The Grand Finale

So here is the place where we finished up our travels and rested and relaxed and played with frogs....ok, so not ALL of us played with frogs. But we did all have a good time. I was dreading the trip back, it seemed like we never really stopped traveling the whole time we were in Maine and then to make the looooong trip back, without feeling like we had much of a break, was not something I was looking forward to. So being able to stop at our friends house for 3 days was a wonderful way to break up the trip.The first afternoon we were Tom and Debi took us to the Flea Market in Shipshewana and, despite the crowds, we had a good time and saw lots of neat stuff. For the rest of our time we pretty much had a lazy day routine and just hung out while the kids played outside and got so dirty having fun that they needed a bath pretty much every night.

Here's Alana and her $1 Flea Market purchase.

One afternoon Daddy and Logan headed down back to the wetlands but didn't stay long on account of a certain someone thinking about the possible snappers, snakes, etc. that were hiding among the tall grasses.

We ALL fell in love with Gunner (named by a die-hard Marine who was in for 33 years!) He's the cutest puppy and it was good for the withdrawal I've been having....=(

The kids enjoyed playing inside when it rained since they found the toys - every grandparent has some hiding somewhere, right?

I took lots of pictures of my family and of the outside and of the view and the green - oh so pretty!

In the evenings we would stay up late (way to late =) and just talk and laugh and play games. We know that the Lord placed them in our lives for lots of reasons and we are blessed to call them friends.

Two pals....(AKA - peas in a pod) Making supper - yum!

Jesse was sick most of the last week we were traveling, including the time at Tom and Debi's, but he was chipper just the same most of the time.

Miss Debi made cookies and made the kids day by letting them help.

It's hard work helping!

One afternoon we walked over and invited their neighbors, and Amish family, over for a bonfire and dessert. It was so enjoyable to visit and talk with them - despite what we often think they are just people like we are and it was good to spend some time getting to know them. Monica and Jolene (19) talked about a wide variety of subjects, from weddings to ranching, and Zachery and Dwayne (12) sat on the porch and talked about lots of things as well, for example, how boring school is=)

Then came the time to head home. We had 18 hours left to go when we drove out the driveway. The Lord protected again on the way home as Matthew spotted a thin spot on one of our tires and was able to change it quickly before we got back on the road. I didn't take any more pictures of the states welcome signs or any scenery, by that time we were bored with it and just saw a lot of this....

and a lot of this...

And a TON of this!

Friday afternoon at around 3:30 our travels came to an end....We are so thankful for God's protection, for good meetings in 8 different churches, for time with family and friends, and for what a great time we had as a family being able to be together each and every day (while keeping our sanity)!

Fun and Frogs

The last stop of our trip was the icing on the cake and a great way to wrap up our travels. We went to the house of our friends, Tom and Debi Pfaffenberger. We slept in, relaxed, and enjoyed ourselves so much we stayed longer than planned just because it was to nice we didn't want to leave. We are so thankful to them, not only for this time they provided for our family, but for their years of praying for us and loving us and taking us in with open arms. You guys are great!

It truly was the perfect way to end the hectic days of traveling and constant coming and going - for three days we just laid low and enjoyed things close by and the beauty of the area where they live in Indiana. One of our outings was to a Flea Market and you'll see below what the kids favorite part of that was=) (*My favorite thing was a trip to the local Amish grocery store - too fun!)

I couldn't believe it - those kids had a blast! Alana was the most shocking of all because she was in no way scared and just jumped her little heart out, laughing the whole time. Between her and Logan they drew quite a crowd since they were among the younger jumpers, you had to weigh at least 30 pounds.

Zach, of course, had the best stunts as you'll see in the video - basically anything athletic and he can do it! I took one of Logan and Alana also but didn't know until after that I had the camera zoomed in too far to get the whole thing to fit on the screen so it's not very good.

Another thing the kids enjoyed at Tom and Debi's was just the fun of getting outside and playing in their yard - they had a pond out front that Logan pretty much wore a path around in the time we were there. He was up and out of the house first thing in the morning and had to be called in at night spending the entire time in between catching frogs, tadpoles, and turtles. He was in his glory! In the meantime Zach borrowed Tom's bike and rode all over their property while Alana and Jesse enjoyed the sandbox and Monica sat on the front porch swing.

And did I mention Daddy helped?

Here are a few frogs of the many they caught - you should have seen the bucket of tadpoles, there were between 80-100 of them, I'm guessing. It was disgusting, the boys would reach in and take out handfuls of them....yuk!

Here's Logan with one of the many turtles of many sizes that the boys caught.

Two little tiny turtles actually came home with us and are still surviving - Zach and Logan now have new pets, Crush and Squirt. They are about the size of a quarter and of a nickel but may grow as big as the one in the picture above. But below you'll see the coolest turtle encounter we had - with a snapper! Toward the end of the video I forgot I had the camera still on which is why you get a rather odd view of things.

All of us had so much fun enjoying the creation that surrounded their house. We went to sleep to the sounds of the geese on the wetlands and the bullfrogs in the pond. We would wake up and look our the window the see the birds overhead and the cows in the pasture next door. We found a couple nests and watched the number of eggs in them grow over the time that we were there - like the picture below, there were 3 eggs by the time we left=)

Of course the best part of all was spending time with our friends, and making new ones, but more about that next time....!

On the Road Again

On Wednesday evening, May 20th, we left Matthew's parents house to go and spend one more day in the Guilford area where much of my family is. We spent the day doing a mixture of relaxing and some last minute packing and reorganizing. That evening was one of my favorites - my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and my cousin along with his family, came over and we made homemade pizza together, talked, looked at pictures, and had a wonderful evening together. I was having so much fun and enjoying myself that I forgot to take pictures!

The next morning, Friday the 22nd, we began the trip back to South Dakota...."On the road again" was pretty much our mantra for the whole 35 days of traveling!!! Less than two hours down the road we stopped at a rest area and met up with my Uncle Sheldon - he's not to much older than I am so we were more buddies than anything else and I've always treasured our relationship. That evening is when the trouble began.....Here's the full story for those that want to know. We were on the highway going anywhere between 65 and 70 mph and were trying to decide if we should stop for gas when we planned on stopping in about another hour for the night anyway. People needed to stretch and the kids were hungry so, after passing 3 or 4 exits, we decided to go ahead and pull off and eat our packed lunch at the gas station instead of at the hotel. At the end of the exit ramp there were 2 gas stations, one on either side, and we chose the one with cheaper gas. Once we pulled in we saw a police car who was there for a fender bender that had just occurred in their parking lot. As he was filling up, Matthew noticed the wheel of the trailer - the hub was completely ruined! He looked at me and said "We're done".....We parked there and, upon further inspection, Matthew noticed that the bearing were gone - as in they were nothing more than dust. He headed over to talk to the police officer who was just getting ready to pull out and over the coarse of the next 45 minutes or so, while the kids and I ate supper, the officer called tons of garages and was trying to find anything that would be open. Nothing was. Keep in mind it was after closing time on a holiday weekend. During our conversation with the policeman he told us what we sort of already knew - in this type of situation the entire wheel and hub come off of the axle and, at highway speeds, the axle drops and digs into the road causing the trailer to flip, often taking the vehicle with it. Finally we decided to call a wrecker who was located just across the road and he towed it over to his place and parked it for the night. The officer gave us a list of all the local repair shops who, in theory, could help us and away we went to look for a hotel. We got the last available room at an expensive rate because of both the holiday and the local West Point graduation taking place the next day. At that point we were being told that we wouldn't be able to do anything before next Tuesday and then we may need to order parts that would take even longer. The hotel we were in told us we had to be out that night, they had no rooms open. Matthew woke early Saturday morning and began calling the list of garages in hopes of getting a hold of one that might be open - again, nothing was. (In the meantime we had been talking to my parents who were pulling strings on their end, as well as the pastor of the church in Ohio where we were scheduled to be the next morning for services) That's when the doors began to open....we finally called the wrecker to see if he knew of any other options. Almost on the spot the owner of the business himself said he knew where we could get the parts today and he would fix it - his hobby is building custom race cars and he had all the tools you could possibly want. By 2pm that afternoon we were back on the road and made if safely to Ohio in time for our meeting! Do I even have to point out how many times throughout this situation that the Lord had His Hand on us? It is so humbling - one of those situations where you want to literally fall on your face before Him and Praise Him, Praise Him, Praise Him.

The man who fixed it showing Matthew the exact part we needed to pick up and he also gave us directions to get to the location 45 minutes away where we went to get it.

The mess of what was left - the dust on the ground is what was left of the bearings.

The spindle

And the church in Ohio - we had a wonderful time and were so blessed by this family of believers whose generosity in the middle of our situation was amazing!

It was such a beautiful day and I snapped some quick pictures of the kids.

This is one, if not the, favorite picture that I've ever taken of Zach - I love it!

After church we had lunch with a group of church people at the pastors house - fortunately for our kids they are grandparents and had lots of backyard fun for little people.

This lady was Alana's Sunday School teacher and couldn't remember having ever held a frog so Logan talked her into it=)

Well, folks, I know that was lengthy, but for my own sake I wanted to have a written testament of what happened during that leg of the trip. I wanted all of you to know what a great and merciful God we serve!

Outings with Gramma and Grampa

Our time with Matthew's parents was very relaxing and fun. While we weren't there for one really long stretch, we were able to make it our base for a couple weeks as we traveled to visit with some more family or made more deputation trips to several churches. During the time that we were there we were just able to kick back and be ourselves and enjoy a slower pace than what was typical of our trip. The kids had plenty of room to run and play and made themselves quite at home with Gramma and Grampa=) For example, here's Jesse with a clothespin on his lip....? We had most of the day to just enjoy visiting with each other but we usually had a fun, but simple, outing we would do as well. Mars Hill, the town by where they live, is known for it's windmills which were just put up about 4 years or so ago. Some of us took a ride around the base of the hill and saw the windmills up close and in action, all 26 of them! (I think....)

That same afternoon we went to an alpaca farm less than 5 miles away. The little two really loved that! The funniest part was Alana and her "alpaca call" - when we arrived they were out in the middle of the field and didn't seem interested in coming over to the fence to see us, so we just watched them from a distance. After a while Alana, in a deep rough voice, called to them "Come here, come here, come here", the minute she started doing that they all lifted their heads and trotted right over - it was hilarious!

It was windy and Jesse got a bit cold so Gramma shared her jacket with him....=)

For a big part of the time we were at their house Monica had a pretty bad cold and wasn't feeling well. When she would lay down to take a nap she'd have immediate company from Coco, Aunt Belinda's dog.Another one of our outings was to pack a picnic lunch then walk through town, down to the bridge, and stop to enjoy the sun, shade, and sandwiches.

It was a beautiful spot and I took the opportunity for some photos=) Are these two cute or what!?!?

Most of the time the big boys were on a completely different outing - the locations where they went varied but the activity was the same - fishing, fishing, and more FISHING. That was one of Matthew's goals for this trip and I have to say he accomplished it, in my opinion anyway=) It was worth it though, they had a good time and we had some good fish fries as a result!

Sometimes they went 'wading'....

Another activity was making pink popcorn - I didn't follow the whole process but Zachery and Aunt Belinda made up a big batch of it. Ingredients are popcorn, melted marshmallows, and jello - it's a health food, of course=)

So thanks again Gramma and Grampa for some good memories and fun times and an enjoyable visit all around! Miss you!