First Birthday

Olive's First Birthday is today.  Olive is my daughter's second daughter.  The party theme was Apples and held last Saturday.  My daughter decorated these beautiful cookies (notice a bite is out of the cookies) and made a small apple cake for Olive's first cake.

Olive is enjoying her first cake.  The red icing was everywhere!  She wasn't sure about taking a bite at first but after the first bite, she really enjoyed it.

Big sister, Cora, had a great day too at Olive's party.  She helped her eat her cake and open her presents!

Antique/Golf Outing, Part 2

This year's outing, we not only went to antique stores and golfed, but also visited springs and mills.  The picture to the left is Blue Springs near Eminence Missouri.  We took a trail back to the springs and they were beautiful and yes, very blue.  The mill to the right is Hodgson Mill near Gainesville Missouri.  Very picturesque.

The following are a few pictures from the golf part of the trip. My husband fit in two golf games, one 9-hole game and one 18-hole game.  We walked the 9-hole game in the late afternoon and then he played 18 the next morning.  I drove the cart and kept score.  I'm pretty good at that!

We had a great trip and really enjoyed being together.  Now to start thinking about where we should go next year.

Antique/Golf Outing, Part I

My husband and I take an Annual "Empty Nest" trip which consists of antiquing (what I love) and golfing (what he loves).  This year we went to Southcentral part of the state.  Beautiful ozark area.  Our first stop was this fun ol' time store in Caledonia.  They had over 200 candy choices on the main level and antiques on the upper level.

Our next stop was a quaint antique shop across the street from the candy shop.  I found a really pretty glass cake plate.  I would like to visit this city again.

Not only did we antique and golf on our trip but also visited some beautiful parks and springs.  The next place was Johnson Shut-Ins.  Several years ago, this park was totally devastated after more than a billion gallons of water from a breach of a reservoir occurred.  I grew up visiting this park and always loved it.  We were so glad to see the park reopened and the shut-ins intact.  Follow this link for mre information:   "New" Johnson's Shut Ins State Park incorprates changes caused by breach."

This park is always so much fun to swim down the cascading falls between the rocks.  Also, it is in a beautiful location.

The last picture shows some of the antique shops we stopped at in Willow Springs and West Plains.  My husband found several cow bells and old gas cans, but I didn't find too many things that I couldn't live without!  It still was a great time and I saw many items that reminded me of my grandparents and times gone by.

Friends at the Fair

I went back to the State Fair the next day with friends.  We had a good time checking out all the booths, looking at the cows and horses, and watching a draft horse competition.

That evening we went to the Sheryl Crow concert.  She is a Missouri girl and one of our friends grew up in the same city and knows her and her family.  It was a beautiful evening and a great concert.  Fun time with friends.

State Fair

My husband works at the State Fair every year.  Many weeks of work prior to the fair and then two weeks at the fair every day.  Our daughter and family along with myself went up for a visit.  This is Olive checking out Papa's beautiful gardens.

Cora is visiting with Otto, the talking car.  She's not quite sure about Otto.  Papa couldn't get her to talk very much.  Maybe next year she'll like him better!

Olive is resting after a long day at the fair.  She was a trooper though.  She enjoyed seeing all of the sites around the fair.

Cora went to the midway and drove a car!  She was so happy.  The State Fair is a very fun place to be! Everyone had a great day.

Safari Collage

This is a collage of some of the animals we saw while on safari.  One of the cutest pictures is that of the baby elephant.  Many of these animals were within 6 feet of our vehicle.  It was amazing.

My last story related to my trip to Kenya is that I actually became fairly ill the last part of the trip.  My throat was really bad and then my stomach felt really bad.  My son took most of these pictures while we were on the safari because I really was not up to doing it. 

I could not find any medicine combination to help me and by the time we flew back to the U.S., I really didn't know if I would make it.  The flight is really long for a person even when you feel tiptop, but for me it was excruciatingly long.  After making it home and going to see the doctor as soon as I could, I went through a battery of tests, but they did not find anything seriously wrong.  I couldn't eat much of anything the first week back home and missed a week of work.  I'm back to good health and was sorry to end a great trip feeling so ill.  Even with feeling so ill, I had a wonderful, life changing trip and am so glad that I experienced first hand our church's ministry in Kenya.  My husband is going to Kenya again in October and another trip is planned next July.

Our church is currently collecting money for a well to be drilled at the orphanage. A well for the orphanage would be so helpful and is much needed.  Please pray for the funds to be collected and the water to be found when drilled.