Deanna Rose Farm Fall Fun

There's always something new to try and enjoy at one of our favorite family summer spots... Deanna Rose Farm. Farmer Brian and Farmer Larkin enjoyed checking in on the Holsteins and getting to pose for a cut-out pic. We then took a horse-drawn hay ride which is one of my favorite things to do there. It's $3/person and well worth it, I think. Larkin and I had done the ride before, but this was Brian's first time - so he was a little surprised when they sped up at the end of the ride for fun!

This trip was all about the "cut-out" pics. There's a garden near the hay ride area that has little bugs and butterflies with face cut-outs for the kids to pose in. How adorable is caterpillar Larkin and butterfly Larkin?! Some strangers took her picture because they thought she was so cute giving them a big smile in the butterfly cut-out.

Goddard School Hippo Fall Pictures

Gaston's Family Photo

Gaston's Family Fun

Larkin loves any quality time she can spell with her beloved grandparents. On this particular trip, Larkin was particularly female-focused (she really wanted me or Nama), but she still found the time to share the love with her Papa and Grandpa Bud too. Grandpa Bud is always a good sport about the stickers (for some reason, I have a number of pictures of him with stickers on his face)!

We took a few nice, posed photos during the trip too. There's never a bad backdrop for a photo here.

This was the very last photo we took on the trip. We took it literally right before we piled in the truck to go home. Check out the beard Grandpa Bud grew!

Swimming in Bull Shoals Lake

The weather this weekend was beautiful and we took full advantage of it. Larkin helped Papa drive his and Nama's boat (named SieLark after Larkin and her cousin Sierra!) out on Bull Shoals Lake. We stopped in a couple of private coves to enjoy picnics and to swim.

Here are Larkin's two grandfathers, Papa and Grandpa Bud!

Larkin really got into learning how to swim and practiced blowing bubbles, paddling with her arms, kicking, etc. She loved "swimming" from Brian to Nama to Papa and back again.

We got to play with a new, fun floating net that Nama had brought. It's a new favorite water toy that we all wanted a turn to float in!

Serafina's Favorite Place on Earth

Here are a few picture perfect poses of my sweet Serafina in Gaston's. As you've heard me say before, Gaston's is her favorite place on earth. She just loves it there. You're such a part of nature, it's beautiful, serene, there are wild animals abound that she loves chasing, and there are just so many things that excite a dog's senses. Sera's biggest adventures this trip centered around chasing a semi-wild (yes, I call it semi-wild it's fed/kept by the resort but let free to fly around) peacock! He would sun himself in all sorts of places and if Sera saw him she was off after him. She's fast, but he can fly and invariably he'd wind up hanging out in a tree for awhile until we left. Good fun for all, since no one was hurt (Sera wouldn't have hurt him though, just probably licked him)! Anyway, I love to take beautiful photo shoots of my pups in Gaston's, it's just so picturesque. So enjoy!

Runway Photo Shoot

Gaston's has its own air strip and lots of small planes fly in for the weekend, even just for lunch at the club house! Larkin loves airplanes and helicopters (which she calls "helicockers") so we took her over to the air strip so she could check out all of the cool airplanes. Here are a few pics from our "runway" photo shoot!

Gaston's Serenity

For the Labor Day long weekend, we took a quick but relaxing trip to Gaston's with Brian's parents and Grandpa Bud. It is one of the most serene places I've ever been. From the beautiful river only feet from our cabin's door to the huge window seats that you can lay in to read a book, it is a getaway that makes you feel like you're in the movie A River Runs Through It. Really. Perfect serenity (minus Brad Pitt).