Leave a light for the Lord on the earth!

Art was always there, welcoming folks to worship.  I kind of envision the Lord watching the saints that have gone before standing there to welcome the new arrivals like this, only a much bigger deal!

My mom treated us this past weekend

She bought us tickets to her favorite show, Sound of Music.  Legacy Christian School put this one on.  We got to see it with her, Andy and Laura.  Susan and Laura saw it the night before.

Zoe and me packing up to leave.

She does great on the trails.  She's happy as long as she gets out to have somebody pet her every once in a while.

The guy coming up the obstacle behind me

The three out of nine that tried it all had the same result.  A winch at the very top.  Glad I gave it a go though. :)

POV a Little Rock fun this weekend

I found some folks just as crazy as me willing to hang out in crazy places, haha.

You know it’s going to be a good day when…

You start off the ride to the smell of fresh hewn lumber!

A true cat emergency!

 

Two sentimental thoughts from my kids in the same week❣️

Makes my heart full and warm.  

An almost magical pic of our pond

I was mowing a few nights back and enjoyed this view while doing so. 

There aren’t too many pics of me mowing our yard…

It's fun that John stopped to take it.  I realized I'm probably in a tiny percentage of the zillions of pics on my phone hahahaha.

One of two Heartwarming little moments

This week, each of the boys separately expressed a warm sentiment that made me smile inside and out.  I love them❣️

How many people can say they got a Jeep duck for putting out a fire?!

A lady saw my good deed and said I had to have one.  

I might have to keep this one, hahahaha.

I stopped to put out a fire…

At a gas station!  I noticed the mulch was going pretty good under their sign.  I remembered I had an emergency shovel and went to work.  It was fun to help.  It gave me good practice of thinking through how to do it, remaining calm, and getting it out without burning myself or my stuff.  

Why compete?!

The list of tricks is hard for the competition Andy and I attend for his birthday.  I finally got to where I can get through the speed ladder in around 10 minutes sometimes.  That's not going to be competitive, but I least I can land some on stage.  That's the whole reason we sign up.  It give us a goal and deadline to reach.  It levels up our skills, keeps us sharp mentally and physically, and we enjoy the process together.  Plus, the stress of getting up on stage just makes it easier to deal a little better with other pressure situations life throws at ya.  It doesn't have to be Kendama.  It can be anything you do.  Running, shooting, getting on stage or organizing things at church, off-roading. Whatever you're in to.  Stretch yourself.  

A least SOMEONE managed to find Julie some morels…!

Savannah's family has property with them AND they know how to look for them apparently.  She kindly brought back enough for Julie to enjoy a batch!  I even got a tast.  Thanks Savannah, that was really nice❣️ You just proved we have to bring you along in our suitcase next time!

It’s growing out of control…

My Jeep sticker collection has spilled over into the back seat!

Check entire surroundings…

There might be a beagle in them! Haha.  I was working on my Jeep and put Zoe on one for the d-rings for a bit.  I was checking the camera and got this view. ❤️

Might be the problem…

If you've learned everything you know about computers from Readers Digest, THAT might be the problem, hahahahaha!

Wow, I remember working on this lab!

Many long hours!  I was the most sleepy I have ever been driving home from there late one night, following my dad!  I remembered I vowed I'd pull over next time I was that sleepy.  Hadn't happened. 🤪

It’s fun to look back at old family pics

Thinking about my grandma and grandpa Barton on their wedding day.  We've got some more weddings coming up among my nephews this year.  It's fun to think several generations back too.

Fun family time at my mom’s as always!

Lots of good food and laughs as usual!

Time for Easter lunch!

We all enjoyed the wide ranging snack tray Cheyenne pulled together from what she had on hand.  Perfect comb in my book!

Not before and after…

I thought this was a fun way to show the process of getting my rig cleaned up so I can check it over and keep the important parts working well.

These two shots are only seconds apart from each other and show the before and after, but at the same time. 🤪

Tan line!

Barely, but it's there…

It's fun that I've already been out in the sun enough this year that I have a watch tan line.  Between off-roading, and working around the house, I'm already building up my sun tolerance. 

Take a few mins and keep your vehicles running.

$40 and only 20 mins start to finish, my Jeep had new synthetic oil and filter.  It's nuts the people that will spend thousands on rig upgrades and never change the oil, differential fluid, or grease those expensive joints… Cheap insurance!

Zoe all loaded up and ready to go shopping…

She loves it when we hit the hardware store together!  This is her "hurry up, let's get going" face.  As soon as the Jeep starts moving, she jumps down into her dog rug that holds her like a little taco behind the front passenger set.  

The finale of his show with a song

He even made a custom steam powered instrument as part of the music.  I guess you would call it part of the percussion group?  We left Alton Brown's Last Bite show with smiles.  It was fun for of us to hang out together.  Turns out Sophie is a fan too and wished she could go, but we didn't know that when we bought tickets last year.  Maybe next time girl?! ;)

Alton Brown

Cap'n Crunch, steam engine, and an omelette cooked on a 400º 4" plate of carbon steel.  You never know what you'll see in one of his shows, but it will be fun for sure.

Can’t take them anywhere…

…without them acting weird, haha.

Julie and I took the boys to see one of Alton Brown's food science shows.  Supposedly his last tour?  We were waiting in the lobby and I caught them doing whatever this is.  Love them all!  No dull moments for sure.

Julie is suffering from kitty 😻 paralysis!

Pepper's cute with her little crossed arms…

At least I have helpers for my tube repairs…

Chloe even joined us for a few brief moments in the process.

A thorn in my side…!

My bike tire went flat on our trip.  I found the thorn shown in the right inset… Upon further investigation, I found three OTHERS in the tire (little splotches of green slime and the paper clip in the left picture)…. So I felt around the entire inner surface and found one more.  I pushed them all back out with a paper clip and put everything back together.  I guess I missed one, because I noticed yesterday that my tire is flat AGAIN… I think I need armored tires or something.  It's a constant problem… My slime tubes have been holding really well, but the problem is, once you move things around during a flat, you get a bunch of new holes that the slime doesn't fill and you have to find them ALL before you'll be back in business for a while again…

Back home after the trips from a week ago

I finally got all the parts so I could mount my flag for when I'm in parks that require them.  Fitting since I've learned a lot about fab and wheeling from Matt.  Why are the two YouTube guys I follow both named Matt…?

Lots of interesting little roads

If you know me, you know I am saying, "Let's see where this goes?!" as we encounter each one…

A great way to spend a lazy day off!

Watching a fire, sitting with my wife, sipping a coffee, having my quiet time, and being watched over by the elk…

Our last day of looking.

The good news… Even if you don't find mushrooms, you still get a nice walk in the woods. :)

Cool little town for dinner.

Heading to dinner :)

I enjoyed the view.  That's Missouri off in the distance hills.

I got Julie off-roading in her car

We checked out some of the main ATV trails during our mushroom hunting trip.

We did find lone star ticks…

While we searched in vain for mushrooms, we both managed to find one of these… They're plentiful this year. What I DON'T want is a tick induced meat allergy!

Cute little bobcat just chillin’

Our house from last weekend was definitely decorated in a "lodge" motif. 🤪

Another!

Spring.  Pieces of old life and new lying there together.

Simple contrast, designs, and color of nature’s beauty

A Julie sighting in its natural habitat…

The trip back to the lodge from breakfast

Pretty, hilly countryside

Breakfast the next day was on point!

Great omelette and sausage!  A perfect little small-town spot.

We enjoyed the sunset during our search through the wooss

Sacrifices…

I had to donate a ziplock and my tea container to the frog side quest. :)

We set off looking for mushrooms right away!

And found some tiny little peeper frogs in the process. Of course, Julie wanted to add them to her terrarium❣️

I liked the family room of our lodge!

It was a nice little cozy, sunny corner for most of the day.  The elk kept watch over us too.  

Off to the next adventure…

For Julie's birthday, I got her a morel mushroom hunting get away extended weekend trip.  We checked into the room we rented in the lodge on Sunday.  It was a really nice place!  We were the only tenants so had the whole place to ourselves! Well, except the little snake that joined us for a bit before Julie nicely ushered him back outside. Haha.