Cincinnati happenings on our trip

The first thing we did on our 30th anniversary, was go see my old friend, Retha Elger.  (Not that she is old, but we have been friends since 1969!)  She lives in Kentucky, close to Creation Museum, where she volunteers.  She showed us a lot of her quilts and crafts, and we took these pictures before we left.

After visiting Retha, we went to the Creation Museum.  We put many pictures on this blog the last time we visited there, so here are just a few.  The next seven were taken by someone at the museum in front of a green screen.  All the backgrounds were added in to our pictures, and we bought the CD.

     These next ones are taken in the garden on the swinging bridge.

 We got to visit a few of our relatives while we were "stationed" in the Cincinnati area.  Of course, the main ones we went to see were Jason and Jeffrey.  :)

We spent two evenings visiting with our boys in the hotel. 

Part of our time with Jason was spent in the library where he works three evenings a week.

 Since Jason was busy working, Jeffrey went with us to see Adam and Valerie Profitt, Aubrey and Annie one evening.

                      Lisa Profitt and Eben

 Simon Profitt really liked for us to play games with him.  His big brother, Elliott was at school, so we didn't get to spend time with him.  His daddy, Aaron, was on a trip so we missed seeing him.

 Simon was the most frequent winner of every game we played!

 My sister Brenda Owens and niece Rebekah were in the area attending Youth Challenge.  They wanted us to meet them at Jungle Jim's (a huge international grocery store and tourist trap) for a short visit.  We visited as fast as we could for the time we had.  Whoever heard of going to a grocery store to visit relatives?

 We went to Jason's Symphonic Wind and String Ensemble (SWSE) class and really enjoyed that!

 (Jason has gotten to travel with SWSE the last two weekends and loves performing when the Lord helps and blesses.)

 We enjoyed hearing from Dr. Dan and Martha Glick about their recent trip to Israel.

 We all enjoyed visiting with Mikah Litchfield, someone we have known "virtually" for years.  Mikah took Beth and Emily to several of her classes and she took time for us several mealtimes.

 One day, Jeffrey took us to the Carew Tower in downtown Cincinnati.  This is what the building looked like from below.

 We went up a 45 story elevator, got out and went on another elevator for 3 more stories, then climbed up another story by stairs, and came out on the observation deck on top.

 This is looking out at the city of Cincinnati from the top.

 This picture has God's Bible School and College in it left of center. 

 In case you can't find it, we zoomed in for you.  Chapel, classrooms and boys' dorm building on left, white administration building in middle, girls' dorm and Academy building on right, dining hall, classrooms building foreground right, and library nearly hidden in the trees foreground center.  Music building across the street from chapel did not make it in the picture.

 This picture shows one of the bridges we drove on several times a day going from Ohio to Kentucky to where our hotel was.

 Zoomed in shows our hotel

 In the background of this picture is the only structure in Cincinnati taller than the one we are standing on.  It was a cold, windy, spitting snow/sleet type of day up there.

 This trip was all about our 30th anniversary, so we had to take pictures of just us every chance we got!

 One day the girls and we went to the William Howard Taft Childhood Home Museum.  It was very interesting, but extremely warm in there.  It was refreshing to go outside and get cooled off.

  Several mornings we ate breakfast at our hotel, overlooking the Ohio River.

 All good things must wind down to an end, and we started home.  We drove from Cincy to Columbia, Mo. on Friday, arriving at Marlene and Scott's house for supper.  Then they took us to a church Lyndell was speaking at in the evening.  We were so glad we were privileged to be there for that.  We pray that the message he gave and stories he told will be brought to the minds again and again, so that fruit will grow.

 After that, we went over to Lyndell and Sharen's for brownies and ice cream.  Pictured below:  Scott, Marlene, Sharen, Lyndell, and Austin.  Austin had been dressed as the school mascot at a game that night, so he had to cover up his "bad hair day" with a baseball cap.

Counting Sherry I saw in Joplin, Brenda in Cincinnati, Marlene and Lyndell in Columbia, I saw all my siblings on this trip except for Wesley.  Florida was just a little out of the way, or we would've seen him!
We came the rest of the way home on Saturday October 26 and were thankful for every safe mile and every joy and blessing of our trip.

Book Review: Christmas in Apple Ridge Three-in-One Collection by Cindy Woodsmall

Christmas in Apple Ridge Three-in-One Collection 

Book One:  The Sound of Sleigh Bells

Beth has been mourning the loss of her fiancé for over a year.  Her friends and family want her to get beyond the grief and enter into activities and have joy in living again.  But she can’t let go of her sadness, because she has stuffed secrets about Henry’s death.  Beth’s Aunt Lizzy is afraid Beth will be an old maid, like herself, and miss out on the joys of sharing life with a family.  Lizzy concocts a plan to get Beth writing Jonah, a wood carver, (whom Beth has never met and she thinks is an old man), because Lizzy knows Jonah has wisdom to share about surviving loss and pain.

Lizzy’s plan seems to be working:  Beth has renewed interest in life and has released her secrets to Jonah.  But what will happen when Beth finds out that Jonah is not an old man and she has been “tricked” into sharing her pain?

Book Two:   The Christmas Singing

I had read The Christmas Singing previously, but I found it more enjoyable to read this time because of knowing the characters and their stories already started in Book One. 

Mattie has just come to Apple Ridge after her bakery shop in Ohio burned to the ground.  The move puts her back in the vicinity of Gideon, her first love, who broke up with her four years ago, letting her believe that he wanted to date non-Amish girls.  She didn't know his real reason for breaking up was to protect her from knowing about him having leukemia, which he did not expect to survive.  In the meantime, she has a safe, boring relationship with someone else that she hopes would never hurt her.  Should she “settle” for Sol, or find out what Gideon was and is thinking?

Book Three:  The Dawn of Christmas

In The Dawn of Christmas, Sadie has been lied about by her fiancé Daniel, whom she caught with her beautiful cousin the day before their planned wedding day.  Broken-hearted, she moved away from Apple Ridge, learned to be independent and developed a love for mission trips to Peru. 

On a visit to her family, she discovers Levi, injured from being thrown from a spooked horse.  Her actions save his life and make him eternally grateful to her.  They both have sworn off marriage, but they decide to pretend to be courting to keep their families from bugging them about their singleness.  What will happen when they find out they love each other at the same time they realize Levi’s brother Daniel is the one by whom Sadie was betrayed?

I enjoyed reading these books.  I like the 3-in-1 version of a series, because of the continuity of the story line, and getting to read the next one right away before I forget the characters.

I received the Kindle version of these books for free from WaterBrook/Multnomah Publishers in exchange for my honest review.

Our trip to Cincinnati Oct. 19-26, starting with Joplin

 We got to Joplin and had supper with Tim, Brenda, and Charissa.  I was so happy that she remembered me from my quick trip there in August when I helped Randy and Joy move to Colorado.  That meant a lot to me.

Everybody had a turn reading Charissa her favorite books.

 Beth and Brenda

 Emily and Charissa

 Janet and beautiful sister, Sherry

 Living room Sunday afternoon visiting scenes at Janet's parents' house

 Mother (Wanda Scoles) and Tim

 Tim, Brenda, Charissa, Janet and Rowen