here there and everywhere

about a month ago, the kids and i drove up to my mom's, i wasnt exactly nervous, but it is an long drive (not as long as meghan had, mind you, and with one fewer kid than she has, so i'm not complaining!). we set off pretty early, to have one long day, 14 hrs or so, to stay in grand forks, nd. we were trucking along pretty well, caroline was having a rough time but the rest of us were fine. and wouldnt you know we blew a tire, close to the nebraska south dakota line. alas, we did not have a spare. we waited about 30 min on the side of the road, me and my 3 babies, and it took that long for anybody to stop to help us. did i mention it was about 107? and we were a ways from anywhere. the miracle of the day was that Patrick and his boss trade alot of hay up in that area, and Patrick had a business contact about 20 miles from there. He came and picked us up, took us and our tire into town, we got a new one, and he put it on for us. it added 2.5 hrs to our trip, but still, not a bad resolution!

the kids didnt sleep that much in the car, so by the time we found got settled in our hotel, it was midnight, and they passed out. the funny thing is, when i put them to bed, charlie was on the left, and hannah was on the right. i took this picture around 6.30 the next morning, before i woke them up to continue our trek. caroline was much more difficult to get to sleep, and still woke up early. the stinker. but its good to know that it gets easier to travel once they get older.

lara and her boyfriend matt overlapped with everybody too, so it was fun to all be together. a little crazy, but fun. this is lara with hannah (middle on left) and Kennedy, Parker, and Emerson.

we had our own Gibi Lake Olympics, and some of us had quite the outfits to compete in!

me and the kids were the orange team, as you can see.

it has been years since we have had a group picture. and not just for lack of getting together, but even when we are together, it seems we wait for the perfect time, and it never comes. so this time, we made sure to get a group picture!

last year, Hannah went to vacation bible school, and made a piggy bank. she and charlie collected our change all year, and we had over $100. I gave her a few choices, and in the end, we sent it to Samaritans Purse South Sudan Refugee Fund. I was so proud of her! It didnt even cross her mind to ask if she could keep any of it. (or if it did, she didnt have the nerve to ask me ;-)

last week, patrick and I made a huge step in getting overseas. we went to something called Candidate Week with Africa Inland Mission, at their US headquarters in Atlanta, GA. It felt somewhat surreal, as we have been a long time in working towards this, and we were so excited to be there. I will talk more about it soon.

yes, we had the requisite eat with your hands african meal. It was great fun for me, of course, and it was even really good. Every candidate week has a different missionary in residence, and ours was from Lesotho, in South Africa. So that person is responsible for the cooking, and our lady did a great job! (we still went out and got frozen yogurt afterwards. have to take advantage of that while we can, right?!)

We had alot of sessions, hearing alot of speakers and looking at alot of powerpoints. They did, however, try to lighten things up a little. One session was called the African Perspective, and part of that was about oral cultures and storytelling. we split up into groups, and made up an african story, using animals. i was the dying jackal over in the corner, fighting over a dead carcass. fun times, fun times. (in case you were wondering, i did not come up with the story, i was just along with the ride!) Patrick was a donkey, in his group. ;-)  

it was an amazing week, and that has only continued since coming home. we are still, however, everyday people with everyday lives and everyday jobs.  and everyday summer gardens. that make more cucumber than we could ever eat! especially that monster one. it was really nasty though, we threw it away anyways.

and with 3 everyday kids who do everyday things, like build things. it is so neat to see your kids grow, and do things for the first time. we got these nifty toys from barnes and noble, for the car. they stick together, and it took awhile for them to get the hang of it, and they would just stick them together randomly. but now charlie realized he can put them together to make things, and in the past few days he has brought me lots of cars and airplanes. quite the little engineer!