Recently...

Recently...

 we took the girls to Graber's Hardware.  

Sophie asked if we were going to "our store", since it shares the same last name.

They are relation on both sides of the family, but not close.

Recently....

our dear friend Angela, came for a visit from Oregon.

 She and her husband, Tony, and Joel and Kendall, were in one of our first young marrieds small groups.

Recently...

we celebrated Al's birthday with our Kansas family

It was the first time my dad was able to see Adam and Jill's house!  It wasn't easy to maneuver him in the wheelchair but we were so happy to do so!  He loved seeing the fields and combines on the way too!

  

 The girls gave us a concert!

And lastly,

recently.....

we babysat the Kansas grandchildren, while their mommy and daddy went to celebrate their 11th anniversary.

Claire was a little bored while the girls were in school.  She looked in the "I'm Bored" box, but thought Nana's billfold was more interesting than those suggestions!

On Saturday, we went to the Kaufman Museum for free museum day.

 This cabin belonged to Al's great-grandmother.

 

 

 The girls were not excited about the scary animals.  Claire was, but not the older ones.

They wanted to go see the horses that live by the museum.

The girls helped me decorate for fall.  

I'm excited about the season.  My favorite!

Rolling on home

I enjoy taking pictures around Josh's home.

A sign of fall

Josh's in-laws live next door.  We often spend the nights there - we call it the Prier Hotel!  They have a wonderful koi pond.

Dan lines the driveway with banana trees.  Quite unusual.  He has to dig them up for the winter, and put them in the basement of course.

With Staci home from Ethiopia, it was time for us to return to Kansas.  We had a great week with the grand kids!

We stopped outside of Jane at this pumpkin stand.  I got some pumpkins there last year also. The man who runs the stand told us an interesting story. He said that the town of Jane wanted to annex this little town (I couldn't get the name - Cavenaugh?  I asked him to spell it, but he didn't know how it was spelled).  He and his son are the only residents in this town, and they didn't want to be annexed.  They fought it.  Walmart happens to be in this strip of a town along Highway 71 and they joined the fight along with the other businesses. I guess they have not been annexed so far!

In Fredonia, we stopped for a break.  All along the way, we passed bikers going home from the Bikers, Blues and BBQ festival in NW Ark.

 

                      Rolling on home!

Still in Arkansas

Well, we aren't really still in Arkansas - I am just still posting about it.

As I was helping Emeri with her school work, she was to write a short essay of something that makes her happy.  We were not allowed to help her with spelling on this one project.

Mommy had been on a medical missions trip in Ethiopia with the James Initiative.

On the way there, we counted all the bikers on the highway.  Over 200!  Bikers from across the country were in Northwest Arkansas for Bikers, Blues and BBQ.  Over 40,000 of them!

Here come all the ladies who went on the trip!

The girl waving is Jill, who is a dentist.  We went on a medical missions trip with her to Puebla, Mexico 10 years ago!

There were other daddies and children there to meet the mommies who went on this trip.

It was fun to hear about the exciting adventures (like one of them getting her camera taken away for awhile because they didn't know they weren't allowed to photograph some building), and so sad to hear about all the sick children too.

It's always fun when mommies bring gifts back with them!!