Road Trip day 3: worship

On Sunday morning, we went to New Heights church.
It meets at the Boys and Girls Club.

Adam met up with a Moody college alum who used to be in college with him.

Josh has to get up pretty early Sunday mornings to get ready.

They are going through a family series and the sermon this day really touched my heart!  God's design for women.  We have been talking about the same thing in my young mom's Bible study and this was said so plainly and in a new way that we will listen to it next week.  If you want to hear it, click here.

Brother and sister were matchy matchy this day!

Josh still had 2nd service to do, but we needed to get on the road.  

So we said our byes to him and went to Newks to eat.

Adam and Jill doing a silly pose.

And from Denver, Mindy and Bryan texted us a come back to it.

Goodbye sweet Arkansas family!

When I got home later that night, Al and I stayed up to watch the Royals.  We were also switching channels to watch the Packers, who weren't doing so hot.  Sad.  But the Royals!!!  Oh my goodness!   So happy for this team that won the World Series!

Roadtrip, day 2: Boo!

 On Halloween day, I read this cute little story to the grandchildren called the Pumpkin Gospel.

It talks about how the slime inside the pumpkin reminds us of our insides before God makes us new.

We scoop out the mushy gushies and it reminds us that He cleans out our sins.
God's love is like the candle that shines from the inside out.
                                       "You are the light of the world!"  Matt. 5:14

We colored and pasted pumpkin faces

and then worked on making a real jack-o-lantern!

The first pumpkin that Hannah carved.  I cut out the first triangle to show her how, and she did the rest!

 I washed the slime off the pumpkin seeds and put them in the oven.



Jill asked Josh to take some family photos so we went outside to do that.  When we got done, I could smell burnt pumpkin seeds!  I had forgotten all about them!  They were ruined.  So sad.  I love roasted pumpkin seeds!

As soon as supper was over, the children were ready to dress up for Trick or Treating!

Claire found this mask in Emeri's room and 

on her own initiative wanted to wear it.

Off we went.

Trick or Treat!

 It was a fun neighborhood to walk around and the kids were all excited to eat their stash!  Their parents allowed 2 candies that night.  (and I think the grownups had a few too!)

"Act like people of the light and make your light shine."  Ephesians 5:8,9

Roadtrip: Birthdays

We took a roadtrip to celebrate the birthdays of our Arkansas grandchildren.  

Al had to work the weekend (hospital workers have to do that) but I hitched a ride with Jill and the family.  We left pretty early in the morning.

On the way to their place, I had to pull over to take a picture of the sky on fire!

The drive to their place is 5 1/2 hours.  The children really travelled quite well!

 The kids were excited to get there to play with cousins!

Claire was just a little nervous to be outside with Joby.

The trees in Arkansas were pretty incredible!

I LOVE fall!!

Josh fixed us a delicious chili supper!

Birthday celebration -

the kids had already had a cake earlier with their other grandpictures and with Trick or Treating happening, the parents thought it would be just too much sugar!  

So we just had the kids hold their candles.

 Jill sews these number t-shirts for birthdays.  

Happy birthday Emeri and Elijah!

Road trip with the kids to Branson

Al wanted to go see the production, "Jonah", at the Sight and Sound Theatre in Branson before it was no longer showing.  We decided to take our older 2 grandkids.  Claire was too little for the trip and the other 2 were in Florida at the beach*

We didn't get very far before we stopped.   Target!!

Jill had mentioned that Hannah could use some clothes so we decided to get a couple of outfits for the kids.  And some drinks.

Sophia accidently spilled her drink all over the seat.

Luckily we have leather that can be quickly wiped up.

And she got to change clothes.

She wanted to wear her new outfit of course!

We took turns reading through the book of Jonah.

We thought we would compare it to the show that night.

Getting close to Branson!

When we got to our hotel, the girls wanted to be on the 8th floor!

Of course I always worry about how to escape in case of a fire!

Are there enough sheets to tie together to make an escape?

The pool was in indoor/outdoor pool.  Very fun!

A lady at the pool suggested a certain restaurant.

We typed it into the GPS and went there.

I decided to look over the buffet line and realized that it was food like frog legs, shrimp, lobster....

Not anything our granddaughters would want!!  YUK!

So we found a CiCi's Pizza that was just their style!

It even had an arcade!

After some fun there we drove to the Sight & Sound Theatre.

You aren't allowed to take pictures during the show, but I found this one online.

We were sitting close to the front so the whale went right over us!  

You have to see this production!  Amazing!

After a good night's rest and a delicious breakfast, the girls wanted to go to the Butterfly Palace.

You have to watch where you are walking.  This guy was resting on the ground.

A worker came over to make sure it wasn't dead.

They let children release new butterflies.
They were trying out their wings for the very first time!

There was a mirror maze you could walk through and we kept bumping into the glass.  I remember when I was in highschool that there was a mirror maze at the bottom of Mt. Fuji and I could not get out of it.  Someone finally had to come rescue me!

The girls had never been to a cave before.  

So we decided to go to Talking Rocks Cavern.

They loved this little maze!

And there was a place you could pan for gems.  They LOVED that!

Notice that Sophia decided to wear this sweater again. 

 She loves how soft and warm it is.  

She kept coming up to us and saying "Does anyone need a warm hug?"

This formation is called a bacon slab.

Sophia said "I wish bacon WAS that BIG!"

Time to head home. 

We wanted to go by route of the Little House on the Prairie location close to Independence, KS.  Our GPS that we have affectionally called Flo, is set for the fastest route and it took us on these backroads.  I do not know how that would be faster!  But gotta trust Flo!

Story behind the name Flo.  Back in the day when we had answering machines (12 years ago), we kept hearing the answering machine say "Flo Dashery."  What?  What does that mean?  We finally had the kids listen to help us decipher this.  They bust out laughing.  It was saying "Low battery."

It was a long drive to the location where the Ingalls family lived from 1869 - 1871.

This is a replica of the original house based on Laura Ingall Wilder's description.

The house, post office and schoolhouse of that area are orignial.

Pa really did dig this well.

Inside the post office.  Sophia signed our names.

There had been 3 other couples from Newton that same day.

Actually looks similar to the one-room schoolhouse I attended.

Laura and Mary were too young to have attended this school when they lived here.

The pharmacist checking out the drugs of the day.

* and our other grandkids at the beach!

Branson was nice but my dream is to have a house on the beach!

I can dream.