Pictures by a Professional

So my friend Jenny has just graduated with a graphic design degree and is starting up her own photography business. As I have some of the cutest kids ever she of course wanted to practice taking pictures of them for her portfolio =) Here were her favorites.

Last of Hot Springs

These are the last of Hot Springs. There is a picture of the pipes that are used to pump the hot spring water up into the bath houses for use, and a small area that is behind glass but otherwise exposed for tourists like us to see what the natural spring looked like. Of course they added some pretty glittery rocks to make it look a little bit more special! =) But it was neat to see the actualy stream running below ground. No vacation for our family would be complete with out some miniature golfing, which we did at Pirate's Cove, and the kids came away with a bunch of Pirate treasure as you can see.

Pretty kid pictures

Not much to this, just good pictures from Aransas

Bath house row

These are pictures inside one of the bath houses. There is only one left in use, but this one is open to tour. There are special tables, tubs, and a steam box that you sit in and only your head sticks out. It was very interesting and creepy to think about. There was a fountain out front that was steaming and on a 100 degree day it was still hotter than the temperature and felt too hot to touch.

Arkansas playtime

We went to Hot Springs for Vacation right before school started. The picture above is the pretty view we had from our living room. We had fun, though we discovered had we been here during the mining days where people made their life from that, we most definately would have starved to death! We gave up after an hour because, we had no idea what we were doing for one thing, plus, we were SUPER hot. It was just a big dirt pile and we had to look for teeny little diamonds, but there were brown and yellow diamonds, so they look like other rocks that aren't worth anything! so we picked up a few pretty rocks off of the road and left. But we DID find a yummy mexican restaraunt on the drive home, so it was worth it. =)

Family birthday

Ryan's side of the family came together in the name of Isabelle's birthday at our house (though I'm sure Shane moving to Alabama had NOTHING to do with Grandma suggesting we invite everyone over) =) It was very good to see everyone though and baby Addyson has changed so much! I'm glad I got to snuggle her just a little bit, though I did feel obligated to share with the Grandmas. Isa was very happy to see everyone too and share her birthday with her baby cousin. We'll miss you Karin, Shane, and Addyson!

first day of school

Gideon on his first day of preK and Sydney along for the ride

The sign says 1st grade, though you can't read it very well. I asked her the other day how her day was and she threw her arms in the air and said "GREAT!". I asked her why and she said well a girl in my class fell off her bike and BROKE her HEAD OPEN! And she's in the hospital, so we made cards for her. I'm hoping the card making is why her day was great, otherwise I need to have a talk with her!