Missions Trip

A few days after returning from Branson, Chad and I left with our church's youth group for a quick missions trip.  This is our second year working with the youth group and each summer, the group goes on a missions trip of some kind.  Last summer, they went to Joplin, MO to help with tornado cleanup.  This year we went to Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) in Bartlesville, OK.   VOM helps Christians around the globe who are being persecuted for their faith.  They provide medical assistance, food, clothing, and other forms of aid to these people.  Also, they help inform Christians in the US about the persecution happening abroad and what we can do to help.  Our volunteer work while there wasn't earth shattering by any means (mostly stuffing envelopes, shrink wrapping materials, etc.), but was a great trip, because it opened our eyes to what other Christians in the world have to face and how much we take for granted.  We are posing here in front of a memorial "Wall of Martyrs".  It listed different Christians who have perished and either a brief story about them or a quote from them at the time of their death. 

 This is a Bible that was burned.  It was the pictured girl's Bible.

 If you can read the caption below it explains these objects.  The burned microphone was from a church that was burned to the ground.

Branson

The reunion was only a couple of hours from Branson, so afterwards we headed there for 2 days.  I am a pa.the.tic. mother and have basically no pictures to show for it.  Not even one fun family vacation photo.  Basically, we did a little shopping, checked out the Titanic Museum, and walked around on the strip.  The second night we were there, there was a fireworks show following a free outdoor concert.  Luke loves fireworks, (so does his mama), so we headed there.  He said his tummy was hurting but was trying to be brave because he really wanted to see the fireworks.  He may or may not have vomited in the street.  You can judge us if you want, but we stayed and watched the fireworks anyway which made everyone happy!  He threw up again the next morning (the day we were supposed to drive home!).  We milked every last moment in our hotel room before having to check out, dreading being in a car with a sick child.  We headed out around 11:30, and within a couple of hours he was good as new!  So...24 hour bug??  Reaction to being in too much heat??  We don't know but were so thankful it didn't last long!  So we took our time driving home trying to stretch out our short vacation, stopping to check out a Bass Pro shop in Columbia, MO, and then a random spontaneous stop at Big Brutus in West Mineral (nowheresville), KS.  What is Big Brutus you might ask?  That would be the largest electric shovel in the world (16 stories tall).  Isn't that exciting??  Well, not to me, but it is to my 3 year old son and my 30 year old husband!  Here are the boys sitting inside the bucket.

 Some size perspective.

 Fortunately, it wore them out, and we had a few hours of peace driving home!

 And, though we didn't plan for it, we drove into our hometown just in time to watch our local 4th of July fireworks only blocks away from our house.  It turned out to be a great day! :)

Family Reunion

We've had a busy month!  We brought in July by heading to Missouri for a family reunion.  It.was.hot.  Despite the sweltering heat, we had a nice time.  Pictured below are my siblings.  It's not very often we are in the same place other than at Christmas!

 This is my mom with 6 of her 7 siblings.

 These are the great-grandchildren of the family (a small portion of them anyway).

 Here's our clan!

 We checked out the paddle boats.  Luke was in heaven riding with Uncle Matt.  He still talks about how "fast" they were and how they won the "race".  Adam didn't really share his enthusiasm.

  Like I said, it was hot, so we were either in the water or in the A/C!  I'm glad we went and we had a great time reconnecting with family we don't see very often!

 

Mr. Clean

Adam loves to clean.  I mean, whenever I am cleaning anything, he MUST help!  Or, if someone's sock on the floor, he picks it up and starts using it as a rag to clean the floor.  Hey, I'm not complaining.  I'm hoping this enthusiasm continues into the tween and teen years.

 Luke likes things clean but generally doesn't share Adam's enthusiasm to do it.  Washing the car is more enticing though because of the water sprayer which is what he spent most of the time doing.  Spraying the car, spraying his brother, whatever. 

Cousin Fun

A couple of weeks ago, all the cousins (on the Eigsti side) were in town for the week and we had lots of fun!  On one very weather-perfect day, we spent the evening in Mimi and Papa's backyard playing on Papa's handcrafted swingset/slide.  Two summers ago, he spent many hours of labor designing and building this for his grandkids!  I believe he still intends to add a zipline to it.

  On another beautiful evening, his work had a "family" night, which included fishing and other fun activities.  We did not own any fishing poles, so Chad went out and bought two that day.  He set his pole down for a moment to get a fish off of Luke's pole, and in a moment's time, his pole was yanked into the pond by what must have been a giant fish!  Luke really likes to tell that story.  He calls it the "naughty fish".

Hedrick's Exotic Animal Farm

We have been thoroughly enjoying our summer!  Like last summer, we recently trekked to Hedrick's Exotic Animal Farm with our Parents as Teachers group.  Luke was a little more hesitant to get near the animals than last year, but Adam was very into it!  It's the kind of experience you can't quite get at a zoo. 

 Adam LOVED feeding all of the animals!

This giraffe was sitting down at the time, but supposedly is one of the tallest giraffes in the States.  He unfortunately wasn't very interested in eating Luke's sweet potato.

Wheat Harvest 2012

Harvest time came a lot earlier this year than usual.  Like Memorial Day weekend early!  My dad said never in his life have they harvested that early.  Usually it's sometime mid-late June.  He ended up needing some extra help, so since Chad had some experience helping with harvest (from way back in our early dating years 2000-2001ish!!) he spent most of Memorial Day in the field.  So of course the boys didn't want to miss out!  They got tractor rides, combine rides, and even a trip or two in the wheat truck with Daddy to the grain elevator.  And to top it all off they got to play with their cousins!  It was a beautiful day and lots of fun!

 

Owie

This is a little delayed, but Tuesday night was Luke's first T-ball game.  As you may notice, these are not pictures of Luke.  During the game, Adam fell and hit his face on the metal part of the bleachers.  I was on the field with Luke, so didn't find out a thing, but Chad said there was a LOT of blood.  But only about 20 seconds of crying.  Adam's a little too tough, if you ask me.  He is WAY more dare-devil than Luke ever was, and just days before this happened, I said to someone that I thought Adam was going to be our little ER baby.  He wouldn't want to prove his mama wrong, ya know!  We decided to check with Nurse Grandma first before heading to the ER, and she thought steri-strips could hold his cut together better than stitches so we went with it.  Should be a lovely scar, though!