Outdoors - The Ederington Family

End of the Week Review

April 13, 2013 By Ashley Ederington Leave a Comment

I figured it would be easier to give a wrap up post for the week than bore you with all the little details.

Evan lost his first tooth! He has been wiggling it for two weeks and finally let me pull it. I came right out with barely any resistance and didn’t even bleed.

Evan also had his first t ball game of the year. He hit the ball on the first pitch. I was proud.

Evan is the tallest on the back row.

Saturday morning I had to participate in an ecology field trip, then I had a very discouraging 5.5 mile trail run, but I ended the day at the lake relaxing…

Oh, and look at all the nasty pollen in the buck brush! I cannot wait until it rains hard and cleans all of this mess up!

Filed Under: Camping, Evan, My Life, Outdoors

John David’s First Fish

April 10, 2013 By Ashley Ederington Leave a Comment

Aaron took John David down to the big pond to go fishing. Aaron said it was time he caught his first fish.

We stocked this pond two years ago, so it was also nice to see how the fish are coming along. I had to dig a little, but I found Evan’s first fish picture also:

I have cute kids.

Filed Under: John David, Our Ranch, Outdoors

Spring Break 2013

April 6, 2013 By Ashley Ederington 1 Comment

Here is our Spring Break Week in Pictures:

We were very comfortable in our wall tent.

All the kids had a blast running around crazy with each other.

The boys love riding in the kayaks. Yeah, cause they weren’t doing any work!

We ate very well.

It only rained once.

The guys caught fish to brag about.

Evan caught the very first pole fish, but is still not big on touching them.

And everyone relaxed at the end of the day.

We always have a lot of fun on Lake Ouachita. It is always fun to spend a week under the stars enjoying nature before all the bugs wake up. We drove around one day and found a 1.65 acre lot 500ft from the water about 10 miles down a dirt road. We are thinking about making an offer…

Filed Under: Camping, Outdoors

Vacation!

March 17, 2013 By Ashley Ederington Leave a Comment

Sorry for the lack of content this coming week, but it is Spring Break and we are on VACATION! Hope you have a great week!

Filed Under: Camping, My Life

Extra Hours in the Day

March 13, 2013 By Ashley Ederington 1 Comment

I know Daylight Savings time is hard to get used to, but I absolutely love the extra time outside!

Before I started running and cycling, Winter was my favorite season. Not anymore! I cannot wait to run while the sun is coming up and bike without 14 layers of clothes. I am sick and tired of freezing to death and I long to feel my fingers and nose again. I love that I can come home and play outside with the kids for hours before bedtime and not be confined in the house. Yesterday, we cleaned out the sandbox and played until the beautiful sky turned pink.

Since I live on a farm, the extra daylight also gives me more time to get my outside chores completed. I know some of you don’t understand this, so use your imagination, but it is no fun to feed animals wearing an ill fitting headlamp in the cold dark.

I know in September I will write a post about how much I love the Fall (my true favorite season) and the cooler weather, but right now I am ready for Spring and Summer. I need a change of temperatures and some green on the trees.

Do you love or hate Daylight Savings time?

Filed Under: My Life, Outdoors

New Trails to Explore

January 8, 2013 By Ashley Ederington Leave a Comment

I was able to meet up with my only local running buddy, Zabrina, and explore a new trail at Iron Mountain on Lake DeGray. I needed to run 5 miles for my marathon training and she just loves to run trails, so ta-da. Zabrina is a for real mountain biker that races all over the country and tries to peer pressure me into riding more often. She is way intimidating and it will be years before I ride my bike in front of her. I am sure she would have a great laugh.

Anyway, we started on a loop I knew and it goes down and the new trail loop starts. Compared to the other loops, it has better climbs and less rocks. I like that for my running, but it will be a while before I tackle this on my bike in front of others:

There is a creek at the very bottom of this ravine, but don’t worry, this hill is not part of the trail.

Here we are at the turn around spot. I look pretty goofy, but isn’t Zabrina just naturally pretty.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a trail run without me falling down.

I need to start wearing knee pads. Funny part is, I always fall down on the flat sections. Never going up or down, just cruising along nicely and BAM! Oh well, I suppose my knees will get tougher as time goes on…

Filed Under: Mountain Biking, Outdoors, Running, Trail Running

Christmas Snowmageddon

December 27, 2012 By Ashley Ederington Leave a Comment

In Central Arkansas, 2012 Christmas proved to be one for the record books. In the week leading up to Christmas the weather men changed their stories several times in regards to the possibility of having a white Christmas. At first, we were only supposed to get a dusting and then we were supposed to get 20 feet. I knew it would be some where in between, so we prepared. Aaron cut extra wood and I stacked it in the house out of the wet. We fed all the animals extra and made sure they all had dry places to sleep with extra bedding. We went grocery shopping on Christmas Eve and stocked up on all the necessities (pop tarts, almonds, etc.) I honestly didn’t believe that it would snow, but I knew better than to be stuck in a cold house with two kids and nothing to eat.

We woke up Christmas morning to a cold, cold rain. It was only 36 degrees and that made me nervous. We opened presents quickly and jumped in the car and began the hour long drive north to my Mom’s house. We were able to open presents there and eat a huge lunch before it started sleeting hard. We loaded up quick and headed home. The roads were starting to deteriorate quickly, so we dropped Aaron off at the hospital and drove home alone.

Two miles from my exit and the roads are getting better!

After the boys and I got home, I unloaded all their Christmas goodies and ten minutes later the sky began to fall! At 9pm, I took a 7 inch ruler outside and stuck it in the snow:

The next morning we woke up to a white mess.

Charlie wanted me to come play.

This is my view out of our back door.

This is the view from the front door.

We have 125 acres of perfect beautiful snow.

My Mother drove to work the day after Christmas and this is what she encountered on HWY 5 South:

This is where my Mom normally parks her car. My Dad made her move it Christmas night. She complained at the time, but she is very happy now.

My Parent’s front yard.

Dangling power lines!

My parents have been without power since Christmas night, but we have not lost power. I am thankful that we have been warm and cozy, but I am ready for all this crap to melt. Aaron hasn’t been able to come home from the hospital and we miss him.

Filed Under: Holidays, Our Ranch, Outdoors

Tuesday Walk

December 18, 2012 By Ashley Ederington Leave a Comment

After I picked up Evan from school, it was still in the mid 60′s so the boys and I did a little outdoor exploring. John David went straight to the sandbox and Evan wanted to practice jump roping. They were soon bored and wanted to go walking. It is a .75 mile round trip to the mail box, so we took off to see what we could find.

Evan found me a feather for my hair. He said it from was a wild bird, but it actually is from one of our hens. I didn’t rain on his parade.

The boys love to play in the driveway. They always just push the gravel around with sticks and their hands.

They love to just play in the dirt with sticks. They are all boy.

I love these warm winter days when I can sneak a little exercise in their lives without having to bundle them up like eskimos.

Filed Under: Family, Our Ranch, Outdoors

The Outdoors {ThanksBlogging}

November 12, 2012 By Ashley Ederington 1 Comment

I may do a little double posting this week, but I know you won’t mind. Today is day 1 of the ThanksBlogging Challenge over at Arkansas Women Bloggers. We are supposed to take a picture of something we are thankful for and, well, these two places came to mind immediately.