On our way to green

We bought three rain barrels from River Action in late spring. We installed one over Father's Day and we installed another the weekend after our return from Arkansas. Camryn really wanted to help.
Now we did learn a lot from installing the first one (like don't follow the directions they provide) and especially DO NOT measure (really there was no point). Scott did all the work because I had the harder job of entertaining Camryn and keeping an eye on her.
The toughest part was cutting the gutter and making sure we could get gutter to mold around the rain diverter. In a perfect world our gutters would be buried (if anyone wants to volunteer for the job let me know). But you keep the rain diverter down until your rain barrel is full. Then you flip the diverter up and rain runs down your gutter. Now the only really difficult part is we have 3/4 inch gutters and the diverter is for a 2 inch gutter so Scott had to do some squeezing. It's not perfect but it gets the job done.

You would think it could take awhile to fill up a 60 gallon rain barrel but apparently it only takes one storm. Now we have a water supply for our plants without turning on the hose. It is a little more work because you either fill a watering can or get really low pressure out of a hose. But we are doing our part for the environment.

Next up: Garden design . . . do we have any volunteers?

I heart books and my dog

My what big teeth you have.

I guess I didn't realize but in this picture she is sitting and bouncing on poor Toro. All the while he simply lays down and looks slightly defeated.

Arkansas Part 3 - Parting is such sweet sorrow

We left on Sunday July 5th primarily because I convinced Scott to drive straight home.
But not before Camryn had her first ever boat ride. Great Grandpa fixed the boat up just for Camryn's visit (I know it isn't true but I'm glad it gave them a reason to take the boat out). Grandpa Don did a great job of showing Camryn all the sites from the boat. She liked that she had her own special seat.
Dad did a much better time of taking a picture of Mom and Camryn. I forgot to mention she definitely was not thrilled at the idea of wearing the life jacket. But I think she got over it.
Grandpa Don exhausted Camryn with all the sites on the lake. After the boat ride it was unfortunately time to say bye to everyone and start the long drive home. Camryn easily tongued I mean kissed everyone goodbye and off we went.



We can't wait for our next visit down there.

Arkansas Part 2

Camryn continued her love of rocks at Grandpa Don's future farm. Because, yes! he has plenty of rocks too!!!
And boy did she have plenty to throw!
In addition, Grandpa Don ignited Camryn's love of tractors. At least I am going to blame him and his John Deere. Good thing she didn't see all of Great Grandpa's tractors. We never would have left the barn.

And we were introduced to my dad's chocolate lab Cocoa. Toro liked it because not only did he get to roam the farm but he had a playmate as well. Cocoa definitely had the retriever part of Labrador Retriever down. You could throw her a large rock (I'm talked 10 pounds) and she would chase it downt he ravine and bring the same one back up (sometimes it took over 10 minutes) but she was a pretty good dog.
I do have to say having a dog with a cropped tail spoiled me. Camryn was taken out by Cocoa's tail a couple of times.

Arkansas Part 1

We finally made it to Arkansas late afternoon Friday July 3rd. We shipped Toro off to my Dad's "farm," I use that term very loosely I think future farm would be a better description. We had a low key evening and Camryn enjoyed her second dip in a pool this summer (sad I know).

Saturday morning I thought it would be a good idea to go to Eureka Springs, boy was I wrong. It was super crowded and built up so much more than I remember. Really I just wanted to go to the winery but by the time we arrived Scott, Dad and I didn't feel like drinking any wine. So we returned back to Rogers, AR and visited with Great Grandma & Grandpa Kostner and Aunt Joyce.
This was Cam's first time meeting them and I am pretty sure she won them over with her charm.
Not to mention the fact that they have plenty or ROCKS!
And a bucket. So she could put rocks in the bucket, dump it out, put more in . . .
Mom even turned the camera over to dad for at least one picture (notice the difference in quality).
Camryn, also tried to tell dad what her beverage of choice was . . . not until she's 21! (um yah because I waited that long, no mom really I did!)
Camryn met Jake, Grandma & Grandpa's dog. Jake liked Camryn but she wasn't used to a dog not listening to her and letting her do whatever she wanted to him and ignoring her so she did become annoyed a couple of times.

Getting There

We went to Arkansas to visit Grandpa Don over the 4th of July weekend. Camryn thought she was really lucky since we switched her carseat to forward facing for the first time. Boy, it sure does help a child to ride in a car better when he/she can actually seen outside the window!
I do have to say her and Toro did amazingly well. Scott wanted to break up the 9 - 10 hour trip down in two days (I tried to convince him otherwise. I really cannot remember in all my trips to Arkansas taking two days to travel . . . I am sure it happened).
So we stayed the night at a Quality Inn Motel. And yes I mean a motel. It has been ages since I have stayed in a motel. A motel, for those who need a refresher course) is the building that all the doors are on the outside. Now I should mention that it was okay; however, if by chance a torrential downpour should occur I am pretty sure our room would have been flooded (or our front entrance just really wet).
Now a little aside. The only other motel I really have a memory of is when Mom, Aunti Lou and all of us kids went down to FL to visit Aunti Lou's mom and we stayed in a motel. My mom frosted, yes frosted Aunti Lou's hair in the motel and this part gets a little fuzzy but I think we thought someone was trying to get in the room and decided that we would send out Aunti Lou and maybe her hair would scare them away. (I was definitely under 10 but not sure exactly how old I was so this memory is shaky).

I think the reason I have such a poor impression of the place is neither Camryn or Toro really enjoyed the place. We pulled in a little before 11 pm Thursday night and just before we get to the room, Camryn actually woke up. When we entered the room (after waiting forever for Toro to do his business) Camryn would NOT let me put her down. Every time I tried she just started screaming/crying etc. I didn't want to get kicked out so I picked her up. Once we were settled (well past midnight) I thought I could just lay Camryn in her pack and play and be done with it . . . WRONG!!! Long story short she spent the night in bed with mom and dad and tossed and turned and cried until finally falling asleep around 2 AM. Not to mention the dog pacing and whining the whole night. I think Scott had either a foot on his head or her head laying on top of his when we woke up the next morning. The next morning Camryn and Toro didn't really seem to mind the room.
We made a little detour at St. James Winery. It was a self-serve wine tasting and grape juice tasting. They had over 12 wines to taste and I think about 6 grape juices. The wines were in true midwest tradition and a little sweet. I would highly recommend the stop. There were other wineries in the area as well.
This was Toro pretty much the entire trip!

Family Reunion

At the end of June we celebrated with the Hummell family reunion on Grandma Linda's side. I forget if it was 8 or 10 Hummell children the remaining 6 are photographed above. It was amazing how far people came out in the hot weather to enjoy the extended family and family they didn't know they had.
It made me realize that it is harder than ever to convey the sense of family that I know to Camryn. Most of my memories of being little include packing in the car on a weekend and or weeknight and driving to see some aunt/uncle, cousin or grandparent. Now we do visit family when we can but it is usually just the grandparents and they are scheduled not the "Let's see if Aunt Lori or Aunt Audrey are home and stop by." Stop by we did and if they weren't home it wasn't a big deal. Lives are so scheduled now. My social calendar is full until September and that is even filling out (I guess that speaks to the quality of our family and friends).

I didn't take too many pictures because I actually wanted to enjoy the event. As you can tell by the beer in my hand.
Camryn was able to go swimming in an actual pool for only the 2nd time in her life and eventually didn't want to get out. It did take a little convincing at first.
Then she continued feeding her love of rocks. Picking them up, throwing them, eating them . . .
And I guess that extended to water balloons as well . . .
This is what we were left with at 7:30 pm. No dinner and out like a light. I wish I could say she slept all morning as well but I'm pretty sure we were up by 5:30