11 Acre Wood Blog

…from this evening.

As you can probably guess from the lack of posts, we have been extremely busy having fun! I’m posting a few pictures of what we did and saw today instead of trying to catch you all up (plus, it’s 1:30am and I’m ready for bed J). Gotta sort through the thousands of pictures that have been taken over the past week, first. So for all of you who have been wonderin’ about us, hope you enjoy.

 

We must have taken a detour…somehow found ourselves in a ‘desert’.

 

Water, we need water!!!

 

Empty camelbak victims.

 

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

 

Helping each other along-we’re almost there! Pant…pant…through our sandpaper throats.

 

WATER!!! You can add the sound effects yourself.

 

Only the sounds of splashing and slurping can be heard. Ahhh..

 

 

…outside Kit Carson’s home.

…which means: ‘The Blood of Christ‘

 

Sorry about not getting a post done last night. We were really tired after a fun-filled day out on the water.

 

We started our day, yesterday, by getting dressed and coated up in nasty sun-screen. Ate some leftover muffins in our hotel room and then set off. Our first stop was by the canoe rental to pick out life-jackets for everyone. With all of us we probably ended up with one of each size they had. LOL! Then we loaded back up and drove the van to our take out point at the end. We were then shuttled to our starting point. Twisting back through the hills on gravel roads. So pretty!

 

It was about 11:15am when we actually set out on the water. For our family we got three canoes. Daddy, Bekah, Gabriel and Nehemiah were in one, Momma, Grace and Ethan in another and Noah, Eman and me took up the last one. That balance seem to work really well! Nehemiah was so cute just laid back in the middle of his ‘ship’. He kept asking when we were going to ride in our ‘ships’. LOL! Probably to him a canoe looked more like a ship anyway. J

 

You were offered either the 4, 6 or 10 mile float. We choose the ten mile and enjoyed it thoroughly! Just taking our time. Usually in the summertime the river is down pretty low and sometimes they won’t let anyone out on the river because you would just drag bottom. This summer though, they’ve had quite a bit of rain and so the river was unusually high and had a nice current. That was such a blessing! Every once in a while we would come to small rapids and those were always fun.

 

Here are some favorite quotes of the day from our little boys: We are paddling down the river, passing by a rocky shoreline where some other canoers had stopped to swim. Noah and I hear Nehemiah yell out loudly from his canoe, “Hey boys!!!! Don’t wook at dose people over dere!” I’m thankful he was watching out for his brothers, but we are going to have to instruct on how you let them know. LOL! Later in the day I overheard Gabriel say as we were going along, “It’s like we’re going down a river with naked savages on the sides!” Oh boy, I’m glad that one wasn’t overheard. J

 

 

The Buffalo River.

 

All set to go.

 

Nehemiah in his ‘ship’.

 

It was breathtaking the whole way. Amazing cliffs that are so neat to look at through a Biblical worldview.

 

There are Momma, Ethan and Grace.

 

This picture doesn’t do the size of this thing justice.

 

Noah, Eman and me taking it in.

 

Beautiful weather.

 

Cruisin’ along.

 

 

So many rocks on the bottom and shore, different from our sand and clay.

 

Taking up the rear.

 

Whee…

 

Stopped to wade a bit.

 

A weird rock Noah found.

 

The cool water felt really good!

 

Our view.

 

Boys go deep.

 

Our nice white legs…

 

Art.

 

A man was catching his bait then headed out to fish for catfish. He said when the water was muddy was the best time.

 

Look what Daddy found.

 

Something’s after me… LOL!

 

Lunch break.

 

Chowin’ down.

 

Our life jackets were nice cushions to sit on in the shade.

 

Eating with your family viewing mountains off in the distance= contentment.

 

We thought that a flooded bank was an unusual place for a cactus to grow.

 

Took the GPS along on our journey. I didn’t take my precious camera with me this time. But we just took Bekah’s that fit in the cooler. We saw some other people flip in their canoe. Thank the Lord we didn’t experience that!

 

We skipped rocks over to the other side.

 

Going swimming.

 

Grace.

 

Boy heaven.

 

Camo man.

 

Daddy.

 

Gettin’ ready to head back out on the water.

 

 

All tuckered out. This was Nehemiah’s position for the last hour. Cutie!

 

Load ‘em up.

 

Relaxing back at our hotel. The boys are telling stories to each other.

 

Father/Daughter laptops.

 

Noah.

 

Bekah and Momma playing around with the camera.

 

So I’m writing this in the car as we’re on the way to Branson. Tonight the conference starts.

 

We were able to get the van loaded and leave home about 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning.  After we got through Birmingham we traveled a route we’ve not done before – through Alabama, Mississippi, Memphis, and Little Rock, then on to Harrison, Arkansas to the Family Budget Inn. Counting stops it took us about 13 hours.

 

We took pumpkin muffins, fruit and milk with us for breakfast. That was really nice and easy! Then for lunch, we stopped at McAllister’s Deli, which for the ladies of the family, was conveniently beside a Goodwill store.

 

For the last twenty miles or so our van’s “Service Engine” light was on.  This was on a hilly stretch between Conway and Harrison where there were NO places to get it checked on.  After we checked into our motel Ethan and Tim went to look for an auto parts store that could tell us what the light meant.  Since this was on a Sunday after 6 p.m. the chances were slim, but we prayed that God would lead us and make us content with the results.

 

We found an AutoZone a few minutes before they closed that could give us a readout on the trouble light.  He said it was something with the air intake or vacuum hoses.  When I asked him what he suggested he just shrugged and said it was probably OK to drive home.  Since we had just LEFT home I pressed for a different answer.  A man had gotten into the truck next to us and was listening to our discussion.  He asked a few questions, then got out of his truck to talk to the AutoZone employee.  The employee left but the man said he was a mechanic and he’d look at it.  It turns out he has an auto repair shop in Missouri but was down visiting family and went to AutoZone to get a part for a family vehicle.  His name was Chris and he professed to be a Christian.  He worked on the air hoses awhile and determined that our air filter lid had a leak that might be the problem. He reset the service light and told us we’d probably be OK for our trip, although driving on steep roads might trigger the trouble light again.  We went back to the hotel, put duct tape around the leak, and thanked God for providing a late-Sunday-evening-Christian-mechanic-from-another-state for us.

 

We read and went to bed early to be rested for our canoe trip tomorrow….