Rachel Cried Amost all the Way Home From the Game

"Rachel?" "Rachel?" "Rachel?" "Rachel?" "Rachel?" says Jesse. "What?" Rachel says. "When you get home you can have some ice cream," Jesse announces. I say, "No, Jesse, Rachel can't have ice cream because we already had ice cream today." "Rachel, I'll share MY ice cream with you."

What a sweet boy, trying to comfort his tired, unhappy sister. I just love the things that come out of that boy's mouth. I had to tell him he wasn't getting any ice cream either to which he said nothing. It was the end of that conversation, but it was a moment of joy I wanted to remember. Rachel was comforted and asleep by the time we arrived home (the drive is only about seven minutes).

Ozark Trail

This past weekend we went away on a backpacking trip to celebrate 17 years of marriage (which is coming up June 11th). We got down to Leasburg, MO about 10:30 and took a shuttle (pickup truck ride) to our starting point. Once we finally figured out the way to go (the signs weren't the best), we started out. It was a beautiful day for a hike and we walked about seven miles until we found a good place to camp. It started raining about the time we got camp all set up. We had a tarp to cook dinner under, so it worked out. The tent we have is tiny, so it was cramped. We intentionally took the smaller tent because our packs were already heavy enough. Anyways, it rained most of the night, but the sun came out in the morning. Friday was a great hiking day. We hiked about 11 miles. We were both pretty sore. We had to cross this river, which was quite an adventure. James made three trips across and carried the packs. I was good to get myself across and I barely did that. We set up camp and had a nice campfire. It started storming early the next morning and we had to pack up and hike out four miles in the rain. It was okay. Overall we had a nice time away and enjoyed the time together. We hiked 22 miles total and my muscles are just starting to feel better. It was the longest backpacking trip for me to date.

Here's the fast flowing Courtois (Code-a-way) River where we crossed
Drying off from the river crossing. James made it across with out getting the packs wet, except for the bottoms. The river was waist high on James and was flowing fast.

Our camp the second night. See how small that tent is?

On the trail we didn't see any other hikers. The only wildlife we saw was some frogs, a turtle and some cows that we spooked into a stampeed. That was interesting!

Awana Finishes Up

Here are the kids with their Awana awards. They had a great year and memorized lots of verses. This was Jonathan's last year and next year he will probably be a youth helper. As a family we have been memorizing Colossians chapter three. We are almost finished. Last year we memorized Romans twelve and we'll probably go back and review that one. After that, we'll start on another chapter, I'm just not sure which one yet.

Happy Easter

Easter Sunday after church

This year for the Easter Scavenger Hunt I had Jonathan put the eggs together, come up with the clues and then hide the eggs. It was a challenge for him and it sure helped me out, since I was busy with other Easter preparations. Here they are ready to go.

Josiah jammed his finger, playing baseball, so he wasn't up to participating.

Enjoying the candy at the end and celebrating the true treasure of Jesus Christ.