Arkansas

So...........our much needed family vacation sort of kicked off the summer.  Like I said previously we headed down to Arkansas to visit Raymond's side of the family. 

We first arrived in Ozark, AR where Raymond's parent live.  I got to meet a ton of family there!  It was so nice to put a face with a name.  I must admit I was nervous to meet everyone because crazy as it sounds it was the first time I was meeting all of them except Raymond's Mom, Aunt Susan, and his sister Norrita.  I wanted them all to like me okay.  I think they did :)  I know I sure loved everyone I met during the trip!

We did lots of fun things.  We started it out going to Raymond's brother Joe ( yes that is who little Joe is named after) and his wife Brittany's house to play games.  It was really really fun!  I even got to make Raymond milk an imaginary cow and pretend he was bobbing for apples - if you can imagine such a thing.  I think I scared Raymond when I grabbed him violently by the neck and kept shoving his head downward and back up so my team would guess what I was trying to make him do.  They were able to figure it out so Raymond must be a good prop.  Ha ha! 

Sunday we went to Grandpa Raymond ( yes this is who Raymond is named after - you may start to notice a pattern with names) and Grandma Mavis's house for dinner after church.  They had a fish fry and it was awesome - catfish I believe is what we had.  Anything deep fried is wonderful  to me.  There I was able to meet lots of Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins.

Monday I did something unspeakable to me..............I went canoeing in dirty water that has bugs and stuff..........and I liked it.  I wasn't expecting that!  I am one of those girls that doesn't go anywhere without a lot of makeup on and I don't like to get dirty.  Raymond wasn't so sure about taking me, but he was very excited to go!  He thought I would whine and complain the whole time.  We had to be canoe partners too............this also made me nervous since we cannot even hardly be card partners without arguing - canoeing seems like it needs to be more "partnerish" than card playing if that makes any sense at all.  It went awesome! We had a great partnership and I wouldn't pick anyone else to go canoeing with!  It was beautiful too!  The weather was perfect!  Great friends and family were with!  I loved it.  We have to go again!

We had a BBQ that night at Raymond's parents house with family.  Lots of good food and good visiting!  Raymond's Dad Robert (yes that is who baby Robert was named after) made smoked ribs.  I think Raymond ate half of them himself.  We also had a BBQ with relatives on Robert's side of the family and I was able to meet and enjoy more family!

After Ozark we went to Memphis, TN or Marion, AR (just across the bridge) to stay with Norrita and her family.  We had a great time there too.  Us adults went out for a night - we ate a Rendezvous, went on Beale Street, and stopped in a few bars and listened to music.  It was a good time.  We also took the kids to the Memphis Zoo.  Norrita, Joe, and I went shopping for a day.  Joe is not a fun shopping partner :)  We managed though.  It was fun but the day went by very very fast.  We ended the day eating at Paula Deen's buffet which excited me on a ridiculous level actually.  I even took a picture with a cardboard cut out of Paula :)  We had a night at Norrita's in-laws grilling out - eating some more great food which included homemade chocolate ice-cream.  That was our last night there...........the next day Norrita, her mother-in-law Nancy, Riley, and I went out and had some girls only time.  We went to a bunch of cute shops and bought stuff we didn't need but had to have.  It was a fun way to end a great vacation!

***I wanted to post pics of the trip, but recently our computer crashed and when we got it back they had lost all our data :( but I have quite a few on facebook!***