Busy, busy teens

 It was a busy couple of weeks.  These teens are very social!  

The first evening the folks were gone, there was trick-or-treating down the street.  Their town does not do it on Halloween.  They observe it the Saturday before and only between the hours of 3:30-5:30.  No after dark allowed.

Claire dressed up for her ballet class too.

Each day the girls would pack their lunches and leave for school.

Their evenings were busy almost every night!  One night, the youth group had a bowling night.

The church had an all church skate party on another evening.

Sophie and Claire had a group of kids from school over to practice for a Christmas worship they will be doing.

I took the girls clothes shopping.

A little bit of grocery shopping too.

Claire and I made home-made cinnamon rolls.

My Grandma Voran was known for her cinnamon rolls.

Claire was in the mood to decorate for Christmas.  She brought up the Christmas decorations for her room.  A friend helped her decorate her room.  She has a lot of little Christmas villages that she put around the room.

We worked on a puzzle during the two weeks we were there.

 Didn't quite finish it.

There was a boys vs girls/teachers soccer game another night.

The wind was blowing hard and it was very cold!

When we got home, we found that the wind had blown the basketball goal over onto their car!

Claire got all excited and wants to play on the soccer team in the spring.  She practiced until dark a few times.

One evening when the girls were driving home from youth group, they saw the northern lights from the highway.  A friend texted this picture to Sophie.  We could see them only a bit from the house, so we got in the car with Claire and drove north out of city lights, but they were no longer visible at that time.  Too bad.

The girls were busy, but we grandparents kept busy too!  We took Kobi for walks.  The trees were gorgeous!

I made meals and also did some work on my Bible studies.  And I did a lot of reading and snuggling with Kobi.

One day we went to get a few groceries.  

We felt very special that they had parking reserved for us!

We drove around town just to sight-see.

Al would log in to work regularly.  He also studied for his next Sunday School class and prepared for subbing for Jill's classes.

Al taught Jill's apologetics class and3 of her Old Testament Survey classes.

I would go along to listen.  

I think Al is such a GOOD teacher!

One day while we were gone, we came back to find this.  We could not figure out what Kobi had tore up.  We looked and looked but didn't find a tore up pillow or chair.  Later, Jill realized that he had tore up a laundry dryer ball.

Jill had left a "to-do" list if Al was bored.  

Al checked them off one by one.

After all that work - nap time!

We went to church both weeks we were there.  Adam gave the church a long-distance hello from Turkey.

While we were there, our Arkansas grandkids had their birthdays so we called to sing to them.  They were busy, as I guess all teens are, and so we had to leave voice mails.  Happy birthday, Em and Eli!

And so as not to leave out our other grandkids, they are busy too, climbing rocks!

Driving to Wisconsin to "baby" sit

 Our daughter, Jill and husband Adam, were going to go on a study tour with Albert Mohler to Turkey and Greece and asked if we could come to watch their girls.

You really can't call it "baby" sitting.  They are teens, after all.

We began before the sun rose.

The sun did not rise until we got to Strong City, about an hour after we'd left home.

We were not sightseeing on this day.  Driving straight through. 

Our first stop was at Cameron, Missouri, 3 1/2 hours down the road.  Usually we try to drive only 2 1/2 hours to take a break (our car even has a reminder to do that), but the rest stop we were going to stop at was closed, so we just kept going, taking turns driving and napping.

We got to Wisconsin as the sun was setting.

And it was almost completely dark by the time we pulled up at the kids' house.  

It was our first time at this new house of theirs and after hugs and kisses, they gave us a tour of it.  What a gift from the LORD this place is for them!

On Friday, Adam mowed the lawn, trimmed some bushes and did some house cleaning.  He was telling Jill all he had planned for the day and she said "You should pack!!  We ARE leaving for an international trip tomorrow, Adam!"

Sophia was at a volleyball tournament all day.  In the late afternoon (after Adam had packed), we took Claire to ballet/dance.

Then the four of us went out to eat at The Sweet and Salty Pig.  The food was delicious!!  We went over what we needed to do as grandparents while they were overseas.

Later we went to the Worship Circle.  It is a group of worship leaders that bring local churches together to worship once a month.  What a sweet time!

Sophia is a part of the worship team.

The next morning, Adam and Jill said their good-byes to the girls.

Ready to embark on an amazing study tour!!