Road Trip

The kids have been begging to go to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas for over a year. So, since it is Spring Break, I decided that there was no time like the present to take them there.

It was supposed to be beautiful weather and I didn't want to go when it was hot or rainy. So this was it. The park is in thesouthwest corner of Arkansas. I was very surprised at how beautiful northeast Texas and that part of Arkansas are.

There are lots of forests (we passed many logging trucks) and it was so pretty with all the blooming dogwoods and redbud trees. There are many cattle ranches and farms as well. I think it would be nice to own land out there. I think it is a completely different lifestyle out there in the country.
The state park is the only publicly owned diamond mine in North America and it is the 8th largest diamond mine in the world. Many diamonds have been found there including the largest one in North America at over 40 carats.
Any diamonds visitors find, they can keep!
There are many ways to prospect for diamonds. There is the dry screening process, where you sift through the dry soil looking for diamonds.















Or you can dig a hole and then screen. Or you can wet screen,which we didn't do because we didn't have the right kind of equipment and I didn't feel like going back and renting it. The last option is the walk around looking for diamonds lying on top of the soil, which is a good thing to do after a rain that washes away the soil.
The kids quickly tired of digging and sifting and not finding anything worthwhile (which I knew would happen when I agreed to take the kids on this adventure). So after a couple of hours we left.
15 hours of driving for 2 hours of digging in the dirt - the things we do for our children.

Nevertheless, we had fun staying in motels for 2 nights, jumping on beds and watching cartoons.

The tip of the iceberg.

For my birthday, Betsy got me a 90 gallon aquarium. I have been talking about getting a fishtank for a few years now, so she bought me the tank. I am officially coining a new phrase to describe projects such as my new fishtank: "tip of the iceberg projects." A tip of the iceberg project is a project where you buy something because it is a good deal to start the project, and everything quickly escalates and gets out of control. I haven't spent more than the tank cost yet, but it will probably only take one more trip to Home Depot before the tank is no longer the most expensive part of the project, and we haven't even added water. I have decided to do a saltwater tank, so you can expect updates for the next couple of years.


Here is the stand that I am in the process of building. I honestly think that this thing could support my car.

Strawberry Fields Forever

The kids are on Spring Break this week - so we have fun things planned for these days off. Today we drove out to Sweet Berry Farms to pick strawberries. It was the perfect day. The Farms is way out in the country and so we had a nice drive, the kids picked about 15 pounds of the sweetest, reddest strawberries, and then we had a picnic and the kids just played for a couple of hours. I would love to move out to the country and have a bunch of acres for my kids to run around in. Now if only I could get Dell to let Nate work from home we would be set!
We found lots of mutant strawberries.

You Are My Sunshine!!

Hazel is getting so big! I have been pulling out her sundresses and unfortunately some are already too small, and she never got a chance to wear them! But this cute one is one that Mom bought for her and it fits. Hazel has started crawling and pulling up on the furniture. She has gotten better at sleeping during the day and at night. And she loves to eat!!! (Of course she looks as though she has missed so many meals!!:) She is always happy and we love her.