Swart Life: Week with Family

Beverly and Kaye came to Kansas last week. We all stayed at Mom's for the whole week and had a great time! The days went quickly and included visits with many of our extended family as well as "touring" the countryside reliving memories of days gone by. We laughed and said, "we are getting old" as we can recall Mom and Dad doing that a lot and as kids we were bored to death. But as we have now reached that grand "old" age, we enjoyed (and in many cases were sad at the deterioration) to see the homes that were such a part of our growing up; Mom & Dad's farm; Grandpa and Granda Boore and Brunk's farms, etc. It seems like many, many years ago that we loved visiting our grandparents at their homes. I can still remember the wonderful smells, laughter, fun, and delicious meals!

Here are some pictures of the week:

Kaye, Mom & Bev in Mom's pretty back yard (she now lives in town instead of on the farm where we grew up):

On Tuesday, we were meeting some of the "Boore" relatives in Baxter Springs which is only about 6 miles from my home in Galena, so we came down a little early to bring desserts as we were coming to my house afterwards. Jeff took this picture of the four of us.

This was a real fun resturant in Baxter Springs, Kansas: Cafe on the Route, that was featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The food was delicious!

From left to right: Kaye, Aunt Freda, Holly, Bev, Mom, Aunt Judy, Chelsea, Nancy and Debbie...

After eating, we then went to my house for dessert and fun. Jeff joined us there. He is telling the family a very surprising "find". A few weeks ago, Paul Mooney was doing some cleaning out of "stuff" at the church and brought into Jeff 's office a BMA Minute Book dated 1897 (antique!!). As he handed it to Jeff to look at it fell open to one of the inside pages. Jeff immediately noticed the name, "C.N. McEvers." Astonished, he asked Paul, "Do you know who this is?" Paul, of course, had no idea. Jeff said, "This is my great, great grandfather!" Jeff didn't even know until recent years that he had a grandfather that was a preacher. At the time of his father's death, he was given a sermon book and a Bible of that grandfather's which has been such a treasure of his. As he researched it, he realized his grandfather was a Baptist preacher. However, until this Minute Book appeared, he had absolutely no idea or even thought, that his grandfather was a BMA Baptist preacher!! He was the Moderator and Annual Speaker in 1897! And on top of all that, what makes the Minute Book even more precious to me - is that my Dad's mom, Grandma "Gladys" Boore had handwritten her name and the name of her father (my great grandpa, Fred Geier) on the front of this particular minute book! She wasn't even born yet, but evidently at some point in the history of this particular book, it had been in her possession. Just gives me goosebumps and how like God to allow Jeff & I to see it!!

Here is a picture of the front of that Minute Book with Grandma's handwriting at the bottom....

And the first page on the inside with Jeff's great, great grandpa's name.....

Then we played "4 on the Couch".......lots of laughs! The team with the neck ties won!

Here are the silly loooosssseeerrrrs!

Fun evening - thanks Boore girls for coming and to Holly for her "innovative" way of inviting us!!

Wednesday night, we met some of Mom's side of the family, "The Brunks," at Chicken Mary's. Had to get a picture of us with the sign, since Chicken Mary's won the Food Wars Challenge on the Food Network (pretty cool that 2 Kansas restuarants have been on national TV recently!)

This is my Aunt Mildred, her daughter, Christie and hubby Wayne:

This is my Uncle Harry, Aunt Betty, daughter, Pam and hubby, Denis and son Randy and wife Kimbra. Randy & Kimbra own and operate the Peppermill Resturant in Girard - that also had good food!

Mom with her brother and sister (the only remaining siblings in her family):

The cousins.........

Thanks Aunt Betty for organizing this get-together - it was great to see everyone!!

Then Thursday, we drove down to Joplin to meet Andy, Carman & Laine. This was Bev and Kaye's first visit with Lainey-Bug:

Of course, Jeff made time out of his busy schedule to also meet with us -- to see his grandbaby!

Love this picture!

Kaye is singing to her....

After eating at Cheddars, we had to go across the street to Steak and Shake and have a "junior" shake. Shawna, this picture was taken for you :-)

Yes, I love that baby girl! I'm excited that I am going down to NWA tonight to babysit Laine for a couple of days! Jeff & I are also thrilled that we are going to get to attend a "prayer shower" for Josh & Erika tonight that their church, Metro, is hosting for them. They have been approved as foster/adoptive parents! For 10 days, they have a 4 year old girl named Karla. I won't include a picture since she is in the foster system and it may not be appropriate to do so. But she is a cutie and I can't wait to meet her tonight!