Lego-boy

 My grandson is a little nuts about Legos.
                           He just LOVES them!  And he also loves Star Wars.

On his birthday, we went to the store to get some balloons.


Eli wanted some white ones so that his daddy would make Star Wars storm troopers.



                                                                                                           Emeri helped.

While we were at the store, we had purchased a couple of pumpkins.

 Joby was watching and wishing he could be inside to help.

(The kids have several mice kept in the grandparents' basement.)

Have you heard the Pumpkin Prayer?

I found it on Pinterest.

cut open the top:

Lord, open my mind and fill me with Your wisdom

scoop out the inside:

Lord, take out all my sin and fill me with Your love

carve the eyes:

Lord, open my eyes to see Your glory

carve the nose:

Lord, let my life be a sweet aroma to You

carve the mouth:

Lord, help me to speak Your words

of truth and love

place candle inside:

Lord, fill me with Your light to shine

for all to see.

Eli, since he was the birthday boy, chose the restaurant.

He wanted to go to Tacos4Life, one of my favorites too! 

 Tacos4Life will donate the funds necessary to Feed My Starving Children to purchase one meal for every meal sold in the restaurant.

After our meal, we went home to open presents!

A fun card that made sounds of swords flashing!

I printed off this charaacter and put him on the package (instead of a girly bow)

 Like I said, he likes Star Wars! 

A gift for both kids (Emeri's birthday is 2 days later).

They got the "Gilligan's Island" series from a sweet, elderly friend.

After gifts were opened at home, we went next door to Grami and Bebop's home for a treasure hunt!

 

After following cleverly placed clues  all around the house, Elijah found his "treasure"!

 Allen loves to read to the children.  They picked out "Oliver Twist" and Al read that over the weekend.

 "Can you read it to me in my room so I can work on my Lego set?"

Lego-boy finished this in one day!  

On the road again!

 For the 3rd time this month, we were headed out of state, this time to Arkansas.

We had to make a stop at the hospital in Wichita to return meds that Al had borrowed for our hospital.  While Al was going to the pharmacy, I looked at the map, wondering if there would be a route we haven't gone before.  We've gone to Arkansas so many times over the years, but I did find a way we hadn't gone.

We made a couple of other stops first.  We don't get to the big city often, so when we do drive through, we sometimes make stops for items we can't get in our town.

 Guess you can tell it is almost Halloween. 

 South on 77.  We've been on portions of this road, but not into Oklahoma.

 We like to pull over for historical markers, although we had a hard time finding them at times on this trip.

Going through small towns.

 We went across several creeks and rivers.  One was named

and yet another was named

Muddy Creek!

Ponca City, Pioneer Woman statue

dedicated to all pioneering women who helped develop Oklahoma

Speaking of Pioneer Women, I got to thinking that the modern day Pioneer Woman, blogger and food author, has a ranch somewhere in about this general direction in Oklahoma. 

I googled it and realized we would be going right by her ranch and shop!  I had no thought of that when we first mapped out this trip!

                                 

"There it is, Al!"

We pulled right into the town of Pawhuska and we decided to stop and see since we were there anyway!

 It was a nice stop!  And unexpected!  What a nice treat for the day.

 We had been in bare, ranch lands but soon the landscape turned to trees everywhere!

 An oil well in the middle of the road?

World's only Main Street oil well, Barnsdall, Ok

 Barnsdall is also the home of singer and Miss America 1958, Anita Bryant, and the movie star, Clark Gable of "Gone with the Wind"!

"The town was founded in 1905 and originally named Bigheart, for the Osage Chief James Bigheart.  They experienced a tornado in April 1911, a major fire in March 1913 and a flood in September 1915. Despite these calamities, the population increased from 307 in 1910 to 2,099 in 1920. That proved to be the high point of population in the town." - Wikipedia

 We stayed on small highways and avoided Tulsa.

For awhile, we followed a highway patrol.  He began to slow down and the question was, do we pass him?  It makes us a little nervous, even though we aren't doing anything wrong.  Anyone else feel that way?  Eventually, he pulled off.

 I think sometimes people feel that way about God.  That He is always looking for them to see if they trip up and do something wrong.  But, God isn't like that at all. 

He is not after us to beat us up.
He is after us to love on us!  He pursues you to love you!

 We drove through the town where our son went to college (and met his wife-to-be)

 And before too long, we were pulling up to our destination, where red maples and banana trees coincide.

Dan was getting the fire pit ready for the party the next day.

And Eli, our grandson, was ready for Papa to sword fight!