Our Trip, Part 1

Hello Readers,

I’m sure you’ve all guess by now that we’ve been on vacation!! Yes, that’s right. It’s been such a blast! Here’s an update on where we went and what we did (most of it is from my trip journal – sorry if this post is too long, but I like detail and lots of pictures!).

The first day we left our house a little after 7:30 in the morning. We drove 9 hours and finally arrived at Uncle Andy, Aunt Laura, Caleb and Jesse’s house in WI. We slept overnight there. They were great hosts!



We left the next morning around 8:30 and drove another 7 or so hours to go to the solar training camp in IN. Soon after we arrived, everyone else came as well and we had hot dogs and hamburgers for supper. Everything at the solar training camp is run by . . . you guessed it . . . solar. Solar lights, solar electricity, and even solar showers (below).



We had our very own cabin – it was very nice! It had a composting toilet, which was interesting.



It had rained/was raining that day, so everything was very muddy and wet – including the steep trail to our cabin!



That evening we watched a solar training DVD, and had some discussion time, and the next morning everyone was up around 7am to eat breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, and cinnamon rolls . . . all cooked outside . . . yum!!



After breakfast the men took down a solar panel (and then put it back up) for practice. The ladies who were involved in doing the Fiestas all had a meeting, and we discussed for quite a while the specifics of preparing for and running the 3 or 4 Fiestas we’ll be doing in Honduras. That went really well. I think we all feel a little more prepared now, and it sure helped to have two people who had been there before answer our questions.



We practiced playing a few of the games and telling the Bible story, then we had lunch. Supper was grilled BBQ chicken and chocolate cake! Afterwards everyone left except Mr. R., who owns the camp. We stayed one more night. One of my favorite things at the camp was the beautiful clear streams, and there was also a cute little bridge.



The next morning we had breakfast with Mr. R. and then we left for the Creation Museum. It was a blast!! We were there for two days – Sun. afternoon, and Mon. morning and afternoon. On the first day we walked through the extensive outdoor gardens, and we all enjoyed seeing the zonkey, zorse, wallaby, camel, and more at the petting zoo.



Indoors we viewed the Planetarium (my favorite!), the Men in White movie in the Special Effects Theatre (that was so neat – but I can’t tell you why in case any of you ever go there!!!), and the self-guided tour which takes you through the Garden of Even (Ethan calls it that), Noah’s Ark, and LOTS more!!!



Tuesday morning we left the hotel and drove for about 6 hours until we came to the M. family’s house. It was so good to see them again!! Olivia (Mrs. M.) was the Rev. Mother in the Sound of Music movie that we made, and since they’d moved down to NC, we hadn’t seen them in a long time!! Baby Jeb was SO adorable! We had such a nice time visiting with them.



After leaving the M.’s home, we went to Uncle Tim and Aunt Lauri’s house near Charlotte. We stayed there for three nights. They had all the days planned out as to what attractions we would see, but they kept it all a surprise!! We had a lot of fun, and we learned so much. When you homeschool, you’re never really graduated, and you never really have a summer break!!! Here is a list of where we went:

First we went to the Transportation Museum:



Then the Reed Gold Mine:



The next day we rode the Light Rails train to downtown Charlotte:



Where we went to the ImaginON museum for kids:



And we also walked around this building that has things around the side that you can touch, and they make neat noises and light up:



We went to a few more places, and then rode the tram back to the vehicles. We had lunch and Uncle Tim and Aunt Lauri’s house, and then my siblings swam in a pool while I relaxed and took a nap! All that traveling can wear a person out.

That evening we watched Andy Griffeth, 18 and Counting (the Duggar Family) and some other shows on their huge HD TV. The next morning we packed up and then went to the Billy Graham Library, where Aunt Lauri volunteers. It was wonderful! It was more like a museum than a library, and it showed lots of movies and memorabilia from his life. It was very well done. Mr. Graham always thought of himself as a humble farm boy, and he said that he didn’t want any glory, since God’s Holy Spirit is what worked through him to save souls. He and his wife led amazing lives – they are such a good example for us to shine for Jesus in this dark world.



This is a picture of Billy Graham's niece with my mom and Aunt Lauri:



After the Billy Graham Library we went out to a pizza buffet, and then we drove a few hours to Daniel’s birth-grandma’s house in the mountains. We unloaded our things and then drove and hiked up to a BEAUTIFUL waterfall!! Right when we arrived at the good viewpoint, some kayakers went down one of the waterfalls! I got a movie and a picture – it was so neat (and scary!) watching them do it. I post that right after this one.

God’s creation is just marvelous, isn’t it?

Part 2 coming soon!!

TEA party speech

Resurrection Sunday

Last Sunday we had Grandpa and Grandma K. over (dad's parents) and Grandma Grace (mom's mom) for a scrumptious Easter dinner. We hadn't seen them all in a while, and we had a great afternoon visiting, and my younger siblings had fun doing a little egg hunt. It was so nice to spend some time with our grandparents. Here are a few pictures of our fun day!

Doesn't Ethan look handsome? :-)



The two grandmas



Ethan with grandpa





Lydia and I had fun dressing up in some fancy dresses we had in our closet



G and G asked us to play some music for them - don't I look graceful playing banjo in that dress? :-)



It was great to see you, grandma, grandpa, and grandma!!! :-)

P.S. Don't forget to look at the post below about The Widow's Might.

The Widow's Might . . .

. . . is a movie made by a homeschooling family in Texas. The director was only 19 years old, and the film won the Jubilee award ($101,000 prize) at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival this year. You can view the trailer online, and also a list of the theatres where it's playing at. If you can't make it to the theatre, I would recommend buying it (and other awesome family movies) off of Behemoth. You can download all kinds of Christian music, teaching, movies, and more - and all for great prices!!

Here is a short list of some other movies our family has enjoyed:

Flywheel
Facing the Giants
Fireproof
Pendragon*
The White Handkerchief*
Wars of Humanity series*
Still Standing*
Return of the Daughters

*can be bought on Behemoth

Modest Wedding Dress Business

My mom, a friend and I have ventured into a new home business selling pre-owned modest wedding dresses. The dresses we offer for sale each have their own style, and are elegant yet modest.

These days, it is very hard to find modest wedding dresses. We believe that ladies should be modest at all times, and especially on their wedding day! It is our sincere desire to help brides to find just the right dress for that special occasion. Our collection also includes mother of the bride dresses, flower girl dresses and vintage dresses.

Please pass this info on to anyone who you think would be interested. We'd be glad to answer more questions on the dresses or set up appointments for anyone to see them. You can visit my website to see pictures, and keep checking to see if we have added any.

Missions Trip

Here is a copy of the letter we are sending out about our upcoming missions trip:

Dear Friends and Family,

As some of you may already know, Jeff, Hannah and Caleb are going on a missions trip this summer. They head to Honduras June 4-13th to help install solar panels to bring electricity to poor schools. While Jeff and Caleb are helping to do the manual labor, Hannah will be helping with Fiestas for the children. These are VBS-type gatherings where they play games with the children, give them goodie bags with supplies, and share the gospel with them. Before the lights are turned on, the Gospel is also shared to all the watching families.

The missions organization they will be going with is called Sonlight Power. We learned about this missions organization from a good friend of ours. As he researched solar and how to help others with this alternative energy source, he ran across Sonlight Power. When he told us about it, we thought it would be a good way to get our "feet wet" into missions work - something that we've been talking about as family for a long time. Jeff then decided to take the 2 oldest children and now they are leaving in less than 2 months!

In May, we will travel to Cincinnati where the missions organization is based to attend a 2 day solar training camp. At that time we will meet the rest of the team that is going with us in June.

If you would like to partner with us through giving, we have set up a website which makes it easy to give donations online. Checks can also be made out to Sonlight Power and sent to us. We greatly covet your prayers - please be praying for a safe trip, that many will come to know Jesus as their personal Saviour, and that Jeff, Hannah, and Caleb will be drawn closer to the Lord by this experience.

We will be putting together 100 bags for the Fiestas to give out to the school kids, the teachers and any other children who come from the community (a lot come to see the Americans install lights for the first time). Items needed for this will be pencils, pens, erasers, balls, colored pencils, permanent and washable markers, scissors, stickers, toothbrushes, hair barrettes and other such items. If you would like to help us put together these bags, or donate items or money for the bags, please let us know.

Thank you for your prayers!

We're Moving to Florida!

April Fools! Did any of you remember that today is April Fool's Day? And, in case you didn't know, it's also National Atheist Day. :-)

Visit this website to take the test to find out if you are a fool or not:

http://visionarydaughters.com/

If any of you played a successful trick on a family member or friend today, please comment and tell me what you did! A couple things we did - switch all the clocks after dad went to bed so we would sleep later, stretch clear tape across the bottom of doorways, put food coloring in water to make it look like juice, and put raisins in our scrambled eggs. :-)