Breaking It In

It's spring break for the family and we had a chance to spend the week in Secret Fortress Hideout. We loaded a U-Haul with furniture we've collected over the last twelve months, strapped the kids into the Highlander and caravaned to Eureka Springs. Amazingly, the contents of the van arrived completely intact despite the rough county roads and our not-so-careful packing.

We emptied the van the Saturday we arrived and were joined by friends John, Cindy, Anson and Archer on Sunday. After the Ikea assemblethon, we stayed busy putting the house to the test. And with four boys between the ages of four and seven, what a test it was. Running, wrestling and launching projectiles--at the brand new 42" LCD TV. (Tip: should your LCD screen become chipped by a certain metal-nosed balsa wood glider, you can camouflage the stuck pixels with a tiny bit of black electrical tape.)

On the second night, we were joined by a few more friends. This group, however, preferred to stay in the crawlspace with the acorns they had saved all winter long. We discovered these guests at about 11 pm, when one decided to have a noisy late-night snack right below the master bedroom. (Tip: the mouse bait from Wal-Mart really works.)

Although it rained hard the first part of the week, Thursday and Friday gave me the perfect opportunity to get shots of Secret Fortress' fantastic morning light.