But we are here!! About the last 2 hours of our trip as we were heading up north on 54O heading toward Fayetteville I got to watch the storm cloud mushroom up in the sky back toward Oklahoma. I say "I" because Joe was not allowed to look. (I know Stephanie and Evan are both relating to this story right now! ha ha) And Amy, Mazie, and Coco were sleeping. It was really something though... It looked severe but thankfully it wasn't. But oh my... the storm was traveling to the north east and the lower clouds were going SOUTH. yikes. That means it's building up on the back end of the storm. Never good. The clouds were doing little swirly moves too which made me yell "GO FASTER!!!" and then I'd remember my dream. "No slow down!". It's all so confusing. I seriously need to quit watching storm chasing shows. But that's not really what this blog is about... I just wanted to share why I'm glad to be home with the ones I love!
I was going to name this blog "I'm "lichen" it" haha because I'm witty like that. ;)
But honestly the thing I loved second best about having a rain storm yesterday in Arkansas was this:
and this....
These were the pictures taken from our back deck of our cabin yesterday at Lake Ouchita. You don't see this just everywhere! We are lucky that here at Grand Lake we have it in places but not just everywhere like you do in the Ouchita National Forest. This growth tells me "no city life here!" No ozone issues. This is pure country air. Don't believe me? Go to Dallas and find lichen growing on trees. I was so in love with this green stuff that just seemed to POP after a rain storm I had to take pictures. Here's what else grows here:
It's all around! So are ferns growing in the woods.
But my number one favorite thing about yesterday I don't have photos of. We had take our little Malibu up the lake and parked along an island and backed up in a little cove. We swam for hours and laughed and played and got even more burned. We got bit by perch then decided if we couldn't beat 'em~ join 'em! So we fed them Doritos and bread. And Dylan who was our fearless person even sat in the water with bread stuck between his toes and let them nibble away the bread. I am nowhere NEAR that brave.
But we finally decided to leave and gathered our belongings and stowed away our noodles. We pulled up our anchor, untied from the trees... and as we idled out of our little cove, we see it.
BIG DARK BLUE RAIN CLOUD. And it was obviously a heavy downpour. So I slowed down and we watched the clouds. Is it coming towards us? Moving on? Then I looked at my trusty weather application on my iphone. I'm more than I little obsessed. I have several weather applications.
Darn the luck... we have to go through it to get back to our dock and our lodge. So we thankfully have time to stow away all of our cameras and phones and things we don't really want getting wet and we decide to just go for it. Hammer down baby! I was driving... Amy's in a ball beside me. Joe, Lori, Jerry, Ashley, Dylan, and Hunter were all in the back. Covered by a beach towel.
Now you know my inner Girl Scout was a little nervous. Are there ground strikes? Is there strong wind?
No and no. There weren't. But we got DRENCHED. It was a gully washer. So we get back to the no wake zone at the resort finally and I'm half expecting moans and groans about the rain but as we slow down I hear them. They were laughing. What fun!!! It was the best.
Sometimes you can plan and be as O.C.D. as you want but the best laid plans aren't as much fun as the things that completely take you by surprise! This was a good day!!! And we all smelled like wet dogs. And we had ten tons of laundry to do, but who cares! Things like this don't happen often enough. I loved our vacation. Lots of memories. I love my family and I love my friends.
Life is good!!
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