River Market

We keep hearing tale of how amazing the River Market area is in the Historic Downtown area. So naturally, we had to take a peek.

P.S. for the Westerners, rivers here are HUGE, though they are really murky and don't move very fast (at least on the surface, I'm not sure what the undercurrent is like).

Since we realized we were at 20 weeks, we had to take a pregnancy picture. No, no cute little baby bump yet - I just look fat now.

15 weeks - 20 weeks

 They seem to have a fascination with pigs/hogs and President Clinton - I'm not saying there is any relation between the two.

We saw the cutest little carriage ride going through the tight streets too :) I've always wanted to go on one of those, but instead took a picture. Maybe next time. Oh, and look closely at the top left picture, the horse is saying hello :)

The day wouldn't be complete with out pictures of the beautiful red sunset! If I eat it, do you think my insides will glow red too?

It was a very fun evening. We loved the long stretches of walking paths along the river and over the many bridges. The streets were tight and had lots of interesting dining areas (some looked pretty good actually). We will have to come back soon; there's talk of a submarine to see, a duck walk in a hotel, and a festival during Memorial Day weekend.

We Greek

For an evening anyway. Is that orthodox? Yup! That too :)

I was actually unsure about the whole thing at first mention of the activities - it would cost money, the food might be weird, I have been having issues with heart burn and the food might agitate it, I just wanted to be home with Matt after the crazy week - all in all we decided to go though. Boy am I glad we did! It was such a blast!

Food. Definitely expensive. Much better than I would have thought though. We tried the Gyros (pronounced like the European form of money - Euro) and they were mighty tasty! Lamb, beef, tomatoes, onions, and Tzakziti sauce all in one yummy pita . . . mmmmm :) Tummy was happy :) 

We didn't try the other food because it was also expensive and the line was long. Hot dogs were $2 with no line though (for the still hungry men)!

Entertainment was great. They had a nice variety of Greek, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Irish dances. Oh, and it was free :)

Baby Lily (daughter of the couple who are lending us their abode for the summer) is so cute - couldn't resist!

We got close seats for the entertainment, even though there was quite a crowd - apparently these festivities are a big deal here.

Couldn't pass by walking through the dessert station :) Too bad we couldn't try any because they were super expensive. Matt raves about the Baklava though, so just find it cheaper than this and you are on your way to deliciousness!

The events were organized (?)/sponsored (?) by The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church. So naturally we had to tour the facilities. A/the pastor of the church gave a nice description of the chapel and we were all fascinated to hear about the images in all the icons (paintings of figures on the walls). I must say, it was quite interesting to learn about what other churches do - Arkansas is similar to Utah in that it has a church on almost every street corner, the only difference is that in Arkansas all the churches are different ones :)

AAHE Awards Banquet

Matt had a pretty busy week for his first week on the job - lots of meetings, trainings, and lectures. I kept myself busy looking for jobs, getting to know my way around the city, and hanging out with the wonderful ladies (and their children) from the Playgroup.

We did have some fun together though :) Our evenings were quickly filled with dinners (with Bishop's family and the missionaries, the couple lending us their home and the missionaries, and members of AAHE - Arkansas Association for Healthcare Engineers). 

I caught these from the awards banquet we were able to attend. It was held in the Embassy Suites in West Little Rock - which has a beautiful lobby area. Vendors at the booths were allowed to decorate their tables as a competition to win free booth space next year - we were lucky enough to sit at the winning table! It was awesome - great decorations and detail - we felt like VIPs with the seat covers and sashes, mirrors as place mats, candles all around, and a beautiful centerpiece. 

Bob was the mastermind behind the best seat in the house and we were lucky enough to get to know him throughout dinner and the after activities . . . eh-hem . . . anyway. Oh, a fun side note, I got the lucky seat on the table and won the candles and centerpiece to take home! Yay! Super awesome and beautiful decor for us :) It really was a great night with wonderful company.

Didn't See This One Coming

Remember that post about where Matt and I might end up working for the summer? Well, we finally figured out where . . . and it was not any of the previous thought places. Life has a funny way of throwing curves at you like that :)

This is our new home for the summer:

Little Rock, AR

It was a last minute internship offer for Matt that we just could not refuse, within two weeks (after having waited about 2 weeks before that doing job searching and such) God answered our prayers in a magnificent way we had never imagined - the perfect internship for us! With the job offer in hand, we still had one problem though - where to live? Not many places lease out apartments for 3 months, and the house offered through the internship was for singles (no thank you). We prayed even harder that we might find something, crossed our fingers, and made small preparations to leave UT.

Again, God is very gracious! He worked it out so we got in contact with a couple in the Spanish Branch here who were leaving to do an externship in Mexico for the summer and offered to let us housesit for them! Yay! A place to live!

The next two days were filled with packing and cleaning (A HUGE shout out to Amber, Brandi, and Alex who came on short notice to help us pack up and clean - on Brandi's birthday no less!). That Friday we were on our way across country!

Loving the red rocks of Southern Utah (Moab area)

Maverik = my favorite place to stop for gas

(not just a trashy gas station - it has class . . . and yummy frozen yogurt)
Sonic = Matt's treat for the trip, Cherry Limeade :)
New Mexico = yay, getting close to a bed for the night!
Bottom Right = an indian reservation, say that 5 times fast (or even once!)

 In New Mexico we saw an awesome rainbow and low clouds over the mountains - I had never seen it before, but it was really fun to look at! Like cotton candy fluffs hugging the mountain peaks.

What's missing in Texas? . . . oh yeah, the mountains! It was SO flat! Course, they did have their huge white cross at some christian memorial place we passed by.

Oklahoma! Reminded me of about a million country songs! Actually, we did pass Garth Brooks' home in the country outskirts of Oklahoma City - they even named a street after him . . . too bad I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to get a picture. We did see Checotah though (where Carrie Underwood was raised and mentioned in one of her songs). Though Oklahoma was quite flat, it did have a nice mix of red dirt in under the green grass - it was quite pretty actually.

After 3 days of driving, we finally made it to Arkansas . . . just in time for church! :) I rather did enjoy the time with my hubby though :)

We Went to a Zoo!

. . . Well, sorta.

On our way down to Front Sight (see post here), we stopped at a petting zoo to see all the cool animals! Too bad it was closed at the time :( For those of you who are interested, this is free (I think) and is just of the freeway exit by Scipio, UT. Take a right (or Eastern bound) turn off the freeway exit (if heading south). The petting zoo is by Eagles Landing/Dairy Queen/gas station. Can't be too hard to find, it's the only thing on that side of the freeway :)

Open May through September (? or October?)