This would be a great time to say 'thank you' to Paij for all of her support these last few months as I have been preparing for national boards. She has been such a good sport and so understanding as I have been studying for this stressful milestone in my education. To celebrate we went to Arkansas for a few days. It was so nice to spend TIME together and rekindle the bond in our marriage. We spent Thursday and part of Friday in Hot Springs, AR. We honestly were a little disappointed with Hot Springs. The two things that were remarkable about Hot Springs were the horse races and McClard's barbeque. We watched a couple races at Oaklawn track. One of the jockeys was thrown from his horse during a race and left the field in an ambulance. I felt horrible for the guy sitting in front of us because he had like $50 bucks on that horse to win the race. If you are ever in Hot Springs you have got to try McClards barbeque. We have had some amazing barbecue in Memphis, but this place tops my list and claims Brent's official best barbecue ever award. My birthday is June 29th. You may order me McClards barbecue sauce for my birthday from McClards website. My goal is to have a year supply of food that consists of nothing but this sauce. It could even make kimchi taste delightful.
On Friday we drove from Hot Springs to Petit Jean State Park. We were really impressed with Petit Jean and recommend it if you have not already been. The park has a nice waterfall and several nice hiking trails. There are a lot of cool ravines/hollows/small caves that provide many opportunities for exploring.
This was our first time camping with Morgan. It was so much fun. Morgan did great with everything, especially the hiking. She just smiled and laughed as we would hike. Dad was very happy to see his little girl so content in the outdoors. We bought her these cute sunglasses that she is sporting below. Paij has noticed that Morgan seems to be pretty sensitive to the bright sunlight. We think she is just cute as can be, and the sun glasses gave us a good laugh. Morgan thinks that the sunglasses are a chew toy, but we are working with her to keep them on her face.
Saturday was a gloomy day with a lot of rain so we drove about 45 minutes to Conway and went bowling and had pizza for lunch. Paij dominated in bowling while I got to know the gutter like never before. I won't disclose my final score because it really is pathetic. However, to give you a general gauge as to how bad it was, my score was lower than what my 6 year old niece bowled when we went bowling together last Thanksgiving. It was still a lot of fun and a lot better than sitting in a tent in the rain.
We drove back to Southaven on Sunday morning. We made it home a little after eleven in the morning. I caught a flight at 2:30 in the afternoon to go to a conference. The conference was in Jacksonville, FL. The conference was a contact lens training seminar that also integrated patient care/communication/emerging technologies and products. It was a privilege to get to attend the conference.
