Wallbuilders

Two weeks ago, Stephen went to a WallBuilders conference in Dallas. I had heard David Barton speak before, and have always enjoyed it and learned so much. If you haven't heard of WallBuilders, it's an organization started by David Barton to show America's moral foundation and Christian heritage. Stephen has a cousin who lives in Dallas, so Rebecca and I went along for the trip too. While Stephen was conferencing, Rebecca and I went to some thrift stores, Goodwill stores, and did some sightseeing with Kenny, Holly, and Jimmy and Libby around Dallas. I don't have any pictures from our tourist adventures because I forgot to bring my camera. Gasp! I know! So I'll have to get some pictures from Libby and Holly.

Anyhoot, Rebecca and I even got to tour the WallBuilders' library with Stephen and the other legislators, for which I did have my camera. It was super cool! There is so much history and documents there! Bibles, letters, Revolution rifles, great stuff! I know I've told a bunch of people this, but I still think it's pretty great. . .there's a painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull. This one. If you were to point at any man in that painting, David Barton can tell you his name, occupation, what he did, accomplished, believed, said, wrote, relatives, religious beliefs, favorite color. Well maybe not favorite color, but just about everything else about them. You can find a lot on the WallBuilders website here. Or give Stephen a call, and he'll talk your ear off about American history! He loved it, and has been telling everyone about it. :)



This is David Barton and his wife Cheryl. I would have fixed Rebecca's skirt, but I didn't see that. Sometimes daddies and other people taking pictures don't notice those things.


Better go. Rebecca and Stephen are downstairs, and I can hear him quoting Bugs Bunny!

Petit Jean fun

Leaf pile fun. . . .



I love this goofy picture. :)


Jackson was cracking me up. First he was looking for dinosaur bones (white rocks) on the playground. Then we went up to the gravesite overlook, and he was calling all the big rocks dinosaur footprints. He's all about the dinosaurs lately!

Petit Jean

We went to Petit Jean Wednesday on Amanda's last day here. The weather was nice, not too hot, a little cloudy, good for taking pictures.

Woolly Hollow

I love this smile. . .

This picture of Rebecca reminds me of this one of Jackson. Funny, they were both taken at the same park.

We went for a walk in the woods.

The old cabin. . .

Heber Springs

These are pictures of our afternoon in Heber Springs.


Here's Justin and Jackson playing and my dad. Jackson loves rocks lately. There were some people fishing nearby, and they showed Justin the fish they'd caught. He found a vine and did some "fishing" of his own. I asked him if he caught any fish. He said no, but he caught some rocks. :)

Lock and dam. . .


Fish hatchery. . .



Spring Park. . .

There are seven springs at Spring Park in Heber Springs. Years ago, the water from the springs were used to heal ailments, eye problems and other health issues. I've always thought they all tasted the same, like rotten eggs. Amanda was a good sport about tasting them all. She said they taste different.

Jacksonville Zoo

Last Tuesday we went to Jacksonville Zoo with the Hazelwoods. I haven't been to a zoo in a long time, and never to Jacksonville Zoo.

Reuben called this "the green lake". It's duckweed. It's a sheet of microscopic flowers the ducks eat.

A little more info on duckweed, pretty interesting. (I thought.)

This is a white bellied bustard. He was sooo loud! And fun to watch running back and forth after the kids.

We liked these monkeys. They were cute.

The Jacksonville Zoo is near the airport. Every time a plane flew over, which happened quite a few times while we watched, the lions watched them.

These are lorikeets. They were so pretty. You can pay a dollar or two for nectar to feed the birds. We didn't have to. Other people kept giving us theirs.

Mt. Magazine

We took a day trip Saturday to Mt. Magazine. We were hoping for some more colorful views, but the peak of fall foliage had definitely passed at Mt. Magazine. But it was still a nice trip. It was cool, and very very windy. This is the lookout we stopped at where it was extremely windy.


This is at Signal Hill, where we climbed to the top of the hill. Steve wanted to be able to say we'd been to the highest point in Arkansas, 2753 feet.

Blanchard Springs

Steve's cousin's have been in town this weekend, so we all went up to Blanchard Springs. It was super hot and humid outside, so it was a great day to be down in a cool cave. Here's Kenny, Jimmy, and Libby getting off the elevator.


And these little wall looking things are called rimstones.




Here's part of the creek that runs throught the caverns.



This is called the Christmas tree room. A little blurry, but still okay. At Christmas time, they have caroling in the cave. We're thinking about going to it one year. The yellow lights around the top mark the path the cavers in the 1960's took while exploring the caverns.


This is the giant flowstone. This past April after we had all of that rain, they say the water was up to that darker line and the whole flowstone was wet from all the water running down it.



I think this was the ghost room towards the end of the tour. Lots of "soda straws" on the ceiling.


After the tour of the caverns, we walked to the springs. It was very humid, and there was a mist on the water. Cool to see, hard to take pictures of.




And this is where Steve took that great picture of the cascades a few years ago. He has it on his website under wallpaper or something. This time, it was harder to get the pictures because of the humidity.






And on the way out, Jimmy and Joshua thought it was entertaining to toss leaves into the spider webs. We were watching the spiders remove the foreign objects from their homes. :)