A Fun Weekend

Russell and I had a great weekend. It was busy, but good.

We live near a small town called Tontitown. Every year, they have a grape festival to celebrate their Italian heritage.

 I loved this old Catholic church.

 The festival was held near the church.

 As y'all know, Italians are known for their wonderful spaghetti. They like to serve it with fried chicken , roll, and salad with infamous Italian dressing.

Yes, I know....they gave me too much spaghetti! I definitely took a lot home! But it tasted fabulous!

 We also tried grape ice cream at the festival. It was good, but different.

This festival is the oldest festival ever held in Arkansas. It was their 114th one! It started out as a small family picnic and now, SO many people enjoy it.

Saturday morning, we went to Yarnell's "TrYathlon" on the square. I mentioned my excitement early this Spring, that Yarnell's is back in business. Since then, they have traveled around the state of Arkansas to promote their wonderful and yummy ice cream. It's so good!

 They gave everyone samples (more like servings) of any of these flavors. It was so neat.

 The reason why they called it the "TrYathlon" is because they had all kinds of contests. An ice cream eating contest, ice cream scoop contest, and an ice cream sandwich stacking contest was held. Scoop is the company mascot and the "M.C" for the event.

 I thought this little boy was so cute trying his hardest with the ice cream scoop.

 Wow!

 This picture explains so much, I think. Can you imagine, starting out with a very much frozen carton of ice cream. trying to balance it all on one cone, and your hands freezing? I don't think I'll take part in that event...ever. HA! I am not that coordinated. :)

 He was so funny!

 Russell and I both got t-shirts that were thrown to some of the crowd. That was pure luck! We hardly ever win anything. HA! Here's Russell with the old fashioned ice cream truck.

 We also ran into Amy, Tony, and family. Leighann loved the chickens.

 Me and Amsie

We also love going on road trips, but especially Russell.

We decided to visit Precious Moments park.

 Sweet fountain

 Pretty flowers

 Walking to another fountain, which is in front of the chapel.

 This is such a neat chapel. Every time we go, we learn something new about the art and stories about the artist, Sam Butcher.

 One of my favorite paintings is one Sam Butcher painted of Hannah, from the book of 1 Samuel.

 Such wonderful work! There are tons of stories for every person painted on the walls in the chapel. It truly brings a tear to your eye.

 We visited this chapel three years ago and I wrote in a memorial book in memory of Daddy. Many people wrote in the books because it is such a good way of healing for many people. Russell helped me find the one I wrote last time we came here.

 After lots of looking, we found it! And guess when it was dated! August 11, 2009! Three years ago to the day we were there. And we seriously did not plan it and didn't realize it was August 11th!! What a God thing! God is in the details!

 So yes, I wrote one more brief note.

We had such a wonderful time. If you live near there, I highly recommend visiting. It is a wonderful experience for everyone!!

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness, through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4