We went to Missouri for a few days after the new year and I was at Camp Joy in Wisconsin for a retreat last weekend - however, some interesting words have come from our little ones recently and I didn't want to forget them.
Kara - she called a paper plate a "plaper plate." Also, she was watching as we looked at some pictures on the computer, we came across a picture of last fall when I had grown some facial hair - Kara saw the following picture and said, "you used to have a beard, but you shoved it off!" It is fun to listen to them begin to try enunciate the different tenses.
John - is reading quite well for a six year old. Carol loves hot tea; yesterday John saw this box of tea on the kitchen counter and asked his mother with a little confusion, why do they call this "horbal [horrible] tea?" Obviously, we laughed about that one!
I went to Camp Joy for the annual Pastor and Deacon Retreat; Fred Moritz was the speaker. All three of our deacons were able to attend this year and we had a good time of fellowship. The video is of Darin Kennelly going down their "sky-glide" zip line. A couple of years ago, I tried using my phone to video going down, but invariably, you end up going down facing rearwards and so the video is not real exciting, so I just decided to catch Darin coming down this time - I'm posting it on the internet for his son, Joe! :-)
Camp Joy has completed some very nice cabins in the last couple of years; they call the complex "Driftwood Village."
Above: Lowell Mest, Donnie Wright, Darin Kennelly.The previous week, we had gone to Missouri to see my family; we hadn't gone over during the week of Christmas because there are too many children and grandchildren to all stay at the same time, so we staggered our trips (our kids were all sick the week of Christmas anyways).
Carol and my Mom went to an Amish store in Rutledge, MO. to spend some Christmas money. We all met that noon at my Grandma's house for her Deatrick favorite zucchini stew.
The following video is of the road on which my folks live - perhaps a strange sight for those accustomed to straight and flat roads in Illinois. After Carol stopped recording the following video, there was a beautiful red fox that ran across the road just about a hundred feet in front of us.
My brothers and their families came over at various times, as did my Aunt and Uncle. We exchanged gifts - ate, played some games - ate, talked - ate some more; you know how it is at family gatherings. . . !
I also had a chance to shoot a little bit with Joel, Laura and Grant - Laura had never shot a pistol and turned out doing pretty well. Dad has a Ruger Mark III 22 caliber that she and Joel shot - I was tickled by the surprise that Joel showed when she was shooting . . . you'll have to listen carefully.
I learned the hard way that there are two release buttons on the left hand side of the grip - one releases the clip and the other releases the action on the chamber - I had a blood blister for more than a week and a half as a painful reminder that you should not release the chamber with your finger in it.
I grew up shooting rifles and shotguns a lot, but feel like a bit of a novice with pistols; I've had some teaching in the past years though and am enjoying this side of things.
Believe it or not, I didn't intend to blog much this evening; it just happened that I didn't want to forget what Kara and John had said recently, and so to use a "web log" for its intended purpose I thought I would record it quickly - but once logged on here, just decided to keep going. But, that seems to be the nature of talkative people . . .
