A Day in the Navy

Can you find Dave in this picture?

He's in the middle of the Ice Cream line....1970.

Wow, we've been busy this summer, July brought Ernie home from Camp Orr, Martha went to Camp Noark (Girl Scouts), Dave went to California for his 40th reunion, Ernie went hiking with his troop to Philmont, NM (Boy Scouts), Martha and I went to Indianapolis to do mission work and General Assembly for the Christian Church (DOC), Dave's Birthday and Hanna's Birthday, (they celebrated together, the rest of us were out of town), then just before school started back Ernie and I went with our church youth to Shreveport, LA to do some more mission work.

Back to school has been great, Ernie is enjoying his classes. Martha like her teacher and routine, her new adventure is horseback lessons. Hanna is back at the UofA and enjoying it. Hanna is taking riding lessons, too. She is jumping!

I'll try to get some more pictures posted of our summer fun.

Betty's Birthday!

In the Arambel tradition, my birthday revolved around 'food'! For lunch Dave took us to the Trailside Cafe/Tea Room, I had heard good reviews about it and it was very good! Martha and I relaxed thru the afternoon, not doing much and then for dinner we headed to Wasabi, sushi has become one of my favorite things! We had a very nice dinner on the patio and Martha entertained us with some dancing to the music. (one of these days I'll learn how to download video from phone to computer to blog)

Let's see, backing up, Friday was Sara's Birthday, Saturday was Kaiya's 1st, today is Leah's and tomorrow is Parker's! Not to mention all the birthdays that fell towards the beginning of the month and those in July.

Martha's 'stone boot' She spotted this on the Mulberry River when we went canoeing with the church youth.

Bikes, Bikes, Bikes and more bikes....our church hosted Bike and Build, they rode in Sunday 14th from Clarksville, AR (up the pig trail) It's a group of young adults that ride across the country, raising awarness for projects like Habitat for Humanity and they stop and help build houses. They are headed to Colorado Springs, CO and will eventually end up in San Diego, CA.

You can see what they are up to at : bikesandbuild.org (I haven't actually been there yet, hope that's right) Martha and I are going to check in on the group to see what and where they are going.

I have been busy working at my mothers house, cleaning out the beds and yard. I finally got the last of the limbs cleaned up from the ice storm out of the front yard! Yeah! And in it's place I have been planting flowers to brighten the walk to mom's front door a bit.

No pictures of it, but Dave and I worked the NCAA Track & Field Meet held in Fayetteville. We got to escort athletes to various places. We got to talk with and watch some amazing Athletes!

I have to say after meeting the winner of the men's Decathalon and the women's Heptatalon (sp?), I will be watching the Oregon State team. They were both very nice young people!

Let us not forget Hanna

And here's Hanna.......

she made the Dean's list for the fall semester and then the Chancellor's list for the spring semester!

Way to go Hanna, we all love you!

Busy Month of May (part 1)

A few pics from the month of May, there were suppose to be more, where are they?
(top and bottom) Flowers from my garden spots. In the middle top, Alaina and Kiaya and
middle bottom, Rosemary and Kiaya.
We had a great visit with Rosemary and Alaina last week. This past week has been very busy. Dave worked local graduations 3 days in a row at Bud Walton Arena. I attended Fayetteville (Youth I know) and Springdale Har-Ber (niece Taylor). This weekend was non-stop.
I started Friday out with wedding rehersal for Pete and Allie Reis, then a campout with the Brownie's on Friday night into Saturday, left that for Taylor's graduation and on to the wedding and reception that was big time fun! Then Sunday, we were all up early, Dave started the smoker up to smoke some pork tender loin for a luncheon for Lara Blackwood Pickrel's ordination, it was delicious! And Hanna, Ernie, Martha and I headed to church, helped with the luncheon after church, then help with ordination (film crew of 1) and then to the reception afterwards. All of that and we forgot to get a picture of the five of us for the pictorial, urg.

Happy Memorials Day.....I'm relaxing today and giving thought to all of the saints that have influenced my life and encouraged me through good times and not so good. Amen to all of them!

A busy week in between the rains

The pictures never seem to layout like I want them to, I'm sure I could do something about that but not sure what.?

Here is Martha on the train at Silver Dollar City, a favorite of mine, my father worked for the Frisco Railroad Co.

A gerber flower that I planted last year and has come back up again, Yeah!

Martha getting ready to go into the cave, I was very excited to go in again but she was not very excited about it. She has never been very fond of dark places and she said she didn't like the water falls.

And holding a rabbit at the University farm zoo. Her class got to go out, it's alot of hands on farm experiences.

Razorback Field from Sod to Turf

History in the making. After the Red/White game, they started cutting up the sod to be distributed to willing fans!

I told them I needed some Razorback sod to go with our Press Box windows on the porch (obtained when they renovated in 1985) We'll see if I can keep it alive.

Of course I came home with a piece.

Ernie survived his hiking trip along the Boxely/Ponca Valley, an overnighter to practice for their hike at Philmont. He is learning to play the guitar.

Martha is excited, she won a Hanna Montana Gift Bag, all kinds of exciting Hanna Montana Stuff! She and Dave worked at Washington to do yard work.

I worked in my mothers yard with some friends to get it cleaned up after the limb man hit the yard, urgh! We almost got it back to post springbreak condition, Yeah!

Oh, and did I mention Dave and I made the PTO Volunteers list for Washington, we along with the rest were honored at the yearly banquet. Dave is in charge of the Watch Dog Dads for Washington and I am the Treasurer.

Easter

Easter in Fayetteville was cold and rainy, but we all made it to church and enjoyed the service.
We enjoyed lunch all together and relaxed at home the rest of the day.
Happy Easter to all!

Holy Week and Easter Weekend

Our friend Fletcher,(son of Sally & Izzy) he is a month older then Gabe

Ernie helping Martha get an egg out of the tree

Martha eggcited about she found

Dad and Martha

Well it has been quite a week or so. Dave flew out to Sacramento to spend time with the Leah, Dan, Mae (Happy Birthday), John & Gabe, on Wed. of last week. They had a great visit, to see pictures from that you'll have to go to Leah's blog (aramigan.blogspot.com), maybe when Dave gets his pictures developed (the old fashioned way), we will have some pics to share.

Saturday, Hanna, Mac, Ernie, Martha and I moved my brothers piano out of our house to his, so that I could get some cabinets out of mom's garage so that she could park her car in her garage again. We did it!

Then this week, I enjoyed going to the Methodist Churches of Fayetteville community Holy week lunch services. I've done this off and on for about 10 years and have always enjoyed the services. It doesn't matter which church it's held at, I know someone and meet new people.

Dave flew in Tues. to Tulsa (11:49 P.M.), but the drive over and back were actually quite nice.

When I got over to the airport though, they never posted his flight on the arrivals so I was a bit concerned, because they were already posting the next days flights and they never posted it.

He made it in though.

Today was our annual Easter Egg Hunt. We had a beautiful day and a large group of families and friends to eat and hunt eggs! (Opps, as seen in the pics above)

Hiking in Arkansas

I love moss and I keep trying to get pics of it!

The Glory Hole trail, The Kings River Falls Trail and Lost Valley

The last month I have had an opportunity to hike with the 4th grade class(es) from Holcomb Elem. It is amazing the pictures that the 4th graders take and put together in a powerpoint at the end of the experience. These are a few pictures that I took with my phone. (I gave up taking my camera after I saw the pics that they got after the first year) After the ice storm, it's great to see spring coming on, GREEN!

Pictures with the cousins

Parker, Martha & Will (summer '08)

Martha & Josie (March 2009)

Aunt Betty & Kaiya (8mos.)

Aunt Betty & Silas (4mos.)

Dee (Aunt Rosemary) & Josie (2 1/2 yrs.)

Once I figure out how to add more pictures, I'll get some pics of our summer trip and other family shots. We had a great time visiting with Rosemary (Dee), Alaina, Josie, Kaiya, Ann, Alaina & Silas. Ann's baby shower was lots of fun and got to visit with lots of friends that we don't get to see very often. We enjoyed dinner with family and friends, including Brian, Teresa & Zach Walch which we had not seen in several years. Great to visit with all.

A great day for the Hogs, PIG SOOIE

So this is my first attempt to add a photo. This is from the Arkansas vs Georgia game. Dave is an usher and Ernie, Martha and I work in concessions for the basketball games. Arkansas beat Georgia (after loosing several games in a row, not a good season) and the 1994 National Championship team was honored. 1994 was my second year to be an usher, it was a great season.

Okay so, I picked the wrong picture and now I can't firgure out how to get rid of it. It's kinda like Sesame Street "which of these 4 is not like the other?"

the First Blog of the Arkambels

After 3 years of Leah & Dan blogging, I have finally gotten brave enough to try this too. I'm thinking this could take the place of Christmas letters sent in April, that haven't been sent in 8 years. Of course I'll have to send out a Christmas letter this year just to let people know about how they can keep up with us all year on our blog.
And where to start, it's been a crazy year already. I have learned to scan my pictures but I'll have to learn how to put them into my blogs.