Part 4 Another picnic at Schermerhorn Park!

Schermerhorn Park is one of our favorite places to have a picnic with our family.  It is in Galena, Kansas.  We have blogged about it before.
We grilled our supper over briquets, which takes awhile, so Janet pushed Charissa and Jonathan around in their strollers to keep them content.

 Randy arrived between ABE Painting jobs.

 Two little boys, always glad to see Daddy!

 Tim and Brenda hanging out by one of the ABE vans.  Rowen was heading back to a grill to turn or stir something.  We used two of the grills to have lots of yummy food to eat.

 These vegetable/chicken kabobs were on one grill, and foil wrapped potato chunks and brocolli/cauliflower vegetables on the other.

 Charissa having a walk with her daddy.

 Tim

 Brenda and Charissa taking a stroll.

 

Rowen and Janet

 Emily and Jonathan

 Jonathan doing something funny with his tongue.

 The kids all posing in/by a hollow tree.

 Emily and Charissa

 Jeffrey and Quil

 Micah and Jeffrey

 Emily and Joanna

 Quil and Micah, hanging out on the bridge

 Jeffrey and Jonathan

After eating, after a walk in the woods, we played on the play equipment for awhile.  Jonathan loved the swing.

 

 He loved for Grandpa Albertson to push him in the swing.

Charissa does not like to swing.  She actually trembled in fear when we put her in the one by Jonathan.  But she didn't mind being on someone's lap to swing.

I found out she loved slides!  She nearly wore Grandma Albertson out going up and down this slide!

 I think all the time on the slide gave me some brownie points with her.  :)

 

She noticed the big slide and wanted to go down it too!

 It was a fun evening for all of us, except maybe Randy, who had to eat and then go back to work. 

Part 3 of our Missouri trip pictures

 One day, Rowen took Joy and the boys, Joanna, and Emily on a hike/picnic.  This was the day Janet and Jeffrey helped Brenda reupholster the dining room chairs, so they didn't come.  It was a new hiking area in Joplin.  They went off-trail to picnic on a blanket.

 Jonathan munching on a baby carrot.

 He is so cute!

 The picnic with Emily in the pictures and Rowen taking them.

 Rowen, Quil, and Micah found a creek to enjoy.

 Quil

 Micah

 Emily and Jonathan, who appears to be waving!

More pictures from our Missouri trip (Part 2)

 Charissa and Janet enjoying the swing on Grandma and Grandpa Scoles's front porch

                                       Brenda

 Wanda Scoles, Janet's mother.  It was such a gorgeous day to sit on the porch swing and visit!

Rex Scoles, Janet's daddy.  He was trimming around their many flower beds.

 At some point, every little 1 1/2 year old girl wants to move porch furniture...

 A really sweet picture of Charissa

 Jonathan, most photographed 10 month old in Joplin...

 Joy and Quil leading the way on a walk to see the progress in a bird's nest they've been watching.

 Joanna, (Joy's sister), Micah, and Jonathan on the same walk.  Emily was along too, but she was taking pictures.

 Micah and Jonathan being sweet!

 The eggs still haven't hatched!

  Randy and his son, Jonathan, having fun together.

Trip to Missouri May 21-27, 2013 Part 1

Only Emily got to go with us to Missouri, because Beth and Jason were working.  Jeffrey met us there on Thursday and came home with us.  This post's pictures are from the evening of our arrival, May 21.  If everybody looks tired, it's because we were!

                                      Randy

                                        Tim

              Grandma singing "Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain" with Jonathan.

                        He didn't seem to have any stranger anxiety about us.

 

     The bigger little boys and Charissa wanted to color with Emily, Joy, Brenda, and Joanna. 

                                       Micah and Quil

                                       Quil and Joy

 

The Dickinson Family's visit to Johnstown 5-20-13

 We loved getting to meet this precious family, missionaries to Columbia and Argentina, S.A.  We have followed their blog for years, and a couple of our older sons had met them before, but it was our first time to meet in person.  We had such a good time together, although it was too short!  In this picture, Sarah, Mary, Kimberly, Heather, Noah, Phil, and Elijah in our backyard.

 This is what the younger children enjoyed doing the most!

 The older kids had a great time playing together too, with their instruments!  There are videos at the bottom of the post of some of the music.

 Heather joined them on the piano and they did some great music!

 Rowen, Mary, and I were enjoying listening to the music.  I was blessed that Mary let me hold her.  She is 2 1/2, but really advanced for that age.  She can even sing in two languages!  There are videos of the Dickinsons singing at the bottom of the post too.

 Kimberly and her violin

 The girls didn't mind letting Emily "shoot" them repeatedly!  Kimberly, Mary, and Sarah--such sweet girls!

 Kimberly, almost exactly Emily's age (15)

 Sarah (12)

 Little Mary

 Sisters who love each other very much!

 Emily loved getting two new friends!

 Kimberly and Emily

 Our family who enjoyed our company so much.  Besides the music and the trampolining, we had great discussions and several wonderful prayer times together.

                                          God Has a Plan for My Life

                                          Zephaniah 3:17

                                          Just a Closer Walk with Thee

Be Thou My Vision--Heather and Kimberly didn't even "know" this song, but played amazingly.

                                          My Jesus, I Love Thee

Beth's quilt top done!

We finished this on May 7, and it is now at the quilter's place with Jason and Jeffrey's quilts.  Beth  designed this quilt herself in June 2011.  It is truly a unique quilt--never another one just like it because she made it up.  She scanned the fabrics in our printer/scanner, brought them up in Photoshop, and put them together into the design.  After she started making all the parts of it, she realized it would have been easier to use a classic pattern.  The pieces were put in a box for a year and a half, but when we got it out, we mustered up fresh courage to finish it in time to take on our trip to Missouri. She decided to make log cabin blocks for the borders, which were a lot easier and faster. 

We actually added another couple rows at the top, but I forgot to take another picture of it after that.  When we get it back from the quilter, (probably by August), it will appear on this blog with all its finished beauty!

Book Review: Dandelions on the Wind By Mona Hodgson

Dandelions on the Wind was a quick and sweet read.   I got it as an e-book and read it in one afternoon.  Maren Jensen, an immigrant from Denmark, was a helper (in exchange for room and board) for a widow, Mrs. Brantenberg, on her farm in Saint Charles, Missouri.  The Civil War had ended four months before.  Times were hard and money was scarce.  Maren loved the old lady and her four year old granddaughter, Gabi, but was longing to go home to Denmark to be with her family.  She had come to the United States as a mail order bride, but when her husband-to-be found out that she was going blind, he had refused to marry her. 

Gabi’s father, “Woolly” showed up on the farm unexpectedly.  He had abandoned his newborn daughter when his wife died in childbirth and had joined the army.  His mother-in-law is not happy he has returned and she has to decide whether she believes and can live out the wise sayings she has told the quilting circle, like:  “Grace cannot be earned, only given.”   Maren sees Woolly’s arrival back on the farm as a sign that she can now get a job to earn money in order to return to Denmark.  Gabi’s daily prayers for her father’s return have been answered, but she doesn’t want to lose Maren who has been like a mother to her.  Woolly has to forgive himself for all the wrong decisions he made and find God’s light for his future.

This book was enjoyable and easy to read, but not the challenge or spiritual benefit that my more recent reads have been.  I obtained this e-book from Blogging for Books and Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.