Down South and Home Again

Well here's a quick update...

We left on July 9 (after our church potluck) for Des Moines, where we spent the night at the Dykstra home. We left the next morning to drive as far as the St. Louis area (Troy, IL), where we had a room reserved at a Holiday Inn Express, which had a kid room with bunk bed & extra TV for the children (perfect!). That evening, after a yummy dinner (FRIED OKRA!!) at Cracker Barrel, our family went to see Pirates of the Caribbean. While Aidan was a little bored & we had to cover his and Holland's eyes a few times, it was entertaining. I liked the first one better...

Tuesday morning we left Troy & headed for Ft. Payne, AL, where my parents live as house parents for a home for teen/young single moms. We met Melissa and Nicole--the girls who currently live with them--and their cute little ones (an infant & a toddler)--and Eric & dad went fishing right away that evening (of course).

We spent Tue. night at my family home in Mentone, and then Eric and I were blessed with 2 nights at a cabin called Pilgrim's Rest, where the owners of a camp allow ministry couples to stay free of charge! It had a kitchen, so we enjoyed cooking pasta alfredo and crab legs one evening. We swam & did the rope swing in the pond behind the cabin, and we never actually SAW anyone else while we were there! It was VERY COOL. Well, actually it was VERY HOT--but the cabin is air conditioned. :-) It reminded me of the cabin we stayed in on our honeymoon--with a loft bedroom.

The kids stayed with Mom & Dad & Katie while we were gone. They joined us on Friday afternoon to swim in the pond and then at the beach (lake) also. Eric fished a lot, with Dad & Scott (Katie's husband) while we were in AL. The kids got to swim almost daily, and I enjoyed a few Scrabble games with Mom & Katie. It was quite hot, so we were grateful that (after all these years), mom and dad have an air conditioner. (They had Friday afternoon thru Monday evening off from The Way Home, so stayed in Mentone with us.)

Sunday we went to my parents' church. The pastor who married us is still there, but the name has changed & they've really grown since I used to attend there, back in high school. (www.willsvalleycommunitychurch.com is their website, and my parents are on the homepage--they both look a little silly in hats. :-0) Katie is the nursery director there. It was neat to see how much the place has changed, though I only knew like 3 people there anymore. And the quality of their music is FABULOUS!! (That's for you, Butch & Amy.) Seriously, the vocal quality & blend of the musicians was really great.

Naturally, it's a little hard for Eric and I to actually wroship when we attend another church, as our minds naturally seek to glean what we can learn & apply to our church... We did actually come home with a definite change we needed to make at our church based on something we learned at Wills Valley. :-) Always learning!

Anyhoo, we left AL on Monday evening, and drove to Paducah, KY, where we had a beautiful hotel suite (kids in the other room again!), and enjoyed a hot breakfast & the swimming pool (all to ourselves!) in the morning--and even got a really late checkout. We arrived home exactly 12 hours later-- our longest driving day of the whole trip.

WE WERE GLAD TO BE BACK IN MINNESOTA!!! It was SO FREAKIN' HOT in Alabama. :-)

We're getting back into the swing of things here, and I just bought Holland her Tinkerbell backpack for school. She is SOO excited.

God Bless!