Keck Yes: Burn Ban

Davis and I just got back from a week of visiting my family in Arkansas. We left last Friday to celebrate my birthday (cough.. 26th) on Saturday, and stayed until the 4th of July. On the way home last night, we stopped in Tulsa to visit some friends and have dinner with them. Davis and the husband of the couple have been friends since they were "in the womb". It's always fun to see them interact.

While at my parents' house, we did many things. Let me get out my bullet points:

Watched Duck Dynasty (yes, I had to add that)
Got up bright and early for the Farmer's Market on Saturday (and then went back to bed for a couple hours)
Had a birthday dinner and presents to open (pictures below)
Went to church Sunday morning and took a walk across the street that night, where we encountered a black mink walking across the road one direction, and a skunk immediately following the other direction. Wowza!
Walked the Devil's Den Trail in Devil's Den State Park.
Went to see 2 movies in the movie theater within 24 hours: Hunger Games and Moonrise Kingdom. Davis and I are big fans of Wes Anderson films, so we had to see Moonrise Kingdom when we found out it was playing in Fayetteville. Score! (yes, it was good)
Spent all day Tuesday in Fayetteville. I found and bought 2 really cute dresses at Kohl's since they were having their 60-80% off sale! I needed to find more dresses for teaching in China. We also went to Barnes & Noble, I went to Petco, Hobby Lobby, Hastings, and had dinner at Kobe Hibachi and Grill.
Took family pictures on the evening of July 4th at the Fayetteville Square.
Mom, Jay, Hunter, Davis and I sat out on the patio in the backyard to watch for fireworks. Now, since there was a burn ban all over Northwest Arkansas, supposedly only places like the Naturals baseball stadium and the mall were able to shoot off fireworks. So, we sat for about 30 minutes waiting until the fireworks went off.... nothing. We waited until about 10 p.m., until we decided to pack up our chairs and leave. :(
Bought travel medical insurance for our trip to China!
I watched a couple episodes of Chinese language lessons from China's infamous television channel, CCTV. The lessons are online, so I can access them anytime. What I learned: Bukeqi! (Don't mention it, or You're welcome) and Mei shi! (No problem) and the already known: Xiexie (Thank you), Laoshi (teacher), Ni hao! (Hello)