Buffalo River Trip

Last weekend we went camping for a couple days out at the Buffalo River.

Camping at Kyle's Landing

Blanca loves camping and hiking, but does not appreciate swimming.  But we dragged her canoeing anyway!

The water level was low, so we had to drag the canoe a lot and Blanca tried to bolt out of the boat every chance she got.  Fortunately her life jacket has a handle on it so I forced her to stay in. A couple times I let her jump out when we grounded, but she would take off up the river bank and we had a hard time convincing her to come back.  Once, we let her jump out once while we stayed in and the water was up to her chin.  She did not like it very much.  We kept floating down the river.  Ryan thought she would follow us, but apparently the water was a little too deep for her liking and she refused to budge.  Ryan had to get out and wade back to her.  She did not jump out again after that!

She loved when we stopped and she could run around on the river bank and get horribly sandy and muddy! She even waded out into the river, which is a very big step for her considering her aversion to water!

We were all pretty exhausted after our day in the sun.  

The Buffalo River is a beautiful area!  We had a great time!!!

Hard to believe that we've been in Fayetteville for almost four years and in four days, we'll be headed back to Austin, TX with the moving truck! Hopefully we'll have more fun trips involving rivers and our poor dog this summer!  Stay tuned for our Austin adventures!

Ryan's Graduation!

After seven years of college, Ryan graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Arkansas!  Yay!  His parents came up Friday and after paying a visit to the AT&T store to get Ryan a iPhone 4S, we went to dinner at Vetro 1925, which is very yummy.  Ryan loves his new phone, and is in fact playing Angry Birds Space as  I write this.  This afternoon was the Fay Jones School of Architecture graduation ceremony.  It was so exciting to see him walk across that stage and get his degree!  We had a little graduation party tonight to celebrate Ryan's accomplishments and to eat yummy Razorback cake.

My snazzy husband in his cap, gown and "professional" stole

So grateful for my wonderful in-laws that supported us so much through school.

In front of Old Main. We're both finally razorback alumni now!

Yummy cake from Rick's Bakery.

It was a long road to get to today, but we did it.  Thank you to all of our friends and family for all of your support!  We love you all!  Now on to the next stage of our lives and to the adventures that lie ahead.

Black Keys, Graduating, & Moving

First off, Ryan and I got to see the Black Keys in Tulsa on Saturday and it was awesome!  It was a little too echo-y in the BOK center and it was a little hard to hear the vocals, but it was so much fun!  And we were kind of in the nose bleed section, so I felt sort of dumb trying to dance since no one else was that high up.

Yeah, really, really high up.

There was a good number of people there.

You can't tell, but that light was coming from the biggest, most awesome disco ball ever!  Everlasting Light!

In other news, Ryan and I have made the decision to move back to Austin, TX to be closer to family and hopefully for Ryan to find a job at an architecture firm.  He'll graduate May 12th!  And then we'll be moving back the first week in June.  While we'll miss our friends, family here, we are really excited about moving back to the Austin area!

Spring Break 2012

I know, Spring Break was a month ago and I'm just now getting around to writing anything about it.  Well we had really, really wanted to go back to Florida to visit my family and the beach, but I only was able to get the first weekend of Spring Break plus Monday and Tuesday off from work since  I started a new job recently and couldn't take vacation time yet.  Ryan had to be in school till Friday evening, so that left us with four days.  Since it's a twelve hour drive to Navarre, we decided to either go camping or go to St. Louis. We decided on going to St. Louis (and a good thing too because it ended up raining most of the time).  Saturday we headed up to Missouri.  When we got there it was pouring rain and it was hard to find the hotel, but we managed.  Blanca was terrified of the hotel lobby, elevator, hallway, etc. because she is the biggest baby ever.  But she recognized what a bed was and at least was fine in the room.

We headed down to the Loop(a commercial district that consists of several blocks) near Washington University for dinner and ate at Pi Pizza which was amazing! It's President Obama's favorite pizza place.  We just took it easy and perused through the numerous shops that night.  The next day we went to the St. Louis Botanical Gardens which were huge and beautiful! Best gardens I've ever been too.

Japanese Garden

 We stopped at an Italian sandwich place on the Hill(an Italian neighborhood).  Then we went to the Art Museum in Forest Park which had an amazing collection.  We also took Blanca to a sculpture garden which was pretty neat.

We caught a late night show at BB's Jazz, Blues, & Soups in downtown and listened to a pretty cool band and ended up buying their album.  Monday we went to the Zoo and spent FOREVER trying to park! St. Louis seriously needs more entrances to Forest Park.

Cutest baby elephant!

The highlight of our trip was going to the City Museum.  If you have never been and are in St. Louis you must go! It's basically an enormous playground made of recycled materials housed in an old warehouse.

This is the outside portion of the museum.  You can climb high up into the plane!

I wish I could have taken some better pictures, but  I was terrified my iPhone was going to fall out of my pocket and fall fifty feet below me and die, so I left it in the car.  On the inside is a huge playground made mostly of cement, re-bar tunnels, wood, and other stuff. It's by no means a safe place.  It's full of hidden passageways, tunnels, and small places adults like me can easily get stuck.  It's like man made indoor caving.  The coolest, most magical place I've been to since Disney World.  Here's their website where you can find more pictures.  http://citymuseum.org  I also googled some pictures.

Climbing in those metal tunnels at the top was kind of terrifying.  It also swayed in the wind!

This is part of the inside.  There's more underground and above too in the tree house.

Moral of the story...go to the City Museum!!!  I was so sore after our couple hours of playing here which involved mainly crawling on my hands and knees or belly, climbing, and pulling myself out of holes.  I obviously am no longer 12 years old and impervious to bruises or sore muscles.

Nursing my battered body, we then went to the Gateway Arch and rode the tram up the inside of the arch to the top.  

The tram is a very small little capsule with no window that is packed with five people.  Ryan hated every single minute of the four minute ride to the top.  When we got up there, you could feel the swaying of the arch, which he found even more disconcerting.  I really had to pay attention to feel it swaying. The view was very impressive and very high.

Our trip was far too short and we had to head back Tuesday.  We went back to Forest Park and walked around for a little.  Then sat in more traffic to get out of Forest Park and stopped for lunch and some Ted Drewes Frozen Custard.  Six hours later we were back in Arkansas wishing we were still on vacation.  The next day was the end of Spring Break for me as I had to go back to work and Ryan had to start homework.  Even though I was sad not to get to go to Florida, I am really glad we got to go to St. Louis.  It is a really cool city with a whole lot to do!

Christmas 2011

We headed back to Tejas as soon as Ryan was done for the semester.  My brother is leaving on his mission to Mexico City next week so it was really nice that we got to spend so much time in Austin.  As usual, we did lots of running around between families.  We also got to go to Fort Worth to spend some time with my step-mom, five step-sisters, two adorable nieces, little sister, and littlest brother.  It was one crazy house with a dozen adults, two kids, two toddlers, and everyone's dogs! But it was of course a blast!  We got matching sister robes that are super warm and fuzzy!

Me, Alex, Delaney, Sierra, Halie, Clara, Savannah

After too short a time in Fort Worth, we headed back to Austin and then it was Christmas.  I can now officially announce that WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My in-laws are taking our whole family this summer! Yay! I had to keep it a secret because his mom wanted to surprise everyone for Christmas, so she only let me and my sisters-in-law in on the surprise.  I have had to keep my mouth shut since June!  But everyone was really surprised and we are all really excited!  Not only am I excited about Disney World, I am really excited we get to do something so fun as a family.  I have really awesome sisters-in-law and we hardly ever get to see them and their families since they live up east.

Alright, off my Disney World tangent.  Christmas was awesome.  Ryan turned 28 the day after Christmas and he had a good birthday.  New Year's Eve Ryan and I went downtown for some live music and film screenings.  It was lots of fun and the weather was beautiful!

I did forget to mention that we had a slight mishap in Fort Worth...but the upside to it was that we got to drive this for several days while our car was in the body shop.

2011 Dodge Charger I wish was mine.

Ryan cried a little when we had to go get our car back.  It was nice while it lasted though!

We got to spend some time with my step-sister, bro-in-law, and niece that live in Austin as well.  Ryan finally experienced Rudy's BBQ and we played some intense triple decker laser tag!

My little brother's farewell was the weekend before we left.  My parents turned it into an open house/talent night.  Can I just say that Travis has gotten really good on the guitar?  He taught me a couple things before I left and gave me his old guitar so I can learn to play.

An amazing family friend from church, Nancy, made this awesome cake for Travis!

The name tag and the Book of Mormon are all in Spanish. It tasted delicious too!

The last thing we did as a family before we left was attend the San Antonio Temple so Travis could take out his endowments.  It was amazing to all be together in the temple and see how much my little brother has grown up.  I know he is going to be a great missionary and have an incredible next two years.  I am really going to miss him!

My family with my aunt and uncle outside the temple.

It was a great break!  Now the reality of winter, school, and work sets in.  Until next time Texas. Thanks for reading!  Hope everyone has a great 2012!

Catch up

So I have not posted anything in a very long time. Time to play some catch up...
Summer: Ryan left to go on his Southwest road trip that he had received a fellowship to go on.  He traveled through Texas, west Texas, into New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and then back to Arkansas.  He was studying both the culture and ancient architecture of the area and seeing how it influences today's architecture.  He could probably explain it a lot better.  I got to go with him on part of his trip for a week, which was fun. We went to Ft. Davis, El Paso to see lots of my family, and then Phoenix where I had to fly back to Texas. I got to spend some time with my family before I had to head back to Arkansas to start my new job as an RN in the ICU.

Ryan sketching the Alamo. He did a lot of sketching on this trip.

A cave at Hueco Tanks that we spent hours in so Ryan could sketch some of the pictographs.

Most of west Texas looks like this...

I started my new job in the ICU at the end of June and Ryan eventually came home from his trip.  Our summer was pretty uneventful because I was working.  We celebrated our 3rd anniversary August 2nd, 2011. We went to the Turpentine Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs which was super neat!  They have all these big cats that they've rescued from private owners. We also went swimming out at Beaver Lake and then had an amazing dinner at James at the Mill.

My yummy dinner

Ryan's dinner

3 years already!

We also got to go tubing in August with some of our friends down the Illinois River in Oklahoma which was super fun!  Minus the fact that we hit a deer on our way there, which resulted in having to replace the front end of the car.  But we had a great time tubing!

Fall: School unfortunately started not too long after and our brief summer came to a close.  And guess what?  Ryan left me yet again for another trip!  This time to Rwanda.  Yes, as in Africa.  I refused to be alone for another several weeks, so I convinced my little brother Travis to come up and stay with me and Blanca for the month of September.  We had a great time!  I even got to take him to his first college football game.

At the Razorback-Troy game with Travis

All too soon my brother had to go back to Texas, but in exchange, Ryan came home from Rwanda, bearing gifts too.

Travis wearing the mask Ryan brought home from Rwanda.

Ryan's parents got to come up for Bikes, Blues, and BBQ, which was fun because his dad had never been before.

Sometime this fall, I got called to teach the 4-5 year olds in Primary and Ryan was called to teach the 12-13 year old kids in Sunday School.  So far we are both enjoying our new callings.

Ryan and I also got to go to two Razorback games this season, Auburn and South Carolina.

At the Auburn game which we amazingly got tickets to!

We also went to Joplin and got to see my two step-sisters and my nieces to celebrate the two little girls turning 2! I can't believe how big they are getting!  And they just keep getting cuter!  Halie and Chloe just moved back to Fayetteville, so I'm excited to get to spend more time with them!

And speaking of two's, Blanca turned 2 yesterday, November 11! I can't believe how big she's gotten!  But she's still the same old puppy.

I don't know how, but she was totally asleep like this!

So I think I have caught up on the comings and goings of the Campbell family.  Ryan is trying to survive the rest of the semester and I'm trying to survive the ICU.  We've become pretty boring, so I apologize to all my friends here reading this.  I have to go to bed early before I work my 12.5-13 hour shift, and Ryan has been doing a lot of work for studio (although that's not really anything new).  For the first time ever, I won't be home for Thanksgiving (as I have the privilege of working Thanksgiving and that weekend), so I finally get to use my turkey roaster we got as a wedding present.  Hopefully, we get to go home for a little bit around Christmas.  My little brother is leaving on his mission to Mexico City in January, so I would really like to get to see him again before he leaves to serve the Lord for 2 years (and get in touch with our family's roots!).

Well thanks for reading my long, overdue post!  Until next time!

Camping with the Family

After graduation, my family stayed here for about a week.  My poor mom is really allergic to my dog, so Blanca stayed with some friends while they were staying with us (Thank you Scotts and Whitney!).  We had a great time!

Sunday was when the Campbells and Lanhams left, but the rest of us went to church and bummed about the house for the rest of the day, playing games and enjoying spending time with each other.  Monday we took them out to Eureka Springs, showed them Thorncrown Chapel, ate lunch at the Basin Park Hotel, and peeked into all the cool little shops.

Tuesday we picked up Blanca and headed out to the Buffalo River to go camping.  Blanca loved camping! And the drive up there.

Travis & Cassie got stuffed in the back
seat with Blanca while Mom and Dad rode
in the other car.

We were going to drive out to Sam's Throne to go climbing, but it was getting late in the afternoon, so we went hiking instead.  Blanca kind of played in the river, she's getting better with the whole water thing.  My brother, Travis, carried firewood back to camp.  I thought he looked slightly reminiscent of a Led Zeppelin album cover.

Ryan is very good at starting fires

Blanca got lots of food she
doesn't normally get.

Blanca was exhausted after a long day of playing in the river and running up and down her lead.  She curled up in our tent with her head resting on Ryan's feet.

Wednesday we went out to Sam's Throne to climb, but it started to rain and the rock was pretty wet.  Instead, we hiked along the top of the cliffs where the climbs were.

My Daddy, little brother, my Mommy,
and little sis Cassie.

Blanca did not like being on the edge of the cliff.

Blanca loves hiking!

We came back to Fayetteville, went out to dinner at La Huerta, and then saw Thor, which was awesome!  Thursday morning they headed back to Texas.  I did not get to spend nearly enough time with my mom or Cassie, but I did get to spend some time with my dad and little brother.  I'm really glad I got to spend some time with Travis, because he'll be leaving on a mission soon.  It was a wonderful trip and I really miss them.