Enjoying the weather...really?

Excuse us for not blogging this week.  You see, for the past month it has been somewhere between 100 and 115 degrees here in beautiful Fayetteville, and this week the heat streak broke and the weather calmed down to a breezy 95 degrees.  We couldn't help but try to spend as much time as possible outside not sweating (I even got Nicki to join me on a run - which she swears she actually enjoyed).

We have done all we could to enjoy the reasonable weather.  And fortunately, we have wonderful people to share these experiences with.  Last weekend we experienced our first First Friday in Bentonville.  We went to dinner with Lindsay and Mark Mast at an amazing restaurant called Table Mesa (correct - that is translated as Table Table)  on Bentonville square.  The food and the atmosphere were wonderful - and while the festivities on the square were not quite targeted towards us, we made it work anyway.

We took an impromptu shopping trip to Tulsa last Saturday - and we just "had" to eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.

Wormer had a group of 4 over to the Annex for pre-dinner snacks.  We had 4 people, he had 13 dips.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to serve with a group of friends (who have also invited us to be a part of their Community Group) at The Farm.  The Farm is organized by a local church here in Fayetteville, and supported through volunteers willing to spend time to help plant and harvest the crops.  The crops are then given to local shelters, charities, and sold at farmers markets with the goal of helping fight poverty in Northwest Arkansas.

Clearly, there are not prerequisites for volunteering - because needless to say this was my first time 'farming'.  As you can see below I had to get a couple of lessons from the 3 year old girls who were the experts.  It was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday.  We began the day with a stop at Rick's Bakery (world's greatest bakery) and afterwards the group went to Chic-fil-a.  Not to be too repetitive but it was just another example of great people helping to provide us with opportunities to truly settle in here in Fayetteville.

I still haven't decided if Mark cut off his sleeves or perfectly rolled them up...

Norah was serious about planting her broccoli...no wasting time.

Nicki and I quickly realized we needed to deploy some of these same efforts at our house so we spent the rest of the day ripping, pulling, wedding, trimming, cutting, anything that needed to be removed from our yard.  This work was long overdue - and, while extremely tiring, the results were worth the time.

Both of the past two Sundays we have been a part of Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas.  We have mentioned Fellowship before (this is where we attended Easter service), and we continue to grow and develop our relationship with the church body.  That said, we have loved the past two Sundays because we have been able to follow-up church with brunch with great friends.  There is just something 'natural' about spending quality time with quality people after a church service.  It just seems to be the perfect way to spend a Sunday morning/afternoon.

So onward we go - we realized this weekend that the next few months will bring us a significant amount of excitement.  Included in that are a trip to Beaver Lake, Razorback football games, great concerts, visitors from Ohio, a wedding in Springfield, Missouri, and plenty more.  All culminated with the holidays and getting to spend time back home in Cincinnati and Akron.

All of this hopefully will be done without seeing another 110 degree day.