Giddy-Up Junction - VBS 2019

     Our church's VBS this year was Giddy-Up Junction, taking God's love to new frontiers. The western theme made it incredibly easy to decorate and also for most of the kids to relate to! As always, the children had a great time and Eldon and I enjoyed it too :). I don't have a whole lot of pictures since I was fairly busy but here's a few. 

The entrance sign

Saddles make great decor!

     I volunteered to do crafts. It was so fun to watch individual personalities come out over the 4 days of VBS! Eldon came a few days and helped where ever he was needed. 

6 and 7's painting a picture.

8 and 9's painting. For some reason this was a hit!

10-12 year olds

The 4 and 5's were so cute and sweet! 

And there was yummy snacks every day too!

Kids at snack time.

I had a little trouble with some of my classes getting done with the craft early so one day I threw some papers on the table and told them to write their teacher a thank-you note. I even got a few!

One day they decorated a tin can and the next planted sunflower seeds. It was a little messy. 

Some of their paintings. This was a 2 day project as well. On the second day they modge-podged it to a board.

The 4 and 5 year olds made a bead snake and cactus rock instead of painting pictures. Completed crafts!

The program was fantastic. Ethan's class recited and signed John 3:16a, plus sang and signed 2 songs. Their teachers did an amazing job with them!

Michael's class recited verses and sang and signed some songs.

Emily was in that class as well. I loved watching them sign!

Makayla's class did some impressive singing and signing as well.

      At the end of the week, we were all exhausted but it was worth it. May God richly grow the seeds that were planted!

Beachy Reunion 2019

    My family takes turns hosting us all on the odd years and this just happened to be ours. Typically we simply go to the host's area but since we don't have a home with roots, we could choose where ever we wanted! It was over a year ago that we booked a beautiful ranch in the Ozarks, Walnut Shade, MO to be exact. Our family of 6 spent 7 nights there and the others trickled in and were there most of the time too. It was very relaxing and enjoyable! Some of the families attended a number of local attractions but we were happy to just hang out at our huge house. With 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 3 living rooms, 2 porches, and 2 kitchens, it felt like a mansion!

Triple G Ranch

It's hard to get a good angle of the house, since it's all on a hill. 

The entryway was so cool.

One kitchen area.

I loved this cozy living room!

We used this dining room for puzzles.

In our room!

The upstairs porch.

I was surprised how much we used the hot tub!

And the pool table was nearly always in use!

Puzzle time!

Lots and lots of good conversations happened in this room.

Grace and I went thrift store shopping one day and I bought mom some puzzles :).

The sunsets were so pretty!

Mom and I working in the basement kitchen. Also, an over-stimulated, over-tired, over-sugared 4 year old hanging onto my skirts and sobbing.

Trying to improve our limited musical skills.

Uno!

Even mom and dad played pool.

Playing corn-hole inside. In the background is Michael. He fell asleep on the chair, slid to the floor, then Eldon put him on the couch where he slept soundly for a good 12 hours :).

The children had a lot of fun in the creek too.

Logan and Dallas fished nearly every day and caught a number of bass.

The water was chilly!

     We did all go to the Wonders of Wildlife Museum in Springfield one day. It was an amazing place. Tons of stuffed animals and information. The aquarium was the highlight for us though. It's a place that we probably won't pay to go to again but we're glad we went once.

Bison.....

Unbelievable how huge these things are!

It was really cool how far out they went to have each animal in its real habitat.

The polar animals were in a chilly, drafty area.

I'd hate to meet this guy!

These pictures aren't great but...........it was cool in real life!

Jellyfish are completely mesmerizing!

     It's hard to believe it's over already since we've been looking forward to it for so long! However, all good things must come to end and this truly was a good week! We loved how much time we had to sit around together instead of constantly "doing".

     Our trip home was loooong and Ethan was sick and throwing up most of it but we made it! I'm not sure if we were ever so happy to see our own beds again :).

Arkansas!

     The end of May Eldon had 2 weeks off work and we had a trip planned to Arkansas to visit friends and to host my family reunion in Missouri. We left our camper behind for this trip which meant we got to spend a night in a motel, much to the children's delight. We discovered that Comfort Suites offer a room with a hide-a-bed and a full breakfast for a decent price so we were happy! Our overnight was in Omaha, NE. Eldon's travel company is based there so he was happy to finally meet his boss and go out to breakfast with her the next morning. 

We made good use of the pool!

We were given the option to go with Eldon but these guys weren't about to miss a motel breakfast 😂

     We have dear friends who ever so kindly let us stay at their home even though they were gone most of the time. We ended up being there much less than anticipated but loved relaxing on this porch every chance we got!

Betty Jane kindly hid money in the toys for the children to find. Michael made it his mission to find every single bill!

     Saturday afternoon Eldon helped his previous boss, and neighbor load hay. The children and I dashed around town going to as many thrift stores as possible. Their reward for being so good was ice cream sundaes.

We walked around the square and admired the many flowering trees and bushes while eating our snack.

     Sunday was a busy day. After church, Calvin and Judy invited us to their house for lunch, along with several of their children and families. It's always good to catch up with friends!

These 4 year olds were perfectly happy playing in the their own corners.

We had lunch by the creek.

Emily was a bit leery of the water once they started catching crawdads.

Good times!

Wearing out.......

Makayla was delighted that Shohreh came by, especially to see her!

     Eventually we headed to another friend's house for the evening. With 4 young couples there was children everywhere!

They even set up a bounce house!

So fun!

     We had a lovely evening, despite the mosquitos being so thick. Around 9:30 we were thinking about leaving, but we didn't. As it goes sometimes with friends, the conversation just gets good.....then crazy. At midnight the guys fired up the grill and made the rest of the hamburgers and hot dogs. We did end up at home sometime after 2 a.m. The children were astonished that we would let them stay up that late! It was well worth dragging them (and us) out of bed the next morning!

By midnight the mosquitos had cleared out so we moved our party back outside.

     Monday we headed over to Huntsville to visit my Aunt Barb and Uncle Ken. She prepared a lovely meal for us. It was fun to get a tour of their new place and see some cousins again too. Eldon and my cousin Doug (also an RN) could hardly get done talking.

It was a little breezy!

Barb had Makayla help her water her many flowers. 

      Tuesday we had a very sweet friend offer to babysit so we could go on a date. The children were SO excited to go to Angi's house again and had a great time. Eldon and I had a leisurely lunch then went grocery shopping 😃.
     Tuesday evening our previous neighbors, Henry and Loretta, invited us out for supper. Again, we had a great meal with great friends!

The children loved the new swing set!

Ethan was surprised to discover that he liked watermelon!

 

Only one of Loretta's many flower displays!

Michael being a great entertainer to his friend Hudson!

     So yes, our week ended up being much busier then we planned but it was a good busy! Having lived in Arkansas for the first 8 years of our married life (and 2 years before that), we have lots of memories and friends here. A huge thank-you to all of our friends who took time to spend with us!