The Archers

As we made our way to North Carolina and my parents house, we stopped in Fort Campbell, Kentucky and visited my sister's family. Carole's husband Chris is a chaplain in the Army. The day after we visited them the movers came to pack up their belongings and move them to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. They followed us a few days later to North Carolina for our parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration.

Below Uncle Chris is showing us how to climb the rope.

Anna and Joshua were like little monkeys as they climbed the ropes with no problem.

My little monkeys scampered up this tree in the exercise yard (I doubt the soldiers usually climb the trees after their workouts.

Lorentzens in Indiana

Before we left Alaska Madison and Amanda Lorentzen came with their Dad John to Nondalton and played and sang for us. 7,000 miles later we visited John's sister in Scottsdale Indiana. We enjoyed a Sabbath meal with them and then they played for us (musical talent runs strong in the Lorentzen family). Tim Lorentzen works for Water for Life and it was neat to hear how God is using their ministry to provide water for small villages around the world. WaterForTheWorld.com

Jasper is on the bass, Zion the fiddle and Tim's playing the guitar. OldHatMusic.com

Prayer Request

It's the 25th of June and although I am way behind in my blogging of the trip, we are now in South Dakota and we are making our way back to Alaska. Back in Nondalton on Sunday our good friend Lavonne's step-father Tom Green died of cancer. Please pray for Lavonne and her son Josh as they struggle with their loss. They desire to be a strong witness to their family, pray that God will use them to bring their family to Christ.

Creation Museum

We spent a day at the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio. We had a great time. All of the displays and programs were so well done that Paul and I found them interesting and informative while the kids were totally entertained by them.

If you have never studied creation theories that use a young earth model, I challenge you to go to the answersingenesis.org website. Click on "Get Answers" and there will be a list of topics to chose from. Most people have never studied any young earth theories because they are not usually presented in school. If you take some time and really study some of the theories that model a young earth you find that there is more evidence to support them than the evidence given for old earth theories.

The kids especially loved the petting zoo.

Of course, my kids are easily amused... They kept their hands very clean at the fancy hand washing sink.

David and Benjamin couldn't resist one more squirt of the hand antiseptic on the way out of the petting zoo.

Lake Michigan and Mackinac Bridge

On Quentin's birthday we started at the border of Wisconsin and Michigan up on the Upper Peninsula. We stopped at a state park and ate lunch. Sarah Benjamin

By the time we got to the Mackinac Bridge it was raining and foggy. It poured heavy rain the whole way down to Toledo Ohio.

Quentin's Birthday

Quentin turned 12 on the 27th of May. We spent the day traveling across the upper peninsula of Michigan across the Mackinac bridge and then down the length of Michigan. We got to Toledo, Ohio in time to have cake and ice cream at my Uncle George and Aunt Darla's house.

Quentin is an awesome son! At the tender age of 12 he is already a man's man. He shot his first caribou when he was 8 after Paul had wounded it. He got his first solo caribou when he was 10. He is becoming a very good mechanic and he has a very sweet spirit. Besides all that he can cook, clean, and do laundry!

My Uncle Charlie brought his Model T down to give the kids rides. They thought it was really cool. John my cousin Jeff's son is holding Sarah.
Paul, my Uncle Charlie and my Uncle George are loooking at the model T my Uncle George is restoring.

My cousin Jeff's daughter Samantha is taking a quiz with my Aunt Darla's smart globe.
We spent the night in the Walmart parking lot the night before Quentin's birthday. For his birthday he got to go in and help pick out his present. He got a remote control helicopter. It turned out to be a great gift because he can fly it in the motor home as we are driving providing hours of fun on the road.
We stopped for lunch beside Lake Michigan. We almost lost the helicopter to the lake. It's kind of hard to steer. Paul is catching it below.

Trip Note: I am way behind in my blogging. We got to the beach yesterday June 13th. We are having fun!

Meeting the Travises

God has a cool way of connecting believers... We have gotten to know a family in Israel through a magazine article that just struck a note in our Spirits.  Through them we got to know another family living in Israel, and they just happened to be visiting their family in the States while we were traveling from North Dakota to North Carolina.  Mike and Mary Travis are from the Eau Claire area which we passed right by on the way to North Carolina.  We met them and their two daughters at McDonalds.  We sat talking while the kids played in the play place and then we went to Mary's parents house and continued talking.  I think we could've talked for days but Mike was leaving with his sons Jonathan and Ben on a canoeing trip the next morning.  We pulled ourselves away so Mike could finish varnishing his canoe paddle.

The kids had fun playing.

Mickie and Carmen Travis took the kids to a park nearby Mary's mom's house so they could play some more.

Last Day in North Dakota

We left North Dakota for North Carolina on Monday morning the 25th of May.  The day before we went to church in Finley and stopped by the Ehmer's on the way home.  The have a robin's nest in a tree in their front yard and I got a nice picture of the babys.

Momma robin is watching us from the roof top.

We also stopped by Darren and Deanna Meyers on our way home from church.   Their kids Caleb and Camille are another example of how the kids have grown since we saw them last.  Caleb was about the height of Camille the last time we saw them and now he's taller than his dad!

Abigail, Camille and Deborah

When we lived in North Dakota we lived a mile south of Paul's Mom Effie.  She often cooked us pancakes for supper.  The kids have fond memories of eating Grandama's pancakes.  She made them for us again the night before we headed out for North Carolina.

Eric's Graduation

Paul's sister's son Eric graduated from high school and we went up for his graduation celebration.  

Congratulations Eric!

We had a great time visiting with Paul's Aunts and Uncles.

Grandma Effie with her three sisters Julie, Marie and Ruthie.

Benjamin's sitting in my lap enjoying the punch, lots of punch...

Paul visiting with Uncle Loren and Aunt Ruthie.

Paul and his Uncle Wendell.

Tennis & Golf

We spent a day hanging out in Hope, ND, Paul's home town.  We played at the playground and the tennis court and ran into old friends while enjoying ice cream at the drive-in.

Paul can fix anything and when we arrived at the tennis court the net was unusable.  All it took were several zip ties, a few repairs and a little oil for the winch and Paul had the net in good shape.

Children are a blessing from the Lord.  Paul and I discovered another good reason that many children are a blessing.  At our age and conditioning and overall lack of tennis ability, having 9 ball boys (and girls) made playing way more fun.  It took a little training but the kids were quick to pick up on it.  Below Paul is demonstrating to Caleb how the professional ball boys do it.

We also went out to the Hope golf course one afternoon.  The kids had fond memories of playing there before, even though we'd only played a few times.  We have some good pictures of them playing as young kids and they remember quite well everything we have pictures of.  When we 1st played five years ago the greens were mostly all sand greens.  They've done a lot of work improving it and now all of the greens are real grass and very nice.  Paul's cousins Nick & Barry each loaned us their golf carts for the afternoon.

  

What Joshua lacks in form and technique, he more than makes up for in style with those cool shades.



The ball washer attached to Barry's golf cart was a big hit with the kids.  Our balls and club heads stayed very clean!