Happy Belated Birthday, Alex!  Sorry it took a bit to post this but we love you and can't wait to see you!  I love this shot with you and your cousinettes.

More October birthdays!

October's a busy month for birthdays.  Happy Birthday, Caleb and Natalie!  We wish we could be there, but we know that you're still being loved and celebrated.  Love, Uncle John and Aunt Lindsey

This is obviously a dated picture--imagine the same ornery smile, but wrapped in a scarf and hood.

Here's Natalie looking very serious about arranging her crayons.  Multi-tasking at an early age!

Happy Birthday, Noah and Belated Happy Birthday, Katie!

I try to keep up on birthday wishes here on the blog, but I'm not always successful at it.  So here's a tribute to two very different, but equally fantastic kids that make our lives oh so interesting.  

Happy 9th Birthday, Noah!  It's okay, you don't have to get up for our sakes. . .

Happy 5th Birthday, Katie!  The proximity of this little girl to a group of angels is purely accidental, I assure you.

Random reflections on recent events

Warning: this blog skips around a bit, with stops in Texas, Colorado, California, and even Greece.  I'm not making any promises about its chronological accuracy.  

Here in Texas, we may not have much rain, but at least we have Blue Bell.  Aunt Ann, Jake, and I took some time out of the day to go to Brenham, Texas to see where this delectable treat is made.  And the best part--at the end of the tour, you get a generous scoop of ice cream!

John went out to Colorado this summer, fishing the mighty Taylor with his dad.  Here's Tom, braving the elements.

Tom and John S., his friend from the olden days.  Fish: beware.  They might look chummy, but they are merciless.

 Back in Texas again, still no rain.  Certain ants are having a heyday, as you can tell.

Not all the water is gone, however.  There's still thick, stagnant green stuff that is kind of pretty.

As most of you know, John was in California recently to defend his dissertation.  So that means officially, from our end, we're both completely done.  There was nothing left but to give God the glory by having a party with lots of food. 

Here's Annamarie modeling a new and exciting recipe I've found: brie cheese with a brown-sugar, honey, nutty glaze.  And to be modest, it was as good as it looks.

To test their observation skills, we asked everybody at the party to write down what they thought our dissertations were about, respectively, in fifteen words or more.  Answers varied from "It was the best of times and the worst of times," to "heresy in northern Italy."  We were impressed!

A couple weeks ago, we traveled out to Salado, TX to have a family reunion.  Jake and Andrew (plus parents) met us there.  They look so darling in their matching polos and shorts.

And even when they're trying to look strange, they still look darling.

The time at the reunion is usually pretty relaxing for us, and this trip was no exception.  Here's John holding court in our hotel room as we sipped wine, ate fancy cheese, and discussed college football. 

No wine and cheese here, but I can still sense a discussion of college football.

We're bouncing back and forth a bit, but can any one guess who this little darling is?  It's little Luke, of the East Coast Mike and Janelle clan.  I hear it was bitterly cold in Santa Barbara when John was in CA, so Luke came prepared.

Ah, bedhead.

And more bedhead (Cheri seems to have escaped it).

Back in Texas for the third time, here are Mother, Father, Brother-in-law, and me at the Greek Festival in Houston.  It's a family tradition and the food is oh so good.  I'm holding a gyro, while the rest of the family elected to get the full Greek meal, complete with spanakopita, pastikio, and other things I can't pronounce or remember.

To finish off, here's Natalie doing laps--until Daddy gets in the way, at least!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

If any of you are wondering, this is how my mom looks when she's staring into blinding sunlight.  And she's still beautiful, folks, inside and out.  Love you, Mom!

A bumpy ride

This is the video I mention in the post below.  Clover was kind enough to do the narration.  Don't watch if you're feeling queasy.

Redcloud Trip

Hey everyone!  I hope you enjoy these pictures from our trip to Colorado.  It was a great blessing--even more than we expected.  As most of you know, we were at Camp Redcloud, where John served several summers while he was in college.  It was good to get out into nature, pray, and make ourselves available to God.  

Here's our crew.  The guy in the brown shirt was Todd and the girl in the red shirt was Audra.  They were our counselors and we loved them!  They became one of the group even as they modeled what it was to be a servant.

No drought here.  Look at these hanging baskets!

We stayed in a weatherport, which was basically like a cloth-covered hangar.  

The inside of the weatherport was none too fancy,  but the mattress was comfortable and I had my Pillow Pet to keep me company.  (John was in the boy's half of the weatherport.)

The view from the camp.  There's a horse barn in the distance and every night they would let the horses run out, which made a very nice scene. 

John below the chapel.  The first night we went up to the chapel at night and saw the stars from up there.  If you've never done a devotional in the dark, you should.  

Roy Rogers, our camp-provided transportation to all our activities.  Plenty of seats, but no shocks!

That's my husband on that rock face.

I was his 'belayer,' the person who manages the rope that keeps the climber safe.  Somehow I wasn't ready to delegate that to somebody else.  Todd's helping me out, though.

There's me up there.  Glad I did it, but don't need to do it again!

John and I at Lake City, the closest town to Redcloud.  We went there for milkshakes after our rock-climbing expedition.

Don't think you can read the sign, but this place calls itself is a "Husband Daycare."  

Look at the pavement and how it reflects the face of the church (there's a cross on the top that I couldn't get in the picture).

After milkshakes, we went to eat at 'Poker Alice's,' a pizza place.  John and his family have been there several times, because of his service at Redcloud, so I was glad to go there myself.

Inside Roy Rogers.  Watch the video in the following post to get a flavor of it!

The next day after rock-climbing, we went to Carson, a ghost town just beneath the Continental Divide.   I think gold miners lived there in the late nineteenth century.

My handsome guy.

Uh, this is our leader, Clover.  He is Rachel's 'handsome guy.'  Reportedly he doesn't always look this sleazy.

I like this little shot of John's Redcloud bottle.  I think I'll send it to the camp and see if they want to use it as an advertisement.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Jackson!  We love ya!

California Trip, part two

Hello all!  These are some pictures from the second leg of our California trip.  Actually, there aren't any pictures from California; these are all from our trip back and our time in Missouri.  But still, I hope you'll enjoy them.  I haven't come up with the witty commentary that's usually Mom's standard, but the pictures hopefully speak enough for themselves!

A beautiful pass along the Colorado River, at the corner of north-western Arizona.

We took a significant detour into Zion National Park.  We were exhausted at the end of the day, but saw some amazing views!

The rock formations looked like they'd just been poured out.

 

We even did a bit of hiking before getting back on the road.

Because of the detour through Zion, we took a different route through Utah than usual.  Who would of thought that Utah could look like Wales, or vice versa?

I had forgotten to take our camera to Disneyland, so here's our one Disney-themed picture.  

The windmills of eastern Colorado.  Or was it western Kansas?

While at home in Missouri, we had a good time celebrating Audrey's fourteenth birthday.

We also celebrated Father's Day.  Here's Dad with a present from Shane--a bottle of 'Wingman' wine.  If you don't know why that's significant, you haven't spent enough time with Dad.

It was crowded at the house, so seats were a little hard to come by.

Of course, some members of the family rarely ever touched the ground.

Noah at his baseball game with some chums.  It's almost hard to pick Noah out here. . .

Seth: action shot.

My cousin Chris, his wife Angie, and their two girls came by Mom and Dad's for a visit, to the delight of all cousins!

It was an active weekend - both Noah and Stitch were very tired.

One of the more unique pleasures we had this trip was the chance for me and Mel to have lunch with an old professor of ours, Mrs. Burt.  It was wonderful to sit and chat with her--HLG is blessed with great professors!

And, just in case we thought we'd come home and not do a project, we did help Ryan and Joy move some things.  Here are John and Caleb, discussing what's to be done next.