Sunday, June 28, 2009

I'm a week late with my Father's Day post. Is anyone surprised? ;)

I'm thankful most of all for my Heavenly Father. I fail over and over, I slip and slide and get distracted and absent-minded, I'm like a broken record saying "I'm sorry Father, please forgive me". But He doesn't get impatient or short-tempered with me. He loves me still!

I'm also thankful for the father of my children. :) He's a great Dad. The kids have no question about his love for them. Spending time with them, playing with them, teaching them things, praying with them.

He took Victoria to a Father/Daughter Gala earlier this spring. She's a daddy's girl and she felt so special going alone with him for the evening. They had a dance after the dinner and even though he 'doesn't dance' and thinks it's so 'Richard Gere', he asked her if she wanted to dance. Lucky for him, she was to self-conscious. :)
Cameron....
Victoria...
Kalei...
and Antoine.
And my own dear Dad. Catching his afternoon nap in the midst of all the action and noise when family is home for Sunday lunch. He has taught me more than I can even begin to tell you. I love you, Dad. From the bottom of my heart....

~ellen

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Sunday afternoon......with extended family at this lovely farm. It's my Uncle Paul's farm- they had a cow sale there on Saturday and thought with the tents still being up, (and yummy food left over!) that we should get together for Sunday lunch. Wonderful. Doubly wonderful if I don't have to cook! I won't embarrass myself with my lack of knowledge on cows and try to explain what a big time cow sale it really was. If you're interested, google Paul Yoder Cherry Kreek/Red Vision. They had free coffee, donuts, milk, chocolate milk, and soft serve ice cream. :)
Sitting around with the aunts and uncles and listening to stories and whatnot is always fun. And on occasion something will come up that totally gets them in stitches till they have tears running down their (the ladies) cheeks. You don't even have to know what's funny, but you'll soon be gasping for breath too just watching them. That I would love to capture on my camera!
Someone had lots to eat..... ;)
They had ice cream mix left over too, so we got to have more. What's better than soft ice cream? Free soft ice cream! I think the kids thought it was a bit of heaven, making their own ice-cream cones with ice cream from a machine. Little Miss got all smiley and pose-y when she saw the camera aimed at her.

Who can resist a teary baby? Tell me you didn't "aawww!" when you saw his tears?!
The buggy on the left goes back in my memory as far as it can go back. Alphie and Frannie's buggy. :) Playing in the back with my sisters and cousins. You could change the seats around and make them higher or lower and they were soft. Nicely padded. Pretending we were moms with our own babies.
The Gortner Airport is beside the farm.(or maybe it's on the farm? I'm not sure) Steve and Antoine and I climbed the lookout tower and I took a couple shots from up there. My legs are still complaining about that climb.... The steps were steep and a little rickety!

As I sit here typing, I can hear 'Spirit' playing in the livingroom. Only about the 50th time. My kids know those songs and the movie pretty much from beginning to end, but they were SO excited to watch it with their cousins who have never seen it. Not even ONCE. Can you IMAGINE?! Oh the dramatics of kids.... :) Ah, yes- and we have seven this week instead of four!

And I must write one more thing. Antoine got his first kiss from a girl who was not his sister. Right before my astounded eyes. In Sunday School. The little girl was extra bubbly that morning and while Antoine was talking, she bounced over and flung her arms around him and kissed him. He stopped talking and just looked at her for a split second then kept on talking. Never said a word about it then or later. May he remain indifferent to kisses from girls for years to come.....

~ellen

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Wildflowers. Picked by my honey, given to me. Means more to me than a dozen roses delivered by someone else.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Some of my family went to Miracle Mountain Ranch last weekend. Steve and I were both kinda' dreading the drive, but soon decided it was totally worth it and thought we need to go back next year and have the rest of the family go too. :) So those of you who weren't there, start planning!
Ella Mae pretending to be the secretary with a 'clackity' old typewriter...
We went on a trail ride. I wasn't allowed to take my camera on the horse, so this picture will have to do. None of us were to excited about the helmets and the ride got a little monotonous because we had to stay 'nose to tail' and not go faster than a walk. But it felt good to be on a horse again anyway- it's been years (I think!) since I rode. The little ones had pony rides. Victoria was old enough to ride a big horse and that made me terribly nervous! We couldn't double ride so she was by herself. But the ones in charge were quite sure she would do fine, so I swallowed my tongue and ignored my churning stomach. Of coarse she did great and is now more horsey than ever!
Another thing we did was a confidence course. The first one was made up of five stumps and three 2x4's. We had to get everyone from one end to the other by moving boards while on the stumps without falling off. And pretend we were 300 feet up. For some reason, this touched me...young man reaching out to help the 'older' man. After we got through each part of the course, our guides would talk a little and have a biblical application to what we had just done.
The Wall. We had to all get across here. It was to high to reach the top and there were no hand or foot holds.
And this one was walking on a cable. Everyone had to be on this cable before we could move around the tree (without touching the ground) to the next cable. Balancing that many people on the cable with two loose ropes to hold on to actually went pretty good. The next one got interesting- there was one rope to hold. Picture four or so people losing their balance, falling forward and backward hanging onto the rope for dear life!
Went on a nice long hike. Slogged through/around mud. The kids caught salamanders and picked flowers and collected pretty stones. We were all tired and hungry when we got back and they had a great meal ready for us at the Buckboard Cafe'.
A shot down the 'street'.
Caught Mom and Dad playing. :)

Cool antiques...
The kids painted dolls...
Lou Sterrett. This guy was amazing with his horse! We had a 'Sermon on the Mount'.
This was a different horse that he was working.
The kids all seemed to feel right at home with the cowboys/girls.

Another one from the stables. Victoria in paradise...
From there we went to Faith Builders to see where Lisa's been working. We were all quite tired, but some of us stayed up late drinking coffee and talking. Drinking coffee and talking makes me happy. :)
Sunday afternoon in the library. Steve with Ronald Reagan...
....Josiah and Cameron with Webster's Dictionary. And we won't talk about the pet tarantula on someone's desk. It was real. And alive. And hairy. And no, I did NOT take a picture of it!
And a studious Ruthann.

We putzed home with a jerky, stuttery van and lots of prayers that we'd make it home. Thank you to anyone else who prayed. We got home in one piece with no problems!

~ellen