Full House

Sunday evening Kera, Andy and family arrived.  It was wonderful to see them again.  Miranda and Camden also arrived in the afternoon.  We had gone to a Marriage Workshop and missed their arrival.  So we had 7 adults and  12 children in the house!

Monday Kera, Miranda, Nathan, Aaron and I left early to pick blueberries.  They were the last of the season.  We worked hard checking out the bushes, but came home with LOTS!  10 gallons?   Kera made a delicious blueberry cobbler for FHE.  We froze quarts and quarts.  Camden loves blueberries and ate his share.  We still have a few in the frig. [Rylee and Camden with the berries.  Charlotte with the drink.]

The kids gravitated to the tree house and the zip line.  The swung on the horse-tire swing and played with the push toys and cars.  Rilee gave new meaning to the push toys.  She wanted to ride in the toy car and kept trying to push Charlotte out.  Unfortunately there was no door for Charlotte to go out on that side.  Rebecca and kids were a little under the weather on Monday—they thought perhaps from food eaten on the drive.  But as various other little kids picked up some kind of stomach germ through the week… it was likely something else.

 

[Callie on the zip line. Joshua on the zip line.  Emma on the swing.]

 

We celebrated Emma's birthday, then Andy left Monday evening to go to Joplin to look at a heat exchanger manufacturer for his nuclear power plant. With Andy gone we were down to 18 people in the house. 

One amazing thing is the amount of food needed and the time it takes to cook and clean up.  Rebecca did a masterful job of menu planning and the lion’s share of the cooking. We all pitched in to clean up and did some of the cooking as well.  Tuesday they went to the library and I made bread.  It had been such a long time since I made bread.  And a sweet friend came over to talk to me.  So I’m working on making bread and listening and talking…. And so it all went much slower than planned.  I’d wanted the bread to be ready by lunch.  Well, it was ready to rise by lunchtime.  I went with the out-to-lunch-bunch, so I don’t know what they did, but some of the loaves had disappeared by the time I got back home.

We’d talked of going to the lake on Wednesday, but the water was high and Cranfield beach was under water.  We thought we might have a pontoon boat we could use, but that was a no-go… and mostly okay with everyone.  It was HOT.  So Wednesday they met a few of the church friends with their children at the park. Dan left to start the drive to New Orleans when the family left for the park.  At the park, the kids fed the turtles and climbed the play equipment and had fun.  The moms chatted. 

  [Katie and family feeding turtles at the park.  Nathan and Charlotte on the slide.]    

 [And more playing at home.]

Tom had his bishopric meeting Wednesday night and was gone from about 3 to 11pm.  The Young Women were also having a blood drive and I guess he had a chance to talk to several other people as well.  When Andy walked in the door about 9pm, I thought it would be Dad… but he was later.

Tom finally burned the pile of brush, much to the kid's delight.  They watched from the truck. 

Part two of the week comes in the next post.