A weekend with family

This past weekend we were in Tennessee with Eldon's sister and family. They have 4 children (4,3,3,8 months) so with our 4 added to the mix it was a happy buzz all the time. The children played for hours, with plenty of squabbles thrown in but all in all, they had a blast. Ethan quickly discovered that all he had to do was tug on Lynette or Lanea's dress and they would holler and fuss so he did so at every opportunity!

They live on a farm with 2 chicken barns so Eldon was able to help clean-out the barns since they are between flocks right now. We also cleaned out the garden and the MANY flower beds and Eldon gave the huge yard a last mowing for the year. He also tilled the garden. I mostly supervised children but did manage to do some extra cleaning and took care of all the children so Dorcas could go shopping alone one morning. It was really fun to be so useful after "being on vacation" the last few weeks.

So many places!

So many places, so many friends. The last few weeks we've been reminded how incredibly blessed we are as we've been traveling ALOT and visiting family and friends. We've also zoomed by a lot too and feel bad about that but maybe next time! I've finally got our scrapbook pages done for the time since we left Pa. so I'll post those and that pretty much sums up the basics. Pictures can in no way capture the love we and thankfulness we have for these dear friends in our hearts. The older we get the more important family is to us and Eldon and I are so grateful that our children are learning to know some of our Aunts and Uncles as well as spend time with their cousins. 

Our 3 weeks in Pa

Our 3 weeks in Bellville, Pa went incredibly fast! We had a lovely time and made many memories with family. Eldon's parents and 2 brothers live there plus I have a brother in the area. Eldon helped his brother and dad on a lot of little projects around the farm but we did a fair amount of fun things too.

Picnic at Uncle Lavern's

Roasting marshmallows over our new pellet fire pit.

Eldon chopping hay!

The children loved to ride along

Ethan loved Grandma's car roller

And Gator rides too :) 

Cows, lots and lots of cows. The leaves were beautiful though!

The farm Eldon grew up on. His grandma planted that big tree in the yard a very long time ago.

The barn and silos

The sign that you see as you drive out the lane. 

Eldon's dad built this waterwheel to pump water down to the barn for the cows. Eldon spent a lot of time fine-tuning it and messing with it so it worked better. It's quite impressive!

Exploring the woods!

Eldon's initials carved into a tree

Eldon used to drive this go-cart and now he's taught Makayla how much fun it is.

Stories, we always try to take time for stories

Makayla and her sweet little cousin Laura

Arlin and Ethan are a year apart. Once they got the pecking order figured out they got along very well but until then it was a little rocky!

Every Tuesday Mom and her sister Ruth spend the forenoon with their dad and make and eat lunch with him. We always enjoy going along when we are there. The Tinker Toys were a big hit this time.

Spending time with my brother and family.....Dallas and Michael love to tear around even though there is 8 years difference in their age!

We loved spending an evening with Phil and Gina Peachey. This is our 2 youngest who are only days apart. 

We hiked to the mountain behind the farm and looked over the valley. Beautiful!

One Saturday we managed to get the whole family together and took a little hike. It was so fun to be out hiking again!

Our 4 sunbeams!

Eldon's sister Judith is currently living in Va but she came home for a weekend when we were there. The children had so much fun with her, especially Makayla.

Grandma has such good snacks-like moon pies!

3 of Eldon's single Aunts invited us down one evening and he pulled out this little tractor that he used to play with.

Arlin and Ethan raking leaves

My niece Genea has a goat she milked and the children loved to go with her!

They were planting a garden......in hunting clothes :)

Raking leaves for Grandma-again!

Eating my Aunt Twila's famous whoopie pies!

I helped my sister-in-law make applesauce one day. Then another day we made apple butter for both of us. And she made apple pie :).

Eldon's Aunt Ruth got us started making kombucha. We're so excited about it!

And that, my friends, pretty much sums up our time in Pa. We did lots of normal things like laundry and dishes as well as consuming massive amounts of his moms amazing cooking but I don't have pictures of all that :).