A few I didn't want to miss!

One more photo at the campfire Saturday night.

David and Kelsea's visit to his Evan's house friend, Judy, and her husband in Hudson, WI. They had a wonderful visit.

Joseph at the UofM
Boys on our way home from Ashland after a very busy and fun week. Now, into a quiet? NO! very busy, getting-ready-for-school week. In fact, the end of the week is Welcome Week at Bethel for Esther! But we have had a WONDERFUL time having David and Kelsea here! They plan to return here for the night next Sunday and then to catch the megabus back to Chicago, where they will spend a little time alone before flying back home to Cambridge.

Singing hymns around the fire

We just got home today (Sunday) from visiting the Colgroves, bringing David and Kelsea there so they can now spend a week at Kelsea's home. Kelsea's Grandma, Jean, came for supper, and it was wonderful to see her again. After supper we drove over to get icecream at the dairy where Dad and I used to go 25 years ago with Baby Ruth. It was dark out, but I was amazed that it had hardly changed at all from my memory of it!

After icecream we all went out and sang around the campfire.

More photos of David and Kelsea's visit

See Esther get that 1 pin!

We did end up going bowling at Memory Lanes and after about an hour got to bowl in the flashing blacklights!

We all went out and had our fill of rootbeer at 4-Seasons before going out to bowl.

U of M visit

We went to the U of M to go bowling. It ended up that it was closed, but it was well worth the stop there to see the absolutely beautiful Black-eyed Susan's all over the place!

More pictures!

This is Esther in my dad's old rock garden.
This is David and Kelsea opening the family tree cross-stitch that Rebecca finished for them as a wedding gift.
This is the crocheted afghan that Esther finished while we were at Joan's house. She entered it into the State Fair.
Here are David and Kelsea on our trip to Perham.

our trip to Perham

We visited the graveyard where my parents were buried in 2003 and 2004.

Then we spent a long time in the graveyard. We looked and eventually found the graves of my grandparents and great-grandparents on my dad's side. I also noticed many, many graves of people I used to know. It was strange to think that older people that were not that old when I used to live in Perham were now gone. The whole time there was very thought-provoking and meaningful.

Visiting Perham

When David and Kelsea were here with us last week, we did some memorable things. We went to Perham to visit Joan, and stopped first to show Kelsea the home I grew up in my whole life. It is definitely run down without dad being there to keep it so nice, yet it was good to see the big yard I used to mow, and all the beautiful green grass I used to lie down and sleep in. David and Kelsea imagine adventure as they look at the faded painting of my dad's on the garage door.


David took an action shot of us in the rock garden in the back yard. The house is owned and rented out by my nephew Chris Fudge, so I figured it was still fine for me to be there. It sure felt fine! But if the renters were home, they might have thought we were a little weird. I didn't care too much. I feel like it still belongs to me at least a little.

A few more pictures!

Alongside the garage are the little shoots I couldn't throw away when thinning.

And here's the nicest one! Timothy taking a little snuggle time before we took our group photo with Dan and Sarah.

Fun time with Dan and Sarah Eberle

We had a very wonderful time meeting and visiting with missionary couple Dan and Sarah Eberle who were traveling back from a 9-week linguistics training time in North Dakota, returning to home in Baltimore, MD. They spent the night Sunday, so we were able to have supper on Sunday and breakfast together before they left just half an hour ago. It was again amazing to me the fast connection with others of the family of God.

Now some confirming pictures of the beautiful zinnias that I had hoped would bloom by the time Kelsea and David got here! I can't say they look as pretty on the pictures as in real life, but they give you an idea.

Daniel and Timothy had fun building a fort yesterday in the guest room (notice the new paint job by Rebecca!) I saw them carrying huge piles of pillows past me in the kitchen, so I knew something was up. When I got in bed last night my favorite floppy pillow was missing. The one I always sleep with. Well, I was too tired to go all the way down to get it. And I ended up sleeping very well with a different one.

We are now enjoying tomatoes! It is always fun to just go to the window to get a fresh tomatoe! Two days ago a big wind came through and knocked over the Roma tomatoe plant. 8 tomatoes broke off, and only 2 of them were orange:(

And yes, the zinnias are now blooming!

Here is a picture of Esther and some of the friends she made at piano camp at Northwestern College last week. We went to a short recital in which Esther played very beautifully.

Below you will see some pictures of Joseph and Esther relaxing down by White Bear Lake (a very common place to find them). You can see how desolate the Lake has become. Joseph is standing about 20 feet from where the lake used to be! Even at night when Dad and I do our walks it looks pretty sad.

More to come!