Hayden

We missed having Jennifer and Brian join us for Thanksgiving but they had a pretty good excuse. Little Hayden was born the next day in Raleigh, North Carolina, my first great nephew! Here he is napping at about 3 days old.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Hot Springs among friends and family.


Will carved the turkey and we stuffed ourselves as usual. We were delighted to share our Thanksgiving meal with Jeff, Kay, John, Caroline, Jamie, and Will.


Jeff brought over the new Nintendo Wii so we could bowl, play tennis, golf, and box to work off the noon meal, right in the comfort of the den.

Fall foliage tour in Arkansas

There was good color when the leaves changed this year and one day we decided it was time to enjoy the forests. We left with a picnic and first stopped at Daisy State Park on Lake Greeson to check out the Bear Creek trail. It is one of the few quad riding trails we know of in Arkansas at this time.


We had our picnic overlooking Lake Greeson in the state park in a most serene setting. The sun was shining, the eagles circling, and the weather crisp. It was a perfect spot. More photos.


From Lake Greeson we drove over to the Ouachita National Forest and stopped at Camp Albert Pike. We couldn't resist walking along the Little Missouri River at one of my old trout fishing spots. We visited with some folks hiking into the wilderness for a few days of turkey hunting. I was excited to see some new larger camping sites.


From there we continued up the gravel road and went over the mountain taking the back route to Shady Lake. We stopped at the Little Missouri Falls and went for a short hike.


We thought we must be at the peak of fall foliage season and then we talked to a ranger and found out a recent storm had sent most of the leaves fluttering to the ground. It must have been truly magnificent! But any time of the year is good to be in this forest. Click to see more of our photos of the Ouachita National Forest.