You might be a redneck if

Nora flashing us a little smile the first time in her swimsuit- thinking she was going to go for a dip....

How Nora spent her time at the river- asleep in her car seat under a mosquito net


...you had the weekend we did!

We went to Magic Springs on Saturday! There was a Blake Shelton concert and Blane Howard, a Hot Springs boy, was opening for him so we wanted to go see him and show our support. Our plan was to go a couple of hours before the concert and take David Franklin with us. We thought we'd beat the heat and let him go on some rides and then my mom, who had Nora, would come and pick him up and Franklin and I would have an adult night with our friends for the concert portion. That did not happen....The Voice must have really helped Blake's career because the park was jam packed and traffic was standstill. We decided not to make my mom sit and wait in it with Nora so DF got to stay for his first concert! We didn't stay too long into Blake's because our little boy was worn out but it was really fun. Blake said at the beginning of the show, "I've never seen so many hillbillies crammed into one place before," and that was the truth. There were some char-ac-ters, but we were happy to be with them. Magic Springs is no Six Flags, but it's pretty neat that we can just run up there for a few hours and have some theme park fun. I'm appreciating little things like that about Hot Springs and enjoy raising a family here more and more.... I never thought I'd say that OR want to live here when I was in high school! Another example of how kids change everything.

DF loved the kiddie rides and we went down the log ride too- the Magic Springs staple. He won a little toy playing skee ball, ate blue ice cream and fed the gigantic catfish in the pond. He did not want to go home and wanted to keep going on the different rides. We didn't do the water park this time but he had his eye on the lazy river in a big way so we will have to go back!

Today, after early church we threw on our grubby swimsuits, packed up a little PB&J picnic and headed to Glenwood to swim in the Caddo River. That is where my mom grew up and DF hears stories about swimming in the Caddo all the time. He wanted to go, so off we went. The swimming hole was hopping with people and some young boys even jumped off the bridge into the water- sooo scary!! So there we were wading in the water, with the hillbillies once again! Ain't life grand!