2024 Travels

 February 10, we traveled to Bedford, Indiana to visit Elizabeth and take her a skirt Janet had made for her.  Janet was using a walker at that point, and we never got the wheelchair out of the van while we were there.



During the spring we were home bound, except for occasional trips around the block or at a park, like this, with the wheelchair

However, the end of June, when Janet started walking with a cane, we made a trip to Missouri!  We stopped first in Salem, Missouri to see the Morley family.

Then on to Columbia, Missouri to Rex Scoles's house.
It was such a privilege to pray again with Daddy.

We went over to Marlene DeOrnellis's house too.

We went to Harmony Hill to a camp that was going on that Darrell Stetler was preaching at. 

Brenda and her family came over too, so we got to see them.
I grew up going to this camp ground, but it's gotten hotter than when I was young!
We saw Lori Owens too, as this was her camp meeting.

We got to see Leah's baby, Luca, whom we had never met.  

My oldest sister, Brenda, and me.

Andrew, Rebecca, Leah., Luca

The Scoles relatives who were there.

We said goodbye to Daddy and traveled to Joplin next.

At Joplin, we first visited Aunt Leona, in her assisted living apartment. She went to heaven late this year, so this was our last chance to see her alive.  She was in pain from a broken hip, but she was so sweet and glad to see us, and she told me she prayed for me every day.

We ate supper with Tim and Brenda's family,
and Emily surprised us and showed up at Tim's house!
We had not known we were going to see her, so we were very surprised!




We stayed the night there and drove home the next day.

Our next trip was in August when we went to Columbia again, to visit Daddy again, but to also get the furniture that was being given to Emily after her apartment fire. 
(I was walking without a cane by this time!)

On a walk close to Daddy's house.

Brenda came over to see us.

Marlene was over too.  She worked hard getting Emily's furniture loaded up.

We drove to Tim's for supper.  Randy, James, and Micah were in Joplin to get their work vans "wrapped" so we got to see them too.  We gave them all the quilts for their family that were ready.
A sweet picture of James having devotions and Piper joined him.
This shows Charissa's quilt on her bed.

Supper with Tim's family and Randy, James, and Micah
Elizabeth played Uno with Felix

Piper wanted to play a game on Grandma's phone.
We went on to Tulsa, and we stayed with Mary Ann, with whom Emily was staying until her new apartment was available.  She was such a blessing to Emily and also to us the whole weekend.
That Saturday, we moved Emily into her new apartment.  All the totes were things that were saved out of her apartment.  Everything in them was smokey, so there was a gang of people wiping every single thing with wipes to get rid of the smoke damage.
Some of the people who helped.  In the front is Pastor Seth Herring, and his daughters are beside and behind him.  The rest of the helpers were from Happy Hands.  The shortest little boy was in Emily's class last year.  Those brothers were hard workers!
It was a busy scene as everything got scrubbed and put somewhere.
These totes were all set on tarps to keep smoke off the carpet.
These was the pizza lunch scene.  There was a lot of signing going on, because some of Emily's co-workers are deaf, besides the little boy.
This is mostly her Happy Hands friends, except for the pastor's daughters and Elizabeth.
Tim and Brenda and family showed up later. 
He had to pick up his trailer that all the totes from the old apartment were in.

This was when they were getting ready to leave.
A picture of Emily with the key to her apartment!
We went to church with Emily in Ochelata, OK the next morning.  We were invited to her Pastor Herring's home for dinner.  

We played a game with the girls.

We played a game with the whole group.
It was a new game to us, but I don't remember the name of it.
That evening, we went to a church in Claremore, OK that was starting a deaf ministry, with interpreted services for Sunday evening.  Emily is wearing a t-shirt that shows she is part of the ministry.

Walking in to the front of the church.

We got to watch the Deaf Jesus Film in that service.  It was very impactful as all the actors are deaf, and there were closed-captions, but no words were spoken in the movie!
On Monday, Emily took us to the Chick-fil-A that she works at.  We got to meet several of her frequent guests, co-workers and managers.  Everyone really loves Emily there!
Saying good-bye so we could travel back.  We actually had to go back to Columbia to get a luggage item that got left behind.  Our van was so packed with the things for Emily's apartment, that there hadn't been room for it, even if we hadn't forgotten it!

Our next trip was early September.  We went to western Pennsylvania for a wedding of two friends:  Agape Blowers and Delbert Howard III.  We stayed in a comfortable airbnb.

Agape coming down the aisle with her adopted grandpa.
Delby waiting for his bride.

Agape sang to Delby.

The beautiful cake table at the reception.

The Bride's table

Elizabeth enjoys her friendship with Agape.

The bride and groom are now missionaries in Brazil.

We had a little trip away for our 41st anniversary, October 17-19 to Red River Gorge area in Kentucky.  We stayed at a very nice airbnb.
We ate at a park in a nice little town on the way.

Our airbnb was very close to the entrance to this Nada Tunnel at the edge of Red River Gorge.  A wedding party emerged from the opening after we had waited a while.  We didn't know if the wedding took place in there, or just pictures of the party.

Inside the tunnel

We rode a skylift to go to the top of Natural Bridge.  It was about a 20 minute ride.  It would have been a 2 hour hike, but Janet wasn't up to it.  :)


Way over there in the middle of the range that is showing, is the Natural Bridge.  We walked across it, and then took an easy hike to this place where we could see it in the distance.
Closer view of the Natural Bridge

Our shadows on the way back down.

We ate outside on our little deck.  Not pictured is the hot tub, behind Rowen,
which we enjoyed both evenings.

We did some audio recordings for our kids while we were away.

We went to a nice Mexican restaurant for our anniversary meal out.
The little table we ate at in the airbnb.

An interesting old barn we passed many times on our trips to and from the airbnb.
Rowen on the couch in our room with the Natural Bridge picture.
When we left, we went on down to Jackson, Kentucky
to see our friend Seth Stevenson for a little while.
That's it for our travels in 2024!  We did not know that we would travel at all this year, and God blessed us with these fun and safe trips.  We are so grateful!