Our Summer Top Ten

Well, we've been home for a little over a week. Now that we've settled into Utah again, and our Arkansas adventure is over, I thought I would post a list of our top ten most memorable experiences from the summer. Here they are in no particular order. (Be wary, this is a rather LONG blog, but as Ryan said - it's more for us than for anyone else!)

1. Five Dollar Friday Night Pizza Pro Parties
There weren't very many restaurants in town; not that Mia lets us enjoy a restaurant anyway.... So we designated Fridays as our Pizza Pro night. (Be sure to note the camo on the truck in this picture. Yes, this is Arkansas.)



2. Springfield, MO
We won't forget our visit to Springfield anytime soon. We happened to be strolling through the mall when a tornado warning was issued. Apparently, in that part of the country, the malls all come equipped with 'storm shelters'. Who knew? So we got to hang out in a crowded hallway until the danger had passed.

3. Arkansas Rain Storms
I have never seen rain like Arkansas rain. Sorry Oregonians, not even the down pours in Oregon compare. The video below really doesn't do it justice, but it had only been raining for five minutes when I so expertly captured this storm:



4. Learning about the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
I don't want to say that this was really a "highlight", but it was a memorable part of the summer. This sad piece of LDS history actually had its beginnings in Harrison, AR. There is a monument in the town square commemorating the members of the ill fated wagon train.



5. The Buffalo River National Park
We got to really experience the Ozarks on our hikes out here. One of our favorite outings was a canoe trip with two other couples. One Saturday, the six of us spent 5 hours floating down the river in canoes. It was amazing! There seemed to be no civilization around for miles and we were floating down the river between these walls of tall green trees and bushes. Here's a shot of Ryan and Mia during one of our hikes.



6. Fourth of July Festivities
Although Mia cried and screamed during all of the fireworks, we had a great time. Some good friends of ours, the Fredlands, threw a big BBQ and firework extravaganza. They love fireworks and spent about $300 on them! They were kind enough to let everyone help out in shooting them off too. I got to light my first mortar shells. It was explosive.

7. The Trip Out
Our trip out was memorable - not because we want to remember spending three days in a car, but rather because we got to see some of the Church History sites in Missouri. My favorite was the visitor's center at Liberty Jail. What an incredible place; sometimes it's amazing to see that these places really do exist! The Church has built a life-size replica of the jail over the site where the original jail sat.




8. Horseshoe Canyon Ranch
One of the members of the Harrison Bishopric owns this ranch. It is absolutely beautiful. (I wish it was my backyard!) He and his wife built, own, and run the ranch.

We were invited out one evening along with some other couples. They fed us this delicious prime rib dinner. After dinner they let us climb across a rock face called the Via Ferada. We were using climbing harnesses, carabiners, and the whole bit. We finished off the adventure by riding a zip line. It was pretty much fabulous. Unfortunately we didn't take a single picture! But, here's the link to their ranch: http://www.gohcr.com/

9. Arkansas Bugs
They don't call it the Natural State for nothing! Arkansas has some enormous spiders among other creepy crawly things. Luckily, our apartment wasn't infested with anything crazy though.

I never figured out which insect makes this sound, but towards the end of our internship these buggies were out in full force. In fact, the evening that we spent out at the ranch the noise of these bugs was literally deafening! We had to yell back and forth to hear each other over them!



10. The Trip Home
Last but not least, we won't likely forget our trip home. We left the Harrison airport in a plane with a seating capacity of 21. Yup, that's 19 seats for passengers and 2 seats for the mighty pilot and his sidekick. That is the smallest airplane I have ever been on and I'd like to keep it that way!

Mia at least wasn't bothered by any of the flying; she was pleased as punch to explore the new surroundings. The trip home was also memorable because we ran into John Beck's grandma in the Kansas City airport. She had been watching him play in the Miami Dolphin's pre-season games. She was the nicest lady ever. And we discovered that she actually grew up with my grandparents in southern Utah. How cool is that?

Well, there you have it - our top ten experiences from our summer adventures in Arkansas. Good Stuff!