Our country pool

Our newest toy

A Gator!

Shepard and Will can ride together and they are taking turns driving.  And having a blast!

1st day of school - 2011

Wasson Homeschool is back in session!

After a summer filled with traveling, swimming, unpacking and settling in to our new home, it is really great to be back on a "normal" schedule again.  We even ate dinner at 6:30! 

Overall, we had a great first day!  I've learned not to try to expect too much the first day, so we did light schoolwork and worked mostly on obedience and character.  We'll ease into the full school load by the end of the week.  Everyone is happy, so I think it was a successful day!

We started the day with outside chores...  like most farm boys do.  I consider this an important part of their education, too.

Then we headed upstairs to the school room.  We realized that every year at our old house we took a 1st day of school picture with the huge white board saying what grade they were beginning.  There's no big white board here.  So we used the little chalkboard.  It's kinda like what we did before, so it felt like we were maintaining tradition. 

Finding joy in the strangest things

I like to have a clean car.  I think I can thank my dad for that.  (Although he'd probably be quick to tell you that I'm not nearly as obsessed with it as he is! :))  You can eat off the hood of his car.  Not mine.  Dad taught me that a white vehicle doesn't look as dirty as a dark one...  unless it is REALLY dirty.  And mine is.  REALLY dirty.  All the time.  Even right after I wash it.  Now that we live off a dirt road, it's practically impossible to keep it clean.  This makes me sad.  But, I have a new hobby!  One of my favorite things to do now is close the back hatch after I've unloaded stuff out of the car and see just how big the poof of dust is.  It makes me giggle every time.

Don't misunderstand (John), I still PREFER a clean car!  But, I'm making lemonade out of my lemons...

Shep and Joey

Shepard asked me to take his picture with Joey.  They are such good friends!  It was cute how Shep tried to get Joey to look at the camera. 

We've been so intrigued with Joey's personality...  he is so loveable and he really enjoys being around people.  He has to stay outside, but he really wants to be with us.  He has a way of finding the room we are in inside the house and then he puts his paws up on the window and looks in at us.  He's learned our schedule and waits for us at the door when he knows we are coming.  He really only seems to hang out at the barn when one of us is there.  The Lord knew just what kind of cat our family needed. 

Yippee!! Hooray!! We just signed all the papers to close the deal on
selling our house in Fort Smith! So excited! Praying the new owners
enjoy the house as much as we did. They seem like a very sweet family.
It's really cool to see the Lord provide in so many ways. The Wassons
are doing a happy dance!!

Sent from my iPhone

New Life Ranch Family Camp 2011

We LOVE it!!

This is one of our favorite summer vacation destinations.  There's something for everyone...  actually we pack more activities into a few days than we would normally do in weeks or months.  It's just a blast.  And even though there is so much to do, we also rest.  The staff are truly servants and they take care of us so well.  Ahhhh!  It's just wonderful!  And the Christian atmosphere is so encouraging.  We love "getting away from it all" to enjoy family activities and worship the Lord.

Here are the picture highlights:

Our room/ cabin...

Carnival Night...

First a little friendly father/son competition on the bounce around obstacle course!

where's dad??? 

waiting for dad... 

Well, we are just getting older.  :)

Josiah loved beating his dad in the race! 

Pony rides...

Face painting...

Can you tell this is Shepard??

 Will had to get in on it, too.

Our zombies. 

(I don't care much for zombies at all - the boys hear me say that a lot - but the boys think it's so fun.)

Will and Shepard with Mr. Sam (our family counselor) 

The WAY COOL triple bunk!  The boys rotated beds each night and so they all had a chance to sleep on the very top!

Will injured his leg on the first night at the carnival.  It's just that we didn't know he injured it.  He never said a word about it and we didn't see it happen.  So, on the first morning at camp when he woke up crying, we just put him back to bed thinking he was over tired.  It took awhile to realize that he really did have an injury.  He was asking for help just to roll over in bed and then crying out in pain when we moved him.  But there were no visible marks on his leg so we couldn't tell what was wrong.  But he couldn't walk.  Poor guy.  He rested in bed most of the day until we could get him to the doctor that evening.  The diagnosis:  a strained ligament in his thigh/ hip.  It had tightened up over night and was really painful.  And to top it off, he got stung by a bee after going to the doctor's office.  This was probably not his favorite day. :)  Here he is lounging in bed...

And then watching his brothers on the ropes elements...  it was hard for him because he wanted to do the Screamer element SOOO bad.  Maybe next year...

Shepard and Josiah on the zipline!

Look at him go!  It's a pretty big accomplishment for a 6 year old to climb all the way to the top!  He just tackled it like a pro.  We were impressed! 

Josiah at the top! 

Shep at the top! 

Shepard's going again... 

A special ride on the Gator was just the medicine that Will needed and probably ended up being the highlight of his trip!

and then some much needed rest!

Mr. Sam with the boys...

Goodbye NLR!  See ya next summer!



4th of July

We had a fun par-tay on the 4th with good friends, good food and an awesome fireworks display!  Watching from our front porch was great!  There were beautiful fireworks in almost every direction.

Earlier in the evening some of the kids made luminaries.  I wish I had a picture of them all lit up on the front sidewalk...  so cute. 

The moms...

The guys...

Now tomorrow we are headed to Family Camp... 

New Life Ranch or BUST! :)