Birthdays and Solar Eclipse and Prom

The weekend after Phillip and I were in Florida, Jamie and Christy (our preacher and wife) were in Florida for a family member's funeral and went to church with Jonathan. How neat that Jon got to see some more home faces! 

I love this picture because it's MMT versus Advance. Jamie is starting MMT and Kemper will be one of the first students. Jim Book started Advance and Jon is one of their first(ish) students. 😄 They're both doing good work in different parts of the country. 

We were going to chase the totality of the solar eclipse, but everywhere that was remotely close was calling for partly cloudy. I just didn't want to drive 2-3 hours with a chance that we wouldn't be able to watch it. So we stayed home with clear skies and saw 95% totality.  We could tell definitely that it got cooler. I'm not sure we noticed a difference in the nature noise though. 

Phoebe turned 18! Unfortunately she had the ACT's on her birthday, so we had to celebrate on other days. We had pound cake with Mimi and Papa for Sunday lunch.

Harrison attacked her with water guns, and goaded her into a long water gun fight. We did have some really warm weather that day.

Planting has started! So fun to watch. Love it.

They're still out there planting in the sunset.

We had the weirdest storm come through last Thursday. Harrison and I were driving home from town and saw what I thought was a really low, wide cloud on the ground. Then I thought it was smoke, but it covered a huge area as if it were a prairie fire. I finally realized it was just dirt being whipped up into the air. We got home to find one of our tree trunks down and lots of wind. It passed fairly quickly and we got a little rain. Some people got lots of hail. Some people said they saw tornadoes. We had a thick layer of dirt on our front and back porch. But I think everyone weathered it without much damage.

Phillip got a Massey-Ferguson 165! 

Katelyn invited Phoebe to prom again, and Phoebe enjoyed all the prep and primping.

She found her dress online again. I thought it had a 1920's look to it. Especially with the beads. I love the embroidered flowers on it. (Actual flowers given to her by Ainsley for her birthday.)

It was cold again this year, so she wore my blue jean jacket.

Pics by Sutton

Phoebe and Katelyn.

Pics by Sutton

Jayden, Joe, Kemper, Ainsley, Katelyn, Phoebe.

Waiting for promenade at Van-Far high school.

Elayne cooked lunch for Sunday dinner for my birthday. She made a delicious lemon layered dessert. 

I need to get pictures of the dutch oven they gave me as part of my gift. I'm seasoning it in the oven right now.

Part of Phoebe's birthday with friends was touring Rockcliffe Mansion in Hannibal. It was finished in 1900 and is a sort of Art Nuevo style. It cost about $250,000 for the building and furnishings and such. (The inflation calculator tells me that would be over $9 million today.) The architect who built it also built the governor's house in Jefferson City and the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis. 

I loved the embroidered flowers on these curtains.

This is a reproduction of a Raphael Madonna. There were a lot of paintings in the home, but I didn't know the artists. That's a little statue of Pan on the side.

Mr. Cruikshank was a lumber guy in Hannibal. He apparently was a very successful lumber guy, because he spent a lot of money on his wife and daughters! He actually had a house moved (a large house too) so that he could build the mansion on this certain spot that had a beautiful view of the town. We noted how short the beds were and the guide told us Mr. Cruikshank was the tallest of his family at 5'3''. His wife was 4'9''!!

We ate at the Mark Twain Dinette for lunch. Best fried green tomatoes! 

Ainsley, Bryn, Gabry, Kenna, me, Phoebe, Katelyn.

We walked around downtown Hannibal. The girls enjoying some record browsing.

 

Visiting Jon for Easter

When Jonathan made the decision to go to Florida for ministry training at Advance, we just knew we'd have to visit him (and the beach) sometime around the cold temps of Missouri. Phillip and I flew down for five days and the dates happened to work out for Easter.

It was a stressful trip, no doubt about it. Stormy plane landings (motion sickness ensues), car towed (the towing-est place I've ever seen!), driving in traffic in a vehicle you're unused to on highways you don't know..... 

But, it was also warm and wonderful to see the place Jon has settled into and meet so many faces he has talked about.

We attended one of Jon's classes with him and were very pleased with the scholarship and content. We got to talk a little with the director Travis and the visiting professor. We also met Mrs. Norma and Mrs. Glorimar who live in the duplexes where Jon lives. They take care of him and he takes care of them. Especially Mrs. Norma who is 97! He reads his Church History book to her out on the porch swing, and she enjoys it immensely.

From class Phillip and I headed to Daytona Beach for a couple of days. We did not spend a lot of time on the beach, but the hotel was lovely with onsite restaurant and coffee. Our room was on the first floor and we had a cabana so we would walk right outside to the pool and the beach and keep our door open to hear the ocean. It was a relaxed time to be together. I got a pedicure. 💖

I did get up in time for the sunrise our last morning. 

I had a beautiful walk down the beach and enjoyed all the different birds in Florida. Shorebirds are so quick and funny.

Very good barbecue on the way back to Kissimmee: Colt's Pig Stand. And later with Jon we ate at 4 Rivers Smokehouse, another we can highly recommend.

We met Jon at his duplex and hung out a little while.

After pizza, we walked down Kissimmee Mainstreet and saw all the shops and whatnots.

Sunday was Easter! I have to say that it's hard to be in the right frame of mind for Resurrection Sunday when you've been traveling. Nothing feels right, at least to me. But we heard an excellent sermon from Jim Book and enjoyed being with Jon on this day. 

Jonathan was teaching the young adult Sunday school class, so we got to sit in and hear him. He did a great job covering the evidences that Jesus actually did die (refuting those who say that he just fainted and came back to life and so never rose from the dead ~ the Swoon Theory). He's part of a great class here. They have a lot of fun, you can tell. 

More of the young adult class.

Jonathan and I went to several parks. He knows how to find the good stuff. They were lovely walks. We saw and heard so many birds! Saw a couple of alligators.

At this park there were a pair of sandhill cranes and their two chicks. They ignored us and continued to hunt for food. Their chicks are brown and blend in so well with the grasses.

Hanging out at Starbucks.

Phoebe and Harrison held down the fort back home. Unfortunately Phoebe got sick, so they didn't get to do much that was fun. Phoebe was the cook though and she kept them fed. Mimi and Papa took them out for Easter lunch, which is wonderful since we couldn't be here. I prepared a scavenger hunt for them to find their Easter treats. Wasn't sure if it would be a dud, but they both said they enjoyed it. We sure missed them!

Amos and Lanaya Elizabeth sent us their Easter picture from their church backdrop which she helped put together. I love her dress.

Lanaya also has her art work set up at the coffee shop she works at. There are three locations and each location displays her work for a month. She's sold several pieces already.

We are back home! I think we're almost caught up on sleep and relaxing back into normal life. So happy to see Jon. We'll see him again when he's back home for the summer.