Dashed off to Arkansas this past weekend with the family. I had been traveling a lot lately and was in need of quality time with Alex and Caroline. Our friends Daron and Lori would be joining us on Friday along with their sons Duncan and Andrew.

We arrived late on Thursday night and spent most of Friday hiking near the Buffalo River. We made it back to HCR just in time to get a climb in before the sun went down. After that we hit our favorite spot in Jasper for dinner and then it was back to the cabin to meet up with some friends.

Saturday was a beautiful day, but not without its challenges…mainly with Alex having a bad day and not wanting to listen. Nothing like being at the crux of a climb only to hear your son screaming at the top of his lungs because he is not getting his way. In hindsight it really wasn’t that bad…can’t fault the kid for wanting to climb all the boulders in sight…at least I can’t.

We really only had one mishap when Alex fell off a small boulder onto his back. While this might seem cruel of me to say, I’m sorta glad he fell. We had been telling him all morning that he needed to tell an adult when he was going to climb and they needed to spot him, otherwise he could fall and hurt himself. (I should note he was wearing his helmet and the boulder was only three feet tall) Anyway, I think this fall got his attention and he was much better about making sure someone spotted him.

While my original intent was to take some climbing photos this weekend it just didn’t work out. I did however take some time to shoot some landscapes as well as family and friends enjoying the weekend. It feels great to get back to something that I enjoy so much. I have great memories from when I was taking photography classes in college. It offered a great balance to the course work in business school.

To see more images go here…

http://s270.photobucket.com/albums/jj117/Ranski/HCR%20March%2008/?albumview=slideshow