutes away from us, and we just stopped there before coming home. When we made it home, Whitman immediately took a shower because he was so hot from our walk.
Then for the rest of the afternoon we just vegged out. I crocheted and read and napped. It was wonderful. We all played SkyJo for two rounds before cleaning out the fridge for our supper. Once again, we have eaten not really any of our meals that we have brought to eat-I take that back, we have eaten our two frozen meals. So I'm not really sure how we had enough leftovers in the fridge to eat for supper tonight.
Robby and I just got back from a walk to the cabins that we stayed out about 10 years ago on the Dennie family trip. Now, he is picking up some outside things, and we are about to eat tonight's ice cream-yes, we weren't too concerned with our suppers on this trip because we brought a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream for every night!
July 1, 2026-Plant Mission Trips and More State Parks
(Click for today's pictures)
I woke up at 3 to go to the bathroom, and the light beside Robby was on. He hadn't noticed, but the sheet was wrapped around his head. By the time I came back from the bathroom, Robby was awake and looking at me trying to figure out why I turned on his light. I assured him that I don't even know how to turn his light on, but this morning he figured out that the power must have blinked last night which causes his light to come on when the power comes back on.
Robby and I walked a little bit this morning. We were going to walk on one section of the road, but it was already in the sun so we opted to walk the other way. This section was down and then up a big hill, but there was some shade, so it wasn't horrible.
We came back, woke up Whitman, and headed off to Hampson Archaeological State Park. It took us about an hour to get there. First we walked around the state park-it was a nice little museum about the Indian things found in the area.
However, what was so neat in this town (Wilson, Arkansas) was that everything around the town square was built in Tudor style-there is a really nice restaurant plus a swanky hotel. We just walked inside of it really quickly. Also, there is a store that we browsed around too. I think the town has had few wealthy investors who have fixed it up-they really talked up their Christmas decorations and their spring tulips too.
We then went back to Lake Poinsett (I think that is where we were) and collected the camper. It took less than an hour to get to Village Creek State Park. Robby and I went in the visitor's center when we got here, and then we drove on to our spot. We are close to the lake, but we are in full sun which has been fine.
Whitman did some reading, and then we drove all around Village Creek. We drove up and down every road in this park. After that we drove to Wynne-there we stopped to get a pizza, pick up a burger, and to get gas. The dogs came along for this trip, and it was quite successful. Marley used to be pretty terrified of the car, but she has really gotten used to it.
When we came back to the camper, we ate our supper. Then Whitman and I played a game which we lost. I crocheted some and right when it was about to rain, Robby and I took the dogs on a short walk. It only rained for about 10 minutes, so far.
Now, we are all getting ready for bed and getting ready for our nightly ice cream!
June 30, 2026-Plant Mission Trips and More State Parks
This was one of our slower days which was perfectly fine with me. We had one state park that we were going to see today, but they were closed so we pushed that back til tomorrow. Robby did some work this morning, and then Robby, the dogs, and I headed off for a trail.
We walked the Blue Heron Trail which was supposed to be 1.1 miles long. We, however, took the wrong trail to start with and walked to someone's house. We went back to the beginning and started over on the official trail. It was hotter today, but we made it back to the car in good time and with minimal ticks-I had hoped that we had left them all at Crowley's Ridge, but we did not.
We came back, and I read and crocheted. We eventually woke Whitman up, and this afternoon we drove to the nearest "big" town-imagine our surprise when we saw a Sonic there. Of course, we felt like we needed to support the local businesses and had ourselves a Sonic drink.
We came back to the camper, and Robby worked while Whitman and I played a board game. Then Whitman read some while I also read a bit more. It is almost 6:30 now, and I'm actually cooking supper as I type this blog-well, the microwave is cooking supper. Last night Whitman had a frozen pizza while we had our butter chicken frozen meals. Tonight, it is a big chicken pasta meal that I'm heating up.
We haven't heard much from the mission trip kids today-Campbell did say that they were having lots of breaks because it is so hot outside. Reagan did have her return dentist visit, and she said that it was much easier this time than having 3 cavities filled at once.
June 29, 2026-Plant Mission Trips and More State Parks
Robby had a call this morning so he tried to quietly sneak outside to do it. Marley heard though and asked to join him. She stayed out there with him until he finished.
Then we walked Spider Creek Trail at Crowley's Ridge. It was about a mile long, but I made it a little longer when I realized that I didn't have my phone. I had just had it, and my short pockets are so shallow that it just fell out. We turned around and started retracing our steps. It didn't take too long thankfully for me to find it, and we were back on our way.
After our trail walk, we came back to the campsite to brush the dogs. We could already see that there were quite a few ticks crawling around them. We were able to get most of them, off, but man, we have dealt with ticks all day. Hopefully, we have taken care of all of them.
We soon hooked the car up and headed to a new stop. First, we stopped at the post office to mail off a book. Then we stopped at our 37th state park-Herman Davis. It didn't take us long to explore since it is just a statue on a corner block in Manila, AR.
We then drove on towards our next stop which was a spur of a moment stop-the boyhood home of Johnny Cash. We weren't too sure that we were going to make it when the GPS started to direct us down a dirt road. We skipped a few dirt roads, but eventually ended up on one when we headed to the home.
The tour guide was good, and the tour was short, so afterwards, we went back to the visitor's center and walked around there. We ate our very late lunch in the camper, before driving on to our next stop — Lake Poinsett State Park.
We pulled into our site here and didn't see too much of the park since we will do some more exploring tomorrow. Whitman and I played a game before supper, and then Robby heated up a pizza for Whitman and butter chicken for us. Now we are watching Johnny Cash's movie Walk the Line.
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