Special Olympics Area 17

Wow!  What a crazy Special Olympics season.

Friendship didn't appear to want to do S. O. this year so at the last minute we joined the Dover team.  The Dover team told us Canyon could not do 2 field events.  He has always done 2 field events so I was determined to set the record straight.  They had 1 whole month and still, no one could prove to me with any rule that he couldn't.  So as far as we knew by Friday, he was going to be entered in 1 field event and a running event.  Turns out, at 10 pm that night before the games, they got conformation from the area director that he in fact could be in 2 field events.  As we found that at the morning of, we also learned the that 1st and 3rd pages of athletes entry forms for Dover were unaccounted for and of course Canyon was on one of them. So 9 of the Dover 13 were left out.  They got that all sorted out but since they were now write ins, they were teamed up with random people and ended up competing with people out of their age range and with the opposite sex.  Which is not how it is supposed to be done.  He did not get a first place this year...he possibly got 2 2nd place medals.  We're unsure because of the age differences.  It was a mess.  In the past, you had to get a 1st to go to state but the numbers are all messed up and someone has to go through them all to figure it out. Unfortunately, when it was all said and done, he did not qualify for state this time. :(

ANYWAY...

It was held at Vilonia this year.  It was a reschedule because of bad storms the weekend it was supposed to be.  Not as many people showed up this year possibly due to the reschedule and that Vilonia is 30 minutes father than where it is usually held.

Dover did not have a shot put to practice with so Canyon did the soft ball throw.  

And instead of the run he got put back in the standing long jump which he loves.

He did great!

Sahara's co-worker, Katie, went with us.  After his events, we hit David's Burgers!

Easter Day

The bunny came.

Sahara made me a pressed flower frame and gave Canyon a shirt from the shop Jared works at. (He made it)

We have a nest with babies on the front porch under the kitchen window in a window flower box.  So cute!

In the afternoon we headed to Belleville to Kristy and Damon's house for food and a hunt.

There were 400+ eggs hidden for 12-14 hunters.  Canyon got 26.  1 had $2 in it.  The rest candy.

Beautiful warm day.

Crawfish Fest

Jared's family invited us for crawfish.  I had never had them.

This is about 1/5 of the basket.

Canyon wanted nothing to do with the live ones.  But after they were cooked, he held them and said they were yummy.

My first try.  Tasty yes, but too much work and the guts are too gross.  I'll stick to crab legs!  They also had corn on the cob, potatoes, sausage, and shrimp.  I mostly ate shrimp. :)

Easter Ready

Never too old for egg dying.

Baseball Is Back!

Beautiful day for baseball.  We will miss next week due the Special Olympics being rescheduled.

Mt. Nebo Rim Trail

Took a 2 hour hike to the waterfalls and on the rim of Mt. Nebo.

It rained the day before so we had a good show.

It was a little treacherous and washed out but we all made it!

$$$ FRENCH DRAINS ARE IN $$$

Ok, really I've been told that it was a pretty decent price.

The yard was a disaster for for the 3 weeks they were working on it. But really, it has been a mess since we moved in.  The longest stretch we had of dry weather was in December for 11 days of no rain. However, the back yard stayed a muddy mess the whole time.  It never dried.  Water pooled up against the house and just sat there.

Some sort of drainage system was in order.  We had a couple of options, but due to the owner of the home next door (not his tenants), we decided that as little disruption in that yard as possible, the better.

Day 1

Day 2

And now we wait.  It needs to do a lot of drying out before the equipment can go back and try to flatten things out.  Otherwise they would just be putting ruts on ruts in the mud.

The first 2 days and night, the water was just flowing out like an open fire hydrant.  It tapered to a slow trickle, but then the weather was due to be bad for a couple days.  All those tornadoes in Alabama missed us and so did the rain which was good for drying other than 3 days of mist.  Then 3 more days of freezing sunshine (weather is crazy here) and they came back but needed it to dry more.  

Nearly 3 weeks from the start, we had 6 glorious days of warm and sunny weather.

They came back and flattened out the back yard and fixed the side and neighbors yard.

They put down seed and straw to get the yard restarted.

And Canyon can get to his swing!!

The side and neighbors yard looks pretty good too.

Now the test.  Rain in the forecast tomorrow and more rainy days in the week to come.

I still need to do something over by the storage building because that area stays muddy and Hippie loves to dig under the fence there.  I put bricks in his escape ways, but he just wants to dig every and anywhere along the fence. 

Crossing fingers this helps us with a usable yard!!