July was so full for us! We started out traveling to Joplin, Missouri on June 30 and filled the week with miles, smiles, and people we love! We first went to Tim and Brenda's and had supper with them.
We played a game, and Piper was on Elizabeth's team!
Grandma and Charissa had a long talk.
We gave Piper her quilt!
The same evening, my high school friend came over and I gave her the quilt I made for her granddaughter, Emmalyne. When she presented it to her granddaughter, she sent me this picture. It looks like she liked it.
Later that evening, we went over to Brent and Darla Hulett's house to spend the night. They've recently moved to Joplin, and it had been quite awhile since we had seen them. Brent is Janet's cousin.
We had a nice visit and a yummy breakfast outside the next morning.
Our goodbye picture when we left and went back to Tim's house.
Back at Tim's, the kids and Aunt Elizabeth painted
while Brenda and Janet snapped beans from her garden.
After lunch, we drove down to Tulsa to spend some time with Emily.
We first went to Happy Hands because she was at work.
In Emily's classroom "Redbirds"
Out in the play area.
At Emily's apartment, we had taco salad with four of Emily's friends: two from church and two from Happy Hands. We had such a nice time visiting.
Her table will only hold four, so we used it for serving and ate in the living room.
At the end of the evening, we watched the sunset out Emily's bay window.
It was sure beautiful!
It was a wonderful evening. Rowen and I went home with MaryAnn, with whom we stayed with last year, and Emily stayed with after her first apartment's fire. Elizabeth stayed the night with Emily.
I took this picture of MaryAnn's beautiful back yard before we went back over to Emily's for breakfast.
We had a yummy breakfast, and then Emily took us to the Gathering Place.
There were many beautiful flowers and flowering trees there;
some of them were very interesting!
It was a beautiful place to walk.
In the Sensory Section, Emily and I cooperatively played
Jesus Loves Me on this wooden xylophone.
There was a maze of mirrors in that section too.
There were water features all over. Water was flowing in the trough behind us.
It's really a beautiful place to get steps in.
There are play areas for different ages.
Emily and Elizabeth enjoyed it.
After all the hot steamy fun, we hurried back to Emily's apartment and ate lunch,
then drove to our Airbnb in Little Flock, Arkansas.
We thought it was appropriate that there were chickens outside.
We kind of expected farm eggs in the refrigerator, but there weren't any.
Maybe the chickens didn't live there, but had free range in Little Flock.
Our favorite feature of the Airbnb was the hot tub, which we enjoyed much later,
after we returned from the Albertson wedding.
Daniel and Stormi Albertson's wedding in Bentonville was the next thing
after we changed clothes and ate at our Airbnb.
The wedding was about 20 minutes, but there were a couple hours of visiting with Albertson family we hadn't seen in awhile. (years!)
Tim and Brenda got to come, so we saw them again.
Also in this picture: Heather and Sharron Albertson
In this picture, Janet, Elizabeth, Lacey, Tommy, Rowen, Jenny (mother of the groom),
Sharron (grandma of the groom), Brenda, Tim
Celeste and Emily
Ben, Herb, Tim, and Brenda
Emily, Celeste, and Shirlene
Jeff Kazmaier (standing), Brenda, Elizabeth, Shirlene Kazmaier, Janet, Sharron, Rowen, Heather
Herb (father of the groom), Tim, Zeke (best man)
This picture adds in Jenny on the left, standing, and Abi on the right, standing.
Sharron and Heather.
Elizabeth, Shirlene, Emily, Janet
Jeff and Shirlene's family: Jeff, Shirlene, Jacob, Lacey, Tommy, Andy
Heather with her Kazmaier nephews
Andy, Shirlene, Sharron, and Jacob
Brenda, Shirlene, Tommy, Lacey, Celeste, Elizabeth, Emily
Jacob, Abi, Ben's family, Zachary, Andy
Rowen, Janet, Heather, Jeff, Tim, Herb
Daniel and Stormi
Herb and Jenny, Daniel and Stormi, and Stormi's parents
Daniel and Stormi, Lacey and Tommy Lindsly
Zachary, Celeste, Elizabeth, Jenny, and her brother Wesley
Waiting to get their sparklers lit for the send off!
I don't know if we got a picture when the bride and groom went between the sparklers, but this is what we looked like after they went through.
Last goodbyes with the Kazmaiers and Tim and Brenda
The next morning after breakfast, Emily went back to Tulsa by herself. She stopped along the way and did a hike to some waterfalls.
The rest of us drove to Salem, Missouri and had lunch with our Morley friends.
Amaris finished a picture for us. She has improved so much since we saw her last year.
She gave Elizabeth a goodbye hug. Elizabeth tries to give her a voice recording
every day, singing a hymn to encourage her.
Then we drove on to Columbia to Rex Scoles's house (Janet's daddy).
Marlene was over to visit awhile, and took us out to eat at McAllister's.
Prayer time at breakfast on July 4th.
We got to pray with Daddy four times while we were there! Such a privilege!
We went over to Lyndell and Sharen's for most of the day.
It was a mini-Scoles reunion, with Lyndell and Sharen's daughter, Amanda, husband, Michael, and kids: Micah, Silas, and Eleanor, Brenda and Charley with all their family: Rebekah, Leah, husband, Michael, and little boy Luca, Andrew, Marlene, Daddy, and us three.
Daddy, Elizabeth
Amanda, Eleanor, and Rebekah
Daddy (Grandpa) and Elizabeth
Andrew, Eleanor, Amanda, and Michael
Michael, Luca, and Leah
Janet, Marlene, Lyndell, Daddy, and Brenda (missing Sherry and Wesley)
Lyndell was telling us stories.
Amanda, Elizabeth, Andrew, Leah, Rebekah
Is this the only picture I got of Sharen, and it is just the back of her head?
Marlene had to work that night, so she didn't get to stay very long.
Rebekah and Elizabeth.
Rebekah gave Elizabeth valuable advice about overseas travel,
vaccinations, anti-malaria medicines..
Janet and Brenda
Leah, Luca, and Rebekah
Amanda and Rebekah
Eating 4th of July food!
Lyndell, Brenda, Marlene, Elizabeth, Janet, Rowen, and Daddy
Amanda, Andrew, Michael, Charley, Michael, and Leah
Rowen, Michael, Luca, Leah, and Sharen in the background.
Eleanor liked her corn!
Leah was helping Luca play in the water.
Micah and Silas are around there somewhere too. They were too busy for pictures.
Andrew brought guns, ammo, and targets. He taught the girls how to shoot.
About 4:00 in the afternoon, we went back to Daddy's house.
We had a walk and then put a puzzle together.
Our goodbye selfie the next morning.
We got back in "town" about 6:30 pm, and went by the Stetlers
to wish Darrell a happy 70th birthday!
They sweetly invited us for Sunday dinner the next day. Randy and Kim Staley,
and Kim's dad, Stanley Church were also there.
The next night we took Janet Sankey with us to a camp service over an hour away.
She told us lots of stories.
We had some dear friends for breakfast the next morning.
This little guy enjoyed the favorite children's book.
I took pictures of the choirs, but not the bands. There were over 200 campers!
We got to see Mary Matias!
We got to have the Casto family over for dinner on July 13.
We had a beautiful sunset on our walk that evening.
We went to Carthage Camp a couple nights that week.
zucchini muffins to Jason and visited with him a little bit.
(I should say that an interesting thing was revealed at the oncology visit, which was that my Guardant blood test, that is supposed to be like a liquid biopsy, showed that my cancer has mutated. This opened up the possibility of a few more medicines that could work. I started on new chemo pills on the 23rd, after all the arrangements were made with my insurance. So far, the side effects have been minimal, and today 8/1, my blood counts are staying good.)
We had an enjoyable evening with Stephen and Debbie Goodenow.
The 15th, I started a quilt for Josiah, our youngest grandson. It was a really fast quilt to complete!
The 20th, we had Kyle and Amy Weddle and their boys: Connor, Cameron, and Grayson, for dinner. They are in our Care and Connect group this quarter. We had a very nice visit with them.
The 21st and 22nd, I quilted and bound Josiah's quilt.
The finished quilt!
I made flannel baby blanket for a friend's daughter. It is not pieced, just quilted.
Elizabeth found out she is going on a missions trip to Liberia in August, where there is no washing machine or dryer, and it is in the 90s all the time. She bought some blouses that won't need ironing. I made modifications to them so she doesn't have to wear layers to be modest.
Harry Plank
On July 31, Rowen and I did a day trip. We drove to New Haven, Indiana, near Ft. Wayne in order to meet up with Randy and Joy and their family who were driving through there to go to a Johnston anniversary event and family vacation in Pennsylvania.
Mishael and I will celebrate our birthdays on August 24. So we got a picture together.
Mandy wanted a picture with me because we both had red on!
He has been so excited that his quilt was being made just for him!
James, Joy, Mandy, Randy, Josiah, Micah, Jonathan, Mishael, and Jewelyn.
