Category Archives: Family and Friends

Pictures and stories of our dear family and friends

Happy Birthday, Jimmy Carter!

WOW – 100 years old! That’s quite a milestone for anyone – and a first for a past President of the USA! The nation celebrates with you!

But in our little corner of the world, we are celebrating this guy –
Reis-4
who is turning ELEVEN today!

As I was looking for pictures for his birthday card, I realized I had never done a blog post about Reis’s Lake George Adventure! This past summer (right after our big family reunion) we snagged Reis for his “The Summer that You’re 10” adventure. On the recommendations of friends, we concentrated our time at the Lake George RV Park. And let me tell you what – it was a little pricey, but with three pools (one of which had a great splash pad with a fabulous slide), a sweet snack shop, paddle boats, nightly entertainment and free bingo (a surprising hit for a 10 year old!) it ended up being money well spent! We started the trip with a stop at the Montshire Museum (excellent science museum – if you have kids, go there if you can!), and ventured off of the campground for some mini-golf and local eats, but by and large, the campground was the bomb. (Are old people allowed to say that?) Here’s a little slide show of our time – starting with that early start from the cabin, and ending with the RV heading back to Ohio! (Although, as I preview this, they seem to be in no particular order. Ah, technology!)

It was a very special week – with a very special grandson! Happy Birthday, Reis!! We’re so glad we get to be your grandparents and are privileged to watch you grow up to be the man God wants you to be!
We love you more than you’ll ever know!
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Grams & Pops

Three September Things

    1.  Today this happy little guy
      Noah-2 turned 14!
      Noah
      What a delight it has been to watch him grow into manhood! He’s smart and kind, helpful and funny, and handsome and tall. (Yes, another grandchild has grown taller than me) Happy 14th Birthday, Noah! You’re our favorite 14 year old on the planet. We love you so!
    2. These youngun’s
      are celebrating their 53rd anniversary today!

      We’ve re-upped for another year – so we’ll see how it all goes!
      Gary & Steph - 53 years (still with that goofy grin!)
    3. We started work today at Camp Nathanael! We are the only SOWERs this month, but there are lots of other volunteers here all getting ready for the Pioneer Days/Outdoor Education program which begins on Thursday here at the camp. Looks like this month my days will be filled with cornbread, quilting and kids! I’ll let you know how it all pans out!!

So it’s been a pretty good start to the month! Family celebrations, interesting SOWER activities ahead, and the part for Lizzie has been ordered!! There is so very much to be thankful for, isn’t there?
Thanks for stopping by!
Steph

Double Delight

We had a couple of free days during this week between SOWER projects, so we decided to take a little road trip and check out some nearby (ish) sights. First stop was The Ark Encounter, just south of Cincinnati in Williamstown, KY.  We’d had some great recommendations from friends – and it did not disappoint!
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Although the Biblical telling of the catastrophic worldwide flood is familiar to many, seeing it life-size and walking through it’s decks was awe-inspiring!
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The Bible give many details about the building of the Ark, but it does not give many details of the logistics of caring for the animals that God sent to be in the Ark, or how the people managed life on the Ark. But using as much research as possible, the Ark Encounter recreated not only the size of the Ark (HUGE!!), but also gave plausible explanations of how the feeding, watering, and cleaning up after all those animals could’ve been accomplished. It really is a fabulous experience, which in its essence is very Gospel centered. It was a bit of a splurge for Gary and I and my only disappointment was in how expensive it would be for families to enjoy it. But WOW! If you can – do!
We stayed in the area overnight, and the next morning met a new friend at the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati.
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We had never heard of this museum -and oh my, what a treat!

It combined history and nostalgia in such a winsome way!

An extra level of delight was our personal tour guide, Fred, who is a dear friend of Lara’s and on the board of the museum. He had so many interesting stories about many of the signs and different signage techniques.

It was such an interesting morning and all the signs were fascinating – but none so much as this sign display that caught Gary’s (Pops to his grandkiddos) eye –

How cool is that!! From gold letters to blinking bulbs to neon art to signs on the side of a building –
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it was a great experience!

If you are ever in the Cincinnati area – I highly recommend both of these attractions. They were very different, but both were so very excellent!
And the day (today!) ended with a very lovely evening with all of our Columbus kids, and most (we were missing 3 of the 8) of the grandkids.
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And this little guy is really developing some great personality!
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It was a perfect ending to two lovely days.
And it is making it really hard to think about packing up and heading out on Saturday. We start heading south about this time each year, but with that crew getting older, and that new little peanut who is changing each and every time we’ve seen him this month, this year is pulling on my heartstrings just a little bit harder.
Thanks for coming along on our Cincinnati area jaunt – and the wrap up of our Ohio month!
Steph

 

But there was more

Reunion Ingredients –
Great people – Check
Pond Fun –          Check
Lumber Jack adventure – Check

…but what else was there to do??

Well, here are just a couple of the other activities that filled our days! There were three ATVs that pretty much were on the go most of the time! If kids weren’t in the pond, there was a good chance they were exploring the property on wheels.
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And then there was a little field trip – tubing down the Waits River.


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The Waits River wasn’t the most challenging river and  there were some pretty shallow areas –

but at the end of the adventure, I think a good time was had by all!

And the folks that didn’t go tubing? Well, we’ll get to that another day!

 

 

Family Day

Today was our last Saturday in the Columbus, so we didn’t want to miss a chance to spend some time with family! To that end, we met Toby and family (well, except the ones in college or at a school function) at Blacklick Woods Nature Center.
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The Canopy Walk is a new addition to the park, and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk in the treetops.
Blacklick metro park
Along with the walk there were also a couple activities to engage the kids – like the fireman’s pole
Blacklick canopy walk
and a hammock style cargo net.
Blacklick canopy walk
After the canopy walk, we enjoyed the nature center and then took another short hike through the forest.
Blacklick metro park
It also gave me a chance to squeeze that adorable little Tucker, too!
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Oh, those cheeks!!
After a lovely picnic in the park we headed back to their house and enjoyed a quiet afternoon that involved some Candyland and Uno and lots of conversation. Ah – what a sweet, sweet day!
We hope to see our loved ones here in Ohio at least once more before we leave the area for our next SOWER project, but still today was a delight through and through!
Hope your Saturday was lovely too!
Steph