Birthday celebrations and a chance meeting!

The next morning after "Esther", we slept in.  Like until 8!  We never do that!  We usually wake up between 5 and 6.  So my first thought was "Is Al breathing?"  (At our age, you never know!!)  Well, he was.  We ate breakfast and got on the road.

It was pouring rain.

Later, I found this on Facebook.

Maps did not disappoint.  Set us off on a wierd path toward the kids' home.  We went south, west, north, back east, around and around windy roads.

Across several fingers of Tablerock Lake.

From 86, passed Dogwood Canyon onto road F 

We drove by Roaring River State Park.  It was breathtaking!!  Wish there had been places to pull over to take pictures!!  But the rain.  It was raining buckets!  It didn't stop this fisherman!

Here are some photos I found on-online.

Evidently it has great hiking!  We will have to go sometime!  We also drove through Mark Twain State Park.

Huge raindrops!

We met our kids at this place that seemed to be out in the boonies.  

We were served delicious, huge melt in your mouth homemade rolls.

The dinners were HUGE!  We each shared our meals.

The grandkids have birthdays 2 years and 2 days apart.  The waitresses sang Happy Birthday to them as they brought out tiramisu.

That afternoon the guys fixed and cleaned a window in Emeri's room.  Look at Eli's shirt.  It was a gift from his cousin, Sophia.  Her face all over it!

I had brought a DVD of Josh playing basketball when he was Eli's age.  

The next morning, we went to their church.  Eli was helping his dad with camera.

The guy on the right is Travis who grew up in our town.  Our families used to hang out together.  Josh even babysat him and his brother when they were little!   Travis informed us that his parents were going to come that morning as their church didn't have power.   Below is a picture of him and his older brother, Ryan.

Josh has many jobs at the church. That morning, he also was doing camera.  

I'm terrible at selfies, but here are Randy and Nedra, Travis' parents!

We used to go to church together and were in a Bible study with them. 

 Even lived in the same neighborhood.

Now we help support them as they work with Family Life.

They have friends they knew who now come to this church too.

Back at the house, Emeri opened her gifts as it was her birthday.  Her cousin called to wish her a happy birthday.

Good-bye kiddos!  Until Christmas!

As we were leaving, we noticed the flags at half-staff.  I looked it up.  Gov. Sanders asked flags to be flown at half-staff Oct. 10-13 because of what happened in Israel.  We noticed several businesses continued to keep them there.

It rained until we got closer to home.  We made it back just before dark.

Seeing "Queen Esther"

 I have wanted to go see "Queen Esther" at Sight and Sound for some time.  The opportunity came last weekend!  My women's Bible study had done the book of Esther last spring so I really wanted to go!

It was only going to be a 3 day trip and guess what?  We had to pack for 3 different seasons!!  High 70's to a winter blast before the weekend was out.

Fall colours

I would love to have an old stone shed on my property!  I wonder if it used to be a house at one time when someone settled here many years ago?

We assumed Maps would take us to Springfield and then south.  But it had us turn at Mt. Vernon.  We decided to go for it!  We do like a new road!

Where are you taking us?

Would we go up the hill??   No, we went around the bend.

A round barn!

There were sooooo many curves!  And up and down hills.  Luckily I don't get car sick, at least not often.  But I was gripping the handle of the car!  Al was zipping around them!  (He loves that!) I felt like we were on a roller coaster at times!  No need to go to Silver Dollar City!!  I was not unhappy to have slow cars in front of us finally.  And a no-passing zone at that!

I must say it was scenic!

We finally made it into Branson, Missouri.

We got there about an hour before we needed to go to Sight and Sound.  We ate some dinner that I had packed at our hotel.  We were within a stone's throw from the theatre.  We could have even walked there faster than it took to drive and wait in line to park!

We decided to come here sort of last minute so didn't have the choice of seating that we would have liked.  It was up front, which has its good points but since there are things to watch on the sides, it was hard to do that.

At intermission, we found some seats in the middle section further back.  Some people had not shown up or something.   We were not allowed to take pictures during the show, but here are some I found on-line.  

As usual in their shows, there were live animals on stage.  A soldier on a real horse pranced past us in the aisle.  A donkey did his business on stage and a worker dressed as a townswoman came to sweep it up like it was just part of the show!

The costumes were exquisite!!  

It reminded me of Isaiah 61:10 which is an incredible thought!  Underserved!

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

It was a fabulous show!!  Riveting!  Made me teary eyed, especially with the connection with what is going on in Israel at this time.  There are people wanting to annihilate the Jewish people now too!  God is on the throne.  He has a plan for His people.

It isn't too late to go see this show!  It will be playing through December 30!

They are readying for Christmas!  The first Christmas tree I've seen except at Hobby Lobby!