With the Bakers on the Fourth:

And now, for the rest of our trip report: The evening when we arrived in Arkansas, we did fireworks and made (and ate) Oreo truffles.

Here's a picture of the pyrotechnics, well at least the fire going from man to man. Reminds me of Beethoven's "Creatures of Prometheus" that I just heard on the radio yesterday. No pictures of the Oreo truffles--you can probably guess why they were so hard to trap down for their photo shoot...


The next morning we bought zinnias and planted them at Benjamin's grave. The place is so beautiful and peaceful. It felt good to be there altogether.




Afterwards we went to the Hendersons' wild American birthday party. We had a great time and ate lots. Not quite sure why we didn't get too many pictures.

Then we drove in to LR and crossed the Pedestrian Bridge there to attend the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra concert, in which Chris was playing. Fluffy danced (see below). Then we watched the aerial fireworks. Great music and show!


To "recover" from the Fourth, we stayed busy the next day, too. Here we are at IHOP, sampling the special edition cakes:



Afterwards, the boys insisted that we make a trip to Hobby Lobby. Michelle and I reluctantly agreed. The picture below shows either how much fun the boys were having there, or how crazy they got being there so long. You be the judge.



After we bought everything we needed for the quiet books we were making, we headed over to Pinnacle Mountain State Park. VERY beautiful. We walked through a rain storm, but could hear the rain coming down on top of the canopy of trees. So nice. I'll add a video of that to the bottom, if I remember.

Here are the "Cypress Knees" in the park:



Towards the end of the trail, we saw these dragonfly-thingies (scientific name, I promise! ;). You can see the "thingy" in the middle of the picture:


That afternoon we had an amazing barbecue, despite the rain, of brats and bacon-jalapeno wraps. Those Bakers live up to their name! We had an awesome double date that night--our first ever with my sister and her hubby! The next day we attended their meetings, then visited Benjamin's grave one last time. Fluffy had fallen asleep, but that didn't stop sweet Hymber-poo from saying good-bye.



Thanks again, Bakers, for a super time! We'll see you very soon.

Many happy returns!