Hiking, in Arkansas

We found ourselves a trail to hike along, thinking we had better get to know the area, and what better FREE way to do it, than to go on a little hike?  So we set out for Woolly Hollow State Park, where they have the Huckleberry Trail.

 The Huckleberry Trail.  Yup.  I took this picture by myself too, set the camera on something, set a timer, and then ran to my place.  This was  captured on the first try!

 One of the first things we found was a teeny tiny frog.  It looked like those little rocks, I'm not sure it if is actually in this picture.  Turns out, these teeny tine frogs were EVERYWHERE! 

 Evan on the trail

 Me on the trail!  Notice all the growing stuff?  This was the more clear part of the trail.  The whole things was branches smacking us and bugs flying into us.  Not pleasant for me, who does not like bugs so much.

 

He said this was poison ivy.  Then proceeded to worry about how much he had passed and possibly rubbed up against.  As of yet, neither of us has any signs of it, so I think we are in the clear.

 There's a bench down there.

 One of the few times we had a view of anything besides tree.

 This was my favorite part.  It was open and there was this little bridge running over the creek.  The bridge was super tilty, but we didn't fall in.

 These were everywhere.  Or this one followed us the whole time.

Overall, we rate this hike with two thumbs down.  Evan said it best when he said it was "untamed."  Bugs are gonna be there no matter what, I will take that.  But there was a lot of foliage growing over the trail, and not a lot to see.  We spent so much time watching our footing we didn't really look around that much, but it was all trees and shrubs anyhow.  Also, it is an incomplete loop as it drops you off on the road about a quarter mile from the trailhead.  Oh well, we'll try another one some other day.

As a bonus, we saw this crazy big bug in a hole in the ground.  We have yet to identify it... so if anyone is a bug expert let me know.  We didn't get a picture because someone may have squealed when she saw a grasshopper on her husband's shirt.

What exactly have we been doing in Arkansas?

Well, I finally took my camera out and have pictures!  So what have we been doing?  Aside from applying to jobs and having the freedom to do laundry WHENEVER I WANT we have been very productive.

For example, we have watched the first 2 seasons of  this great show --->

During which I not only revisited the art of the Starburst wrapper chain, but mastered folding said wrappers while sitting cross legged on a balance ball.  No pictures of me balancing, but here are the end results of the chains.









Yesterday was the Fourth of July and we ventured out of the house to find a celebration of Independence, Arkansas style.  There was a pancake breakfast and flag raising ceremony at church in the morning, which was fun, but short lived.  After dinner we drove out to Maumelle (a small town 20 minutes east of us) for a little festival.  There was a parade (which we missed) and awards for those.  Then there was some music, with covers of some great songs. Country music of course, this is the south after all!

Then there was the firewoks show, complete with locals hollerin off their balconies.  Anytime something was really loud we'd hear a "YEEEHAW!"  And as a testament to how flat Arkansas is, ever bang and crash echoed for ever. It sounded like there was gunfire in the next city over.  I don't know how well it is caught on the video, but you can take my word for it.

This morning I cut Evan's hair.  My first haircut.  Scratch that, second.  Once upon a time my dad wanted us to go get family pictures, but didn't really tell us ahead of time and Matt had REALLY long hair, so he asked me to trim his side burns.  I used a pair of kitchen scissors and got to work.  I cut one and then the other then took a look.  one side was higher than the other so I trimmed up the longer side, and ended up going too short.  This went on until he had virtually no side burns.  Poor kid.  Lucky for us, we ended up not getting pictures taken that night and he had time to grow them back.

I waned Evan of this when I started and he said it was hard to screw it up using clippers and a guard.  So I gave it my best try!  He had wayyy too much hair.  I told him it looked like little mice were falling off his head.  So, we'll us a picture from the fireworks show as our before, as I didn't have the thought to do a before picture.  I do have an after though!  I think I did a pretty ok job, don't you?

 It's dark, and hard to tell how long the shag is, it was pretty long though.

 The bathroom floor once we finished

 All swept into a pretty pile

Fills the dustpan nicely

New, clean, and cut!  Look at that enchanting smile!

Arkansas, so far

A little over a week has gone by, and I have not taken a single picture.  Literally, my camera is in my backpack where I put it Tuesday night before we left.  I feel like a slacker- but don't worry.  You aren't missing much. 

We've been spending a lot of time getting the clerical part of moving done- changing our address, registering for classes, looking for jobs, looking for an apartment, getting a bank account, etc.- so we haven't spent a lot of time having fun.  The other day Evan said, "Let's go find Toad Suck Park!"  Yes, that is the real name of the park.

There are signs for it everywhere, so we figured it must be a pretty nice park.  So we set out to find it and hopefully throw the frisbee a little.  Well, we found it.  It's comparable to ... well I don't know.  There's one side with a boat launch, and another side with maybe 15 campsites all crunched in.  It's not horrible, but not what we were expecting.  We found a soccer field near the campsites and threw the frisbee for a while and went back home, not completely satisfied and feeling dubious about ever having fun in Conway. 

There's always Little Rock! 

Also, I promise to start taking pictures.  I know you are dying to see Arkansas!!

Whistle while you work

It is very hot in Arkansas.  Upper 90s everyday, and HUMID.  Delicious.

Us Andersons have committed to not watching television / playing Wii until after 8pm to help us be more productive and proactive in getting things going here in Arkansas.  For the first couple days that was fine, we had a lot to do.  Now, not so much.  Even if we each spend an hour every morning filling out applications, then an hour to clean the house (which isn't big enough to take an hour) we are done by noon.  Because the sun rises at 5:30 right into our bedroom.  So we are up by 6.  Take a nap at noon, wake up at 1, then what?  We are definitely running out of things to do.  And we can't get a library card until we get mail here... soooo yup.  Luckily, Evan can check books out at school, but he can't get his student id until he registers for classes, and he can't register for classes until his adviser does something, and so we are waiting. 

And then I got yet another e-mail today telling me I had not received a teaching job.  I'm pretty sure that takes me up to 14.  They are all from the same district, so I suppose they are still working on interdepartmental transfers, but I'd rather not be notified that I didn't get every. single. position. I applied to.
Oh well, such is life.

There is a plan in store some where and I'm sure we'll begin to see it soon!

We made it

We packed up our entire house, put into a truck, and drove to Arkansas.  We don't know anyone, we don't have jobs, we don't even have an address yet-  but we are continuing on in faith.  This may be one of the biggest trials in our married life.  Not may be- it is.  Never before have we been asked to drop everything and go to a new place.  I trust my husband, I believe in the priesthood, and I have faith in Heavenly Father's plan for us.  I know that things will be worked out in time, and until then we are to work on bettering ourselves.  We have been so occupied with work and school the last few months there is a lot we have let slide.  We are taking this opportunity to set personal and spiritual goals and really live up to them.  I know this will help us long term, and I look forward to seeing how our life unfolds. 

Check back to see what exciting adventures we have next!

Pressing Forward

After some serious consideration, and lots of talking, and crying (on my part, oh to be a woman) we decided to change our move date.  By a month.  So we'll be heading south in a few weeks.  Abandoning everything we have here in hopes of setting up some roots down in Arkansas.  Evan says it isn't abandoning, it's moving on, letting go, starting something new, but it felt strange for me.  I had commitments, and plans, and a timeline I could deal with.  A slow, easy pack up, a few more months to see my friends and say goodbyes.  And now I am down to what, 9 days?  Now that we've both quit our jobs the announcement can be official.  Of course, we told our FHE group on Monday, barely a full day after the decision was made.  As the days go by, I feel better and better about the decision.  I'm grateful to the priesthood holders in my life for helping guide our little family in finding the right path for us.  And you know what? Evan was right, we aren't abandoning our lives in Richmond, we are changing them, moving them to Conway and making the best decision for our future.  The sooner we build our foundation, the sooner we can add on accessories.

Notice the new blog title?  'AR we there yet' seemed like the easiest way to play off of Arkansas, and it also reflects that this is just another temporary phase of our lives.  The newlywed phase, isn't forever.  Graduate school, isn't forever.  Moving around from apartment to apartment to house to house and state to state, isn't forever.  One day we will find permanence- until then, we are enjoying the journey!

The Andersons go outdoors!

Memorial Weekend means a three day weekend which of course means camping!  I hadn't been camping in years, but I sure did love every minute of it.  We went with three other couples and I had a blast with everyone, I hope everybody else did too!  Saturday was spent mostly in town (see my post "Year One" for details) and then Saturday night we watched a bluegrass band perform at the visitor's center for the campsite.  It was ... excellent.  Evan especially enjoyed it- I think his exact words were, "I would trade in my PhD to play banjo for a bluegrass band."

Sunday we hiked, and it was a toughie!  It was well worth it though, we got some beautiful pictures, which only capture a part of what it really looked like.  It was amazing.

 So foggy!  Candice needed a little rest after getting to the top, it felt good up there though, fresh air, calm breeze, ahhh.

The men posing atop some more rocks

The lake across from our campsite, and then of course we had to pose all muscly... yeah!

Then we went to the 'swimmin hole' as Evan called it and swam in the river, played bocci ball, read, and just relaxed.  I great activity to cool down after a long hike!

There were cows in the river, just cooling off.

Then we washed off in the river.  Of course, I had the camera so the men got their pictures taken.  All in one kids shampoo, conditioner, body wash makes for a great river bath! And it was COLD! But felt so good after being extra sweaty.

Camping was so much fun!  I can't wait to do it again!