Joyce

Visiting Grandma’s House

I always enjoy visiting “Grandma’s house” in Colorado. It is beautiful there!

Front Gate — Once you get in the gate, you still have a half mile to go

Cattle guard to Grandma's house. — Cattle guard to Grandma’s house.

When Allan and I were married, we went backpacking.Â One of our stops was atÂ Ogallala Lake in Nebraska.Â It is a park where you can camp on the sand dunes.Â Unfortunately, after getting our car stuck (and unstuck) in the sand, we noticed ominous storm clouds, so we ended up in a horrible hotel, made worse because we both really wanted to stay at the dunes.

On this trip, we decided to try staying there again.Â After exploring, we could not find anyplace that looked like what we had discovered years ago.Â We did learn that nearby Lake McConaughy also had sand dunes that we could camp at, so we stopped there.

The kids enjoyed camping on the beach! If we had more time, we all would have loved to stay and explore for a few days.Â It is on our be-sure-to-stop-again list!

Driving Through Iowa

We were able to take just overÂ a week off for a mini vacation and family reunion in Colorado. We had a lot of fun!Â We left after work on Friday night and drove until very late, so we could enjoy a slower pace on Saturday.

We did not stop much until we saw the wind turbines in Iowa.Â Megan’s eyes got huge and she called them flowers.

While in Iowa we stopped at the “World’s Largest Truck stop”.Â If it had been earlier, I would have taken a picture of all the trucks lined up.Â It was a good touristy place to stop, but nothing special except for some really neat old trucks on display.

We visited a pony express cabin and reviewed some of the things we learned in history. The sod house museum nearby had just closed, so we unfortunately missed that.

The kids traveled very well. We enjoyed reading books and listening to stories on tape. The first full day flew by.

Audrey

Audrey likes to have her picture taken most of the time. She likes to help me come up with creative poses and to try new things.Â Since we were experimenting with black and white this time, not all of her creativity turned out.Â So here are the two best pictures from her photo shoot. Check out her favorite picture here.

Mark

Mark is going to be a Freshman this year.Â We are looking forward to starting high school, but we are also a little apprehensive about it. There is so much he needs to learn!

But he is excited that we are turning the focus more. We have been praying about what God has planned for Mark and will start moving toward that goal.

As we watch Mark turn into a man, we will give him time to practice skills men need to be providers. With Daddy’s help, he builtÂ raised gardens, but he filled and maintained the gardens mostly by himself this summer. He has outdoor chores that he loves doing. He has told me often he would rather be outside moving wood then working inside.

Mark will also have time to explore his different interests.Â We know that making time for hobbies is a good way to relax!