50th Anniversary Celebration

My Uncle Jim and Aunt Sharon were married 50 years ago. This is my Dad's sister. I was the flower girl in their wedding.

My cousins Kevin and Deborah.

Kids, spouses and children! Kevin and his wife have 6 children, 5 boys and 1 girl. The little girl in a black and blue top was adopted from Guatemala. Deborah has two children, 1 girl and 1 boy. The little girl is one month older than Kennedy.

Kennedy made friends with my cousin Keven's little girl Isabella. She is 7 years old and Kennedy is nearly as tall as she is!

Kevin's wife, Kelly took all of these photos. She is a photographer. She graciously shared the photos with the family. I love this picture of Barbara (my stepmother) with Korin.

Kashton wanted a balloon so I got one for him. my cousin Deborah's little boy, Josiah is a year older than Kashton and he had a balloon too but he kept stealing Kashton's. I think this is why you see this look!

Here's a few more photos from the family celebration the night before. I'm wearing a red sweater on the left of the photo. My hair is the give away!

Showing Vanessa their wedding album with a picture of me as the flower girl.

It was a great time! I'm really glad I made the trip.

Time at Dad's

After time with family on Friday night (Nov 14th) we load up in the car and drive one more time to Dad's where we stay until Sunday. Since we drove for 2 days we took some time to relax. The Anniversary Celebration wasn't until 2:30pm that afternoon so we had a little time to relax. It was very cold...upper 20's. Dad wanted to get his walking in and I said I would go with him. He walks 3 miles a day.

While we were walking it began to snow!

I wanted to show the kids the corn field and get some pictures too.

Kashton wasn't too thrilled with being "in the corn field".

Playing in the snow flurries.













snow is beginning to accumulate by the machine shop.

Grandpa helps Kennedy get a couple of ears.



















Kennedy is proud of her "ears of corn".

But she is willing to share with bubba. He tried to eat his corn!



















Grandpa took them inside the shop to see the tractor. It was too big for Kashton and he didn't want anything to do with it. He was however willing to climb on Grandpa's lawn tractor!

Dad plays with Kashton.

Kashton loves Korin. He loves on her often. I just can't seem to get a picture when he does it!



Time to get ready for the big celebration. I'll blog about that next time.

Have a good one!

On the Road Again

After being home 5 days since my trip to California I hit the road again. This time I head the opposite direction and chose a car as my transportation. My destination...Liberty, Missouri for a 50th Wedding Anniversary of my Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Sharon. This is my Dad's sister.

I had known about this for a couple of months but I hadn't planned on going as I knew I was going to California. I just didn't think I could be gone again that soon. The closer to time it got the more I wrestled with trying to go. I finally decided I just needed to do it. I made that decision the week before I left for California. (Nothing like waiting until almost the last minute!)

I was originally planning to go by myself and make connections with my Uncle Philip (my Dad's brother) who lives in Tulsa to ride the rest of the way with them. Then I decided that even if I thought it was a long shot to at least let Vanessa know I was going and see if she might want to go with me. It was a good thing I did as she said yes!

We made our plans and left town Thursday with 3 small children on a road trip! A private celebration with family was planned for Friday night then the main celebration would be on Saturday.  The plan was to drive to Tulsa and spend the night (about 5 hrs). It's about halfway to where we were going. Then drive on to Missouri the next morning. Our trip was not without adventure! Even though I had thought I had planned ahead enough we ran out of coins for the toll both at the last place we exited to get much needed gas! Then the car wouldn't start! Thankfully it was a fairly busy place and we got someone to jump us off! We finally make it to Tulsa for the night.

The next day (Friday) we load up after breakfast and hit the road. Vanessa wanted to drive as long as the kids would sleep (specifically Kashton and Korin). Needless to say we didn't stop for lunch until almost 2:30pm. We still had about 2 hours ahead of us. We tried to find a place with a playground. Usually McDonald's right?! Not this time. We get inside and no playground. Ugh! We eat anyway and I walked the kids around the restaurant as it's too cold to walk outside.

We get on the road again and about 5 or 10 minutes into the drive Kashton starts throwing up! I had to quickly find an exit off the interstate so we could get him changed!

Back on the road again we make it to Liberty. My Uncle Philip and Aunt Mary Ann had gotten a hotel room for the night and offered to let us hang out until the party as there wasn't enough time to go to my dad's.

Kashton and Kennedy had great fun roaming around the lobby area. The hotel had a neat water feature that changed colors.  The kids loved it!

Kennedy wanted her background to be pink.

Can you see Kashton on the other side?

Sweet Korin hanging out in the room with the others.

Kennedy has someone's phone and Korin is just watching.

Less than 24 hrs and Kashton bonds with Uncle Philip.

I am so glad I made the private family celebration. Almost everyone was there! All of my dad's siblings were there. We were only missing some of the kids and hardly any of them came to the Saturday function.

L to R Alan, Warren (Dad), Beverly (sitting), Sharon and Philip. Photo taken by Sharon's daughter-in-law Kelly Griffey.

Here is the whole group! Kelly is the one on the left kneeling with the dark shirt on and blonde hair. Don't ask me to identify all these people because I can't!

Here is siblings with spouses.
L to R Alan, Lyndie, Warren, Barbara, Bill (in yellow shirt) right behind Beverly, Sharon, Jimmy, Mary Ann and Philip.

We had a great time. My cousin Deborah (Jim and Sharon's daughter) came up with a game similar to the "newlyweds". They did really good. This picture they were asked where was their first kiss. Jimmy writes "back seat of the car" and Sharon wrote "in the car". We all had many a good laugh.

Toward the end of the evening my other cousin and Deborah's brother, Kevin led us in some worship songs. It was a sweet and precious time.



I'll share more in another blog.

Have a good one!

My Sweet Babies!

I was in California for a week so I was definitely missing my grandbabies! Kennedy and I talked on the phone and skyped while I was gone which helped.

Korin is 7weeks old!

Kennedy loves her sister!

Kennedy's cousin Krystal was with them when they came over. Krystal wanted her turn to hold Korin.

This is a poor quality photo but I love it all the same! It's the only one I had of Kashton in it!

This one just cracks me up! I was trying to take a selfie but my arms just aren't long enough!

What's not to love about this little guy!

Kennedy saw a card I was making and wanted to do the same. Here she is applying glitter glue.






Have a good one!

I'm a Travelin (wo)Man Part 2

The Leadership Advance began Wednesday night. For a couple of years I've been watching videos of messages and worship from Bethel. It was so neat to actually be in the very place I had seen on video and worshiping
right in front of the platform! These people are my heroes of the faith!

There were about 2,000 people there from all over the world. I don't know how to describe it but it was very cool!

 My favorite part was the worship! I could so feel God's presence! It was powerful!

Pastor Kirk got this picture of me. His caption for this picture is "the worship animal arises"! Made me smile!





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Danny Silk a leader at Bethel Church.

Worship leaders Brian and Jenn Johnson.

Bill Johnson

I didn't have a lot of time to explore but one morning I took about an hour to get some pictures. Bethel Church sets on a hill.

All along the road leading to the church there are flag poles with flags of different countries. It was pretty impressive!











View from the top looking back down the road

You can see Mt. Shasta in the distance snow capped.

A closer view of Mt. Shasta.

The Alabaster House (house of prayer) not far from the church.

Looking from the Alabaster House toward Bethel Church.

This beautiful pool of water is behind the house of prayer. It is called the "pool of Bethesda"

It is a very beautiful and peaceful place.


Have a good one!