Rebecca and family drove to Andy's Monday afternoon for a short visit. In the morning, Rebecca and I did a walk through of her two rental homes with the property manager. No big problems, but did find some items that need to be addressed. With their departure, it was interestingly quiet. In the evening, we drove to Buffalo City, on the White River where we were met by Bill Friend who gave us a two hour ride in his boat on the river. It was an amazing tour; we saw eagles, herons, beautiful scenery and a lot of river fog. The river has a lot of secrets and Bill shared many of those with us. Due to heavy rains, the Bull Shoals Lake is releasing a lot of water; therefore the river level was extremely high.
Tuesday morning, Cynthia and Jim drove to the airport and flew home. It was just Sandy and I until Wednesday when Rebecca returned. I kept busy with the garden, house chores and such. One good sister from church brought her adult daughter over Tuesday evening to help make beds in preparation for additional family visits. They even brought Chinese food to share with us for dinner. We feel loved.
Wednesday Rebecca and daughters returned with Aaron and we got things ready for Adam's family possible arrival later that night. There were due in at Springfield at 1134 pm. We were concerned since they only had a 41 minute layover in Denver. They were 20 minutes late landing, but still managed to catch their next flight. But only because the flight attendant on the arriving flight asked that everyone remain seated until those in the back (Adam with Liza) could exit and the departure attendant scanned all the tickets even though not all the family was at the gate. That way the plane could not close the doors without all the passengers. They did arrive in Springfield, picked up a rental van and drove to our house, arriving about 230 am. I did not wait up for them.
Thursday, Rebecca and family drove to Branson to go to White Water and meet up with Jonathan's family. Rain storms closed the park after a couple of hours and she was 'forced' to take her daughters to Golden Corral. While they were gone, we enjoyed the Oregon Foxes and getting reacquainted. Then Miranda showed up with her four. We had 19 in the house by day's end.
Deborah and children left early Friday morning to join us for the day. Good friend Wendy came to play the piano for the musical number that Mom likes (and wants sung at her funeral service - which we hope is in the very distant future) and we had a fun time singing and visiting. Her husband finished the stairs so now we have an official front door entrance. Best of all, it is of composite material and does not need to be stained!
In the afternoon, all the children ran off to Vela's house to go swimming. Adam was able to surprise her. And a most wonderful time was enjoyed by all. Deborah and her six returned home after dinner.
But Andy and family joined us early Saturday for the day. Andy was helpful in installing a new kitchen sink faucet and helping replace some bad decking at the neighbor's house. Kera went shopping for appropriate vegetation to plant in the new flower bed at the base of the stairs. She did an amazing job!
We enjoyed a delicious meal of sloppy joes and then Andy headed home with his children. Try feeding 25 people.
Just prior to their departure, we did several photo ops and for one, I asked several of the children to climb one of the trees for a picture. Unfortunately, a branch supporting two of them broke and they had an unexpected 5 foot fall. Only some cuts and scratches fortunately.
Today was our ward conference. Good sacrament meeting; our bishop shared his story of gaining a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; it was and continues to be a progressive thing. The second hour we spent visiting with a member of the stake presidency; they want us to know they are praying for us and appreciate our past service. Here is another photo after church:
Monday will be a sad day. Rebecca and Adam's families will be leaving. However, Sue and Steve will be here this week for a few days this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment