Family Reunion

WBR recently hosted the somewhat-annual Mulanax/Leiboult family reunion. A massive undertaking to be sure! (For those of you who are unaware, Matthew's family is relatively small.) Though with each year the family seems to grow as the younger generation has starting marrying, having children, etc.

This years reunion was mildly affected by heavy rains, but thanks to a large cabin and the bulk of the rain coming at night, plans were not too thwarted. It did throw a wrench in the quality of fishing as the Bull Shoals dam started generating heavy amounts of water after a long period of relatively small amounts. The guys caught a few fish, but not what you would expect from a world-class trout stream. Northern Arkansas had been an extremely dry place for over a month preceding the reunion. However we're once again enjoying green grass and high humidity!

We enjoyed spending time with family and celebrating numerous birthdays, including Jack Mulanax's (Matthew's grandpa) 80th. As always, time seems to fly and with everyone together it often feels as though you don't get enough time with each person. Everyone contributed to some great cooking, so no one left hungry (special shout out to Bobby and his delicious brisket!).

Matthew and Micah were able to go fishing with his grandma a few days after everyone else had left. (Carolyn and Harold stayed for a week.) They had a great time and caught numerous fish!

Here are some pictures from everyone's visit:

A month's worth...

Yes, it’s been quite some time since we last posted. Much has been happening in that time. Here are some of the highlights:

During June 17 - 20 Micah and Tucker accompanied their mommy on a trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kyla was a beautiful and pregnant bridesmaid in her cousin Rebecca’s wedding. On the way to Iowa the boys were able to have a play date with many of the kids from our church in KC. The boys were definitely looking forward to seeing their friends. Kyla’s mother made the trip from KC to Iowa and back, and was a great help and road trip companion for Kyla.

From June 21 - 25 we welcomed our good friends Charles and Debra Ackmann to WBR. Not only them, but their son Caleb and their newest addition, Silas, who we met for the first time. We enjoyed catching up with one another and watching their oldest son Caleb try some new activities in the great outdoors. One of the days everyone took an afternoon trip to tour Blanchard Springs Caverns. It was a wonderful tour, exciting for kids and adults alike. Living in Minneapolis means we are usually limited to a once-a-year visit with the Ackmann’s, but we certainly enjoyed our time with them and appreciated their coming all the way down.

On June 29 we headed back to KC to finish emptying our house. Earlier in June we made the decision to go ahead and lease the house for a period of time. Honestly, we’re not sure what amount of time that is, but most likely 1 - 3 years. After sorting through a hefty stack of applications we settled on a local family with two children in a private school in Independence. We spent ALL day on June 30th removing items and doing a final cleaning of the property. All that space sure did seem nice! July 1 we headed to Ozark to unload many of our items in storage and eventually make our way back to WBR. It was a loooong trip.

July 2 - 5 we hosted our friends Marc and Amber Dickensheets at WBR. Marc and Matthew worked together at White Industries and remain good friends. Marc and Amber have one son, Johnathon (15 months), and another child on the way. Matthew worked extra hard helping to show Marc the ins and outs of trout fishing. Unfortunately they had the dam shut off the entire holiday weekend, which made fishing in the great White River take a turn for the worse. All was not lost though, Marc still caught and cooked his fill of trout.

Now, we are preparing to welcome in Matthew's entire extended family at WBR. They will be traveling in from Texas and Missouri starting July 7 and will depart July 11.

Somewhere in all this we are preparing to have a baby. Kyla is now 36 weeks along and all is well with the baby. Kyla is definitely looking pregnant and wearing down quicker than usual. We hope to have a name picked out in the next two weeks. Stay Tuned.

A New Nephew

Wednesday, June 2nd, we celebrated the arrival of our newest nephew!

Paxton Ryan Schlegel was born just before 3pm, weighing 8 lbs. and measuring 21" long. Matthew's sister, Melissa is doing well as she is recovering from the delivery. She and her husband, Matt [yes, our brother-in-law's name is Matt], and Paxton arrived home yesterday.

Paxton is such a calm and beautiful boy. We praise the Lord for the gift this little boy is in our lives. We thank Him for giving Melissa and Paxton sustained health throughout their journey together so far.

Micah especially loved holding his new cousin. Tucker, on the other hand, was more interested in exploring the hospital room, but was very sweet when interacting with Paxton.

It was good for our family to see and hold and hear a newborn.

We are only 2 months away from meeting our little boy! O, how life is going to change for us all! We ask God to prepare us for the addition of another child. We feel mostly ready for another baby boy, but raising another man to love and fear the Lord . . . that weight is much greater. We entrust all our boys to the Giver of Life, and pray we do all we can to help them trust Jesus too.

We deeply appreciate your support, friendship, and prayers in our lives.

Please also pray for Matt and Melissa as this is their first baby and they are filled with excitement and some anxiety - not to mention sleepless nights.

A picture's worth . . .

Gone Fishin'

<

The Boys Love Frogs

The Beginnings of Our Garden

The Bryans Come to Visit

Our Texas Trip

We're Back

Many things to update since our last post! Business at the resort has definitely picked up and kept us busier. Even though it's not our resort, it is exciting to see. Well, where to begin...

Kyla's family came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. Her parents (Renner and Becky) were able to take several days off and enjoy some WBR peace and relaxation. They were joined by Kyla's brother and his family (Jason, Katrina, Bailey, Rhys). It was great having everyone down for a few days. We celebrated three birthdays, had lots of smores, played baseball, and took numerous scooter rides. Kyla was finally able to take a canoe out on the river, with Katrina as her shipmate. Though you'll have to ask Jason or Becky about their white water adventures!

A few days later we trekked to Greenville Texas to visit Matt's grandparents and aunts and uncles. The boys loved going somewhere different and seeing relatives they hadn't in quite some time. They also enjoyed watching and feeding the many birds that visit Matt's grandparents' yard. Kyla definitely enjoyed a break from cooking (thanks Grandmother!) Though it was a great deal of driving in a short time-span, the trip was well worth it and we were glad to have spent time with our loved ones.

Back here around the resort life continues much the same. Kyla is now 28 weeks along and showing a nice baby bump. The boys (Matthew included) love their massive playground we call home. Tucker loves touching/squishing/poking anything he finds. No, we still do not have a name for the baby...though we have discussed auctioning off naming rights on EBay! =)

We will have more posts coming soon including a photo montage of the past few weeks and a one-month review that we recently completed.

Grandma's visit

We had our first visitor the past few days. Grandma was able to spend part of her vacation relaxing and playing with the boys here at White Buffalo Resort. Though with the way our boys can wear you out,she might be going home more tired than when she came. Here's a few pics from her stay.


The guys even raced her down the drive on her way home.

Then the guys spent some time fishing from the shore this afternoon. We must be starting to get the hang of trout fishing as it didn't take long to catch our limit. Fish anyone?

The first few weeks

We've finally uploaded some new pictures.






We enjoyed our first day on the water last Thursday when we spent the afternoon on the Buffalo River. The Buffalo is a slower moving and warmer water river that meets the White River just downstream from our resort. The Buffalo was also named the first National River (forgot the year) and has been virtually untouched over the years and remains in a beautiful natural state. It's well known as a great river to float in a canoe. We caught a good number of smallmouth bass on our trip, Micah is pictured with his first fish on the Buffalo. He said he wanted to hold it, but from the look on his face I'd say he wasn't too sure about that after all. :)