Swart Life: June 2012

Once again, some of the "Boore" women in my extended family gathered at Kaye & Rob's lakehouses in Bella Vista, Arkansas, this past weekend. We did this a couple of years ago and several of our younger gals requested a repeat. So Kaye was very gracious to book two of their homes that are close to each other for us to enjoy. Kaye & Rob owned these homes with some of Rob's business partners and they are rented out on a regular basis by Arkansas Vacation Homes. The two we stayed in are beautiful homes. Both are 5 bedroom and 4 bath and both have lake access.

Part of us stayed in this home:

And the rest stayed in this one. We swam off the dock of this one

Back view below of the home above. We got our workout walking up and down those steps to the dock.

Mom and I had driven down early Friday morning, unloaded our stuff at the house, picked up Kaye and her daughter, Adrienne and grandson, Graham and then headed on into the Bentonville area (Centerton to be exact) to meet the newest member of our family which is Kaye's granddaughter, Ellis Claire DeMott and firstborn daughter of Matt & Kristin. Here is great grandma Boore with Ellis:

Aunt Debbie with that precious girl:

Here is Kaye with her kids and two of her three grandchildren. Lincoln (Adrienne's older son) had stayed home with Dad and his Poppa. I did get a picture of Kristin with them but it was blurry, so am using this one instead. Sorry, Kristin!

That morning, Jeff also had made a trip to NWA, with Dave and Leigh Ryan. Leigh is our wonderful secretary and sweet friend and a major fan of Lionel Richey. So when Josh, our son, who works for Lionel, told his Dad that Lionel was going to be singing at the Wal-Mart Stockholders annual convention in Fayetteville, Jeff asked him to see if he could get tickets for him. Had I not been doing the family thing, I would have been with them. Before the show even started, they got to meet & visit with Lionel, who then asked his photographer to take their picture which is below. They also got to go backstage and then into the arena where he performed. Justin Timberlake was the emcee and Jeff said he was hilarious. So it was quite the treat for all of them. Thanks, Josh, for making it all possible!

Josh also works for the group, Journey, which Dave loves, so now he's got to try to work it out for them to attend one of Journey's concerts in the future :-).

After seeing the baby, we went to Rogers to pick up Rachel and eat lunch. Then back to the lakehouse, where my sister Bev, who drove the fartherest (from East Texas) had arrived. She hadn't met Adrienne's little boy, Graham, or my youngest granddaughter, Ellie, so a couple of pictures of that:

We do now have an Ellie Kate and an Ellis Claire in our family, that are just about 5 weeks apart, so it will be fun times when all the family get together. Bev didn't get to meet Ellis this trip, but will when they are back in NWA in July.

This was Great Grandma Boore's first time to meet Ellie Kate as well:

Eventually everyone arrived:

Carman, Laine & Ellie

Aunt Judy and her crew: Nancy, Chelsea and Morgan

Patti & Paxton

And then Aunt Freda, Holly & Shawnee

We visited at one home for a while

Then headed over to the other house where Holly, Shawnee & Aunt Freda were serving us a delicious meal of two kinds of soup. It was a rather chilly day, so soup was perfect! Aunt Freda also had baked a coconut cream pie and an apple pie. Yum! While they put the final touches on the meal, Nancy gave Rachel a wealth of wonderful wisdom and ideas about being a Kindgarten teacher.

Nancy has been teaching for a very long time and is one of the best teachers in the Girard, KS ISD. Parents and children alike love her! Rachel was just hired by the Rogers, AR ISD to teach a kindergarten class this fall. Such a major blessing for Rachel, who is still working on her Masters' Degree with hopes of graduating in December. She originally was scheduled to "student teach" this fall to fulfill those requirements for the degree. But now that she has a teaching position, she will be able to fulfill that requirement and get paid while doing it!! What a blessing for her and Jonathan as they begin their married lives. The school she is teaching at is one of those "all year round" schools. She is excited about it, with the longer breaks throughout the year and still a 2 month break in the summer-time. School starts August 6th, but she'll spend most of July, after returning from her honeymoon,
getting her room ready, in-service, etc.

After dinner (or supper as we say in Kansas), we visited and played games.

Holly is usually our resident game person, so since her daughter, Shawnee is getting married in December and Rachel in July, Holly asked all those who have been married to share a memorable story about their wedding and those who haven't been married to share what they hope happens (or doesn't happen) at their wedding. It was a great time down memory lane for many of us and lots and lots of laughter!!

The next morning, we ate breakfast all together. Mom and Kaye cooked us a scrumptious breakfast of biscuits/gravy, eggs, sausage links, fruit and blueberry coffee cake. Laine had spent the night with us and so I sure enjoyed some sweet time with her that morning.

She had dumped her cup of water on her shirt, so Aunt Ray Ray
was "blowing" her dry

That morning was a little too cool for the water, so some of us
played games on the screened in porch:

Laine playing dominoes :-)

After another delicious noon meal made by Nancy, Chelsea, Morgan, Judy, Patti & Paxton of Taco Salad with all the trimmings, Dirt Cake for Morgan's 20th birthday and several other delicious desserts, we then headed to the water. Laine loved the "big lake" as she called it. Here she is splashing her Aunt Ray Ray.

For those who got in the water, it was so enjoyable. Floating on the water is one of my very favorite things to do!! I love it!

Some of our ladies decided to just enjoy the view from the dock.

Little Graham got to get in the water too!

Ellie enjoyed a nap on Great Grandma's knees

That evening, it was Bev and I's turn to prepare the meal. We fixed our usual: homemade spaghetti sauce, meat sauce and meatballs; strawberry spinach salad and hot garlic bread. It was delicious too, if I say so myself :-). Rachel made us a hot yummy chocolate dessert. Carman, Beverly, Aunt Judy and Adrienne had also made us sweet treats that was enjoyed by all over the weekend.

Aunt Judy with sweet Graham

Patti telling a funny story about scaring her hubby, Brian!

After dinner, it was game time again (Erika had joined us for the evening):

The two little ones.....

Laine had her bath and Patti was getting a few moments with her:

Sunday morning, Kaye and Mom once again provided a delicious meal of "Hootenanny Pancakes", bacon, eggs and fruit. Then we headed to Rogers to attend worship at Metro Church that our son, Andy, pastors:

After the service, we got a picture of those who were still around. Bev had left earlier that morning for her long trip home to Texas. Paxton had got sick during the service, so she and Patti were outside and Adrienne and Graham had been picked up by Rob, Mike and Lincoln to go out to Centerton to see Matt, Kristin and the baby.