The other night Jennifer had other obligations so the rest of us walked without her. Anyway, we decided to go the opposite direction (we usually walk through Hillcrest). We walked all around the state Capitol grounds, and read all the memorial signs. Jennifer is probably glad she wasn't with us as she reads that bit of info!!! I didn't have my camera with me, so I kept nabbing Mark's. Next time I'll be sure to bring my camera if it's daylight- even when we're in our own neighborhood!

Here's Laedyn all ready to go, but before she's wrapped up in layers of cozy blankets and all that's visible is her pacifier, her nose and the whites of her eyes. Her knit hat has a little kitty face on it and kitty ears. Too cute. She gets really excited when we're getting ready to go out for our walks ... then she sleeps for the majority of the time we're out!
This is the new memorial to the Little Rock Nine - the African American kids who first integrated into the all white Central High School. Little Rock had alot of activities honoring the group at the 50th anniversary of the integration last year. For those of you who have not been to Little Rock, Central High School, which is still in operation, is also a National Historic Site. They have a visitor center and offer tours of the school. If we're still living in our current nieghborhood when Brandon reaches high school age, he'll attend Central. Brandon enjoyed getting a closer look at the sculpture while the rest of us read the surrounding signs. There were nine signs, each one a quote from one of the Little Rock Nine. This monument is on the north side lawn of the capitol building.

Directly behind it, under that conctrete structure, is a replica of the Liberty Bell. Apparently all 50 states have one. They were made by the same bellmaker that made the original Liberty Bell that's in Philadelphia. The U.S. government gave one to each state in honor of the bicentennial and they were all rung simultaneously during a nationwide celebration. Do you know where the one in your state is displayed? There's also a time capsule displayed next to the bell. It was sealed during the bicentannial celebration and is scheduled to be opened in 2075.

This was taken on the Capitol Mall which is directly behind the capitol building - to the West. It was nice and deserted when we were there, but during the week it is impossible to find a place to park along there. The buildings house various government departments like the AR Department of Education. There's also a very nice library along here. (I only know that because I was sent there to get some legal information when I was clerking at Chisenhall, Nestrud & Julian). Most of the buildings do not have signs identifying what's in them - at least as far as I could see. Along the center of the Capitol Mall is a wide grassy lawn. It's on a slight slope and Brandon wanted to run all the way to the other end. I told him he could go to the first sidewalk.

Here's where he stopped to turn around at the first sidewalk ... and I've zoomed the camera a bit to make him a little bigger!

This giant boulder, weighing 20 odd tons, was quarried near Little Rock and placed on the Capitol grounds in honor of 100 years of statehood. Needless to say, it's been there awhile. Brandon and Mark are standing on the back side of it, which has alot of smaller rocks mortered together to form some kind of support for the actual boulder, which is smooth. Since it's on a slight hill, it's probably meant to prevent the boulder from rolling down that nice grassy lawn that Brandon ran down and back up. Do you see Nick peeking out from behind the boulder? He was hoping to escape being in the photograph. Haha...I'm very patient. There's another boulder across the steet, closer to the Capitol. It's an example of bauxite which was (is???) mined in Arkansas. The boulder was placed in rememberance of Arkansas' contributions to the war effort in WWII. Apparently Arkansas was one of the largest supplies of aluminum. Who knew. All in all a very educational walk ... I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit too.

Brandon told me he wanted to hold Laedyn on his lap the other night, so I grabbed the camera and set them up on the couch. They were both so happy. Laedyn has eyes for no one else when Brandon is in the room, so she was so happy to be on his lap! Nick was behind me trying to get them to both look towards the camera and smile at the same time. It took a lot of shots to get just a few that were decent. These are the 3 I liked best.

We took a walk along the North Little Rock River Trail a couple weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to posting them. It was such a big batch I haven't had time to do it. It was an absolutely gorgeous day - as you can see we all gave up on our jackets it was so warm. Instead of sticking to the paved trail, we detoured off road to see what interesting things there were closer to the old quarry. One of the first places we explored was a little waterfall. Nick heard running water & went to check it out. Then we took turns going up the hill since someone had to stay behind with the stroller. Brandon was a little nervous about being on the slope so I told him to just sit there while I climbed closer to the water to take pictures.
Jennifer wanted her picture taken too...
The next stop along the way was an old drainage pipe Nick has ALWAYS wanted to get a closer look at it. He got his chance finally. Since all the underbrush is dormant this time of the year it was much more accessable than we've seen it in the past. See how happy he looks??? The rest of us stayed up top.

While we did our exploring, Laedyn snoozed.
When we got closer to the old quarry the landscape changed quite a bit becoming very rock strewn with a lot of pine trees. It's really pretty and reminded me a bit of Lake Tahoe - particularly the place we played disc golf on one of our ARID trips with Sandy and Mike way back when. We stopped for quite awhile to take pictures on a hillside.

Jennifer nabbed my camera and made me pose with Mark. It turned out nicely. Thanks JG!

Brandon was even cooperating with the posing. He's such a ham.
OK - so he wasn't completely cooperative, but I still really liked this shot.
After we got done with our "photo shoot" we got distracted by this weird green algae-ridden puddle. The color was so vibrant, we all spent some time checking it out. It was almost like it was percolating ... there were little bubbles all over the surface of it.

After we finished our off road exploring, we returned to the paved trail for awhile. There are these big concrete circles peiodically along the way. Brandon loves to run around them as fast as he can. It's even better when someone will play chase with him!The rest of our walk was pretty routine ... we continued until we figured it was going to get dark before we got back to the cars.

Now that Mark is around, you may see more pictures of me. He carries his camera all the time too. I make no promises about how often I'll show up, but there's a higher liklihood of it now! Mark took this picture after one of our walks right before Christmas out at Two Rivers Park. Brandon & I had gone down to the little dock near the parking lot to look at the water. Good capture Mark!

Goo (my Grandmother) bought Brandon this Sesame Street coloring set for Christmas. He's been having the best time coloring it - there are a whole bunch of different pictures in the set. He's even more interested in coloring it then in watching what's on TV ... & I think what's on TV is one of HIS show!





















I know - my Christmas Tree is still up...I was sick with a terrible sinus infection 2 weekends ago & then this past weekend was catch up. So it'll be a weekday project now...I promise it'll be out on the curb in time for this weeks pickup!!!

Here are two pictures of Jennifer. The first one was taken way back in February 2006. The second was taken New Years Eve. You can see the difference her weight loss has made close up. She started out looking great - but now she's even more fabulous!!!

OUR WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE

We're all going to lose some weight - Mom, Dad, Jennifer and I. Here are pictures of all of us from this past week. There's an extra one of Jennifer from before she started her diet back in October to give you an idea of how far she's come in such a short time. I'll post monthly updates so you can see how we're all progressing and to give those of us who need it a little more accountability.

Goals:

Jennifer - 96 pounds - 1000 calories per day and lots of walking
Valerie - 115 pounds - low carb diet & lots of walking
Mom - 49 pounds - low calorie, low fat diet with biking and possibly water aerobics.
Dad - 85 pounds - low calorie, low fat diet with walking, biking, free weights, rowing machine and traditional calesthenics








Here's a picture Jennifer sent me that was taken in April 2007. She started her diet in October 2007, and has been making great progress. She's already lost 54 pounds. Way to go girl! I hope we can all live up to her example... she's been an inspiration to the rest of us.

We were walking along the river trail and Brandon picked up a rock. He came over to me and asked me to take a picture of it to put on our Blog. So here's Brandon with his rock, and the fate of the rock as it's tossed toward the river. It didn't make it to the water, if you're wondering...

Another cold day for a hike - but this time we went off the paved trail and into the woods. They've built a new trail that runs through the woods next to the paved North Little Rock River Trail, near the Big Dam Bridge. Laedyn got to have her first ride in the backpack. I thought Brandon would be mad that he didn't get to ride, but he surprised me. He says he prefers to walk!
The trail is a loop, and it's not too terribly long, but I had my camera with me so it took quite a while. We found all kinds of abandoned objects for me to photograph. You can see some of the shots at my Flickr page (the link is over to the side...)
Here I was off the trail taking pictures of a freezer chest that had "FRESH FISH" painted on the side of it. While I was doing my photography thing Brandon was practicing his Limbo skills under a vine. Eventually, Jennifer came over and pushed the vine lower to make it more of a challenge for Brandon.
Nick was showing off a potential walking stick to Brandon. It was actually a long piece of vine, so we called it a jiggle stick. Brandon found a Brandon-sized one for himself too. It wasn't very sturdy though, and pretty soon it broke in half -- much to Brandon's dismay.
Brandon did get tired a couple of times and Nick had to be Super-Daddy. It's much easier when we're using the stroller because Brandon can ride on the front or on Nick's shoulders. Obviously that's not an option here... and he's getting HEAVY!!!
Check out this cool vine "swing" I found along the trail. Brandon had a great time swinging once he got the hang of how to hold on and not slide over the side! Well, he was having fun until Nick looked up and wondered how much weight the thing could hold. Then Brandon became concerned & was ready to move on. No one else was willing to test the weight capacity of the vine, but it was pretty sturdy. I pulled on it pretty hard before putting Brandon on it in the first place.
Look at the poor baby...she was leaning over the whole time to see around Nick's head. eventually she fell asleep that way and her nose dripped snot all over the backpack. YUCK!!!We finally couldn't stand the sight of her all tilted over with her neck at such an angle, so out of the backpack she came. Jennifer carried her for awhile, and then I took her. She fell asleep while I was carrying her. Finally she got too heavy for me, and Nick took her again - but not in the backpack ... Brandon had taken that seat for himself immediately upon Laedyn's vacating it! We've all agreed to stash the backpack back up in the attic until Laedyn's a little older - maybe she'll be ready by early March. Then we'll go looking for some more off road trails to explore.
Our excursion this day ended with a much brisker walk across the Big Dam Bridge and back. Before we did that though, we traded the backpack for the stroller - much to the relief of Nick's back, I'm sure!

Walking has become a big part of our routine, if you can call our day to day flailing about a routine! Here are some pictures from a recent walk we took out at Two Rivers Park in West Little Rock. It was pretty chilly that day, and there was a brisk breeze along the river. Laedyn got to test the new snow suit that Grandma Audrey sent her for Christmas.
Mark brought Taz along too- needless to say, Taz was very happy to be there. He must have felt like he was back in his element even if he did have to be on a leash. He behaved very well as long as there weren't any other dogs coming along posing a threat to his little family. Luckily the portion of the trail we were on was relatively deserted.
We had one bit of excitement when the front wheel fell off of Brandon's tricycle. Jennifer and Brandon retraced our steps and found the missing parts and then Nick improvised and used his keychain to tighten the screw. The fix held up for the rest of the afternoon! As you can see, Jennifer was rather pleased with herself having found the vital missing pieces of Brandon's wheel. Hahaha - just kidding. Doesn't she look great? Her secret? About 1000 calories per day and alot of walking. She should be pleased with herself! Way to go JG!
Brandon brought along his tricycle and actually rode it the entire walk. I don't know how far we walked but it was more than 3 miles. He's such a trooper!
Of course, he didn't have to ride unaided. Nick found a big thick stick that propped very neatly into a notch on the frame and made it really easy to push. All Brandon had to do was steer. By the time we got back to the car and he got off of it though, he complained that his bottom hurt. I told him he was probably saddle sore from riding the tricycle so much - he thought that was really funny and proceeded to tell everyone we met for the rest of the day...

This area of the park has some relatively new trails that are being developed into various planned gardens. You can see the baby pine trees along the side in this picture. There are tons of saplings planted all along the path. They have a big posting board at the entry explaining the plan, complete with illustrations of how it will look over the course of it's growth. It should be rather impressive when it matures.