I am endeavoring to write an email that will catch all of you up on the last 2 months of our lives. The difficulty is that so much has happened. But, I’ll do my best:
Arko Challenge
Many of you may be familiar with a little tradition we call the Arko Challenge. It began with me (Jason) and my friend David James back in the early 2000s. We have been away for the last few years, but some friends have continued the tradition. So this year, we ventured out to Sarah’s aunt and uncle’s cabin with a group of friends and we spent the weekend. It was a blast! We went swimming in the nearby creek, went for an (unplanned) hike in the woods, and we ate…oh boy, did we eat! We had so much fun and it was great to reconnect with old friends.
July 4th and New House
Then, our much-anticipated move into our new house happened on July 4th weekend! We were just about sick to death of looking at our suitcases after 4 months of living out of them. We just want to say that we couldn’t have made it to our new home here in the US without Ashley Hagler’s generous spirit and hospitality…she allowed us to live in her spare rooms and completely take over her house for 3 months. She never once complained…we’re pretty sure she must be a saint! Both sets of parents, plus Brett and Paula spent the entire July 4th weekend helping us move in. It was such a blessing, and super fun to have everyone around. We adore our new home, a 3-bedroom house in Springdale. It’s a great neighborhood, lots of young families like us. We have a huge backyard with lots of potential (can’t wait for a garden next year!) and great big trees to shade our house. It’s a perfect location for us, just 10 minutes from Sarah’s work, 2 minutes from Pippi’s daycare, and right by I-540 for me to jump on the highway to get to work in Bentonville. We absolutely love it, and have a spare room just waiting for visitors!!
Anniversary, Birthday, and a Wedding
July was also a busy month for us for celebrations…Sarah and I made it to our 7-year anniversary, Sarah turned 30, and we took a trip to Ohio to be in a wedding for our great friends Liz Dally and Rob Green. For our anniversary, we got a babysitter and went to see the new Harry Potter movie, something we’d both wanted to see. For Sarah’s b-day we spent the weekend in Little Rock with all the Suels, and spent Saturday at Wild River Country. We had an awesome picnic at the park with friends and family and since Sarah wanted a day out she could spend with Pippi, she got it! Pippi loves the water, and must have gone down the little “ducky” slide about 50 times, screaming with laughter every time! So cute. Then at the end of July we flew up to Bowling Green for Liz and Rob’s wedding. Sarah was a bridesmaid and I did a reading in the ceremony. It was a great time for meeting up with our friends in BG as usual, but it always makes us sad to leave there. The Dally’s have always been our “family”, and it was a good time to reconnect with everyone.
To sum up: We have been busy. We love our new house. We love our family and friends.
Thanks for keeping up with us and we hope to have more to share with you soon!
Jason, Sarah, and Pippi
