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!
As I have posted on this blog many, many times -- I'm so thankful for my Godly heritage and my family!! What a blessing!

Here is a slideshow of the pictures, Bev, Kaye & I took of our week:

Disneyworld & Swart History

I wanted to take a trip down memory lane with this posting. Our family has been very blessed to go to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida (6) times (and Jeff & I have been to Disneyland in California twice). I'm sure there were many of those times, we really couldn't afford to do so, however, we sure don't regret the sacrifice. Our kids have such fond memories of each trip, as do Jeff & I. The very first trip, we were living in Nevada Missouri. Josh was 5-1/2 and Andy was a week from being 3 years old so he got in free! We went on Spring Break with a church family from Nevada, the Burris'. As with any "firsts" - this was a very exciting trip for the boys! Even though they were young, they had a good time. Randy & Kathy Burris and their boys, Casey and Corey (ages 7 and 4) went with us. We all went in one regular sized car and the guys drove all night to get there. This was back in the days before seat belts or car seats were required - so the boys slept on the floor, in the back window, etc. I was very disappointed as I dug through old pictures of our trips, that we didn't take more "people" pictures....on this trip, we don't even have a group picture. Randy took this one:

And Jeff took this one.....We have totally lost touch with the Burris.....the last we knew (which was 25 years ago, they were living in Kansas City). Would love to see them again!

Momma and her boys!

My cute little boys with one of the "Little Piggies"

Our next trip was in 1987 after we had moved to Jacksonville, Texas. Mom and Dad drove their "beautiful??" van down to Tyler, Texas to pick up Don and Bev and their girls, Shannan (8) and Shawna (5) and Jeff & I and our kids. Josh would have been almost 10; Andy was 7 and Rachel was 2. Right before this picture was taken, Andy smashed his thumb in the van door....it hurt!! To this day, he still does not have a nail on that thumb. Jeff took this picture right before we pulled out. Yes, the boys' shorts are so ugly - what was I thinking!?!? We again drove all night, so I guess I just put something very comfortable on them to sleep in.

Again, Jeff taking the picture...here is the family in front of Spaceship Earth at Epcot....

I included this picture, since Jeff is in it (I think it was actually at Sea World):

Here are my kiddo's with Mickey:

And the five cousins..... And the only picture we have of our immediate family.....so far away though :-(.......

Then in 1989, while we still lived in Jacksonville, Texas, Jeff was given the honor of being named as President of the Kiwanis Club. That summer, their Annual Meeting was in Orlando and they would pay for a good portion of our trip. It was the first time that the kids and I had ever flown, so that added much excitement to our trip! Josh would have been 12; Andy 9, and Rachel 4.

We didn't even have a single picture taken of our whole family :-(

We also visited Nasa this trip......

Then probably the kids' very favorite time was in 1993, when we went with 3 other families from our church, Calvary Baptist in Mesquite, TX, because they were all older and their best friends went too. Each family drove their own vehicle and we followed one another. The kids, of course, rode in different vehicles with their friends. Every stop, we would have to take count....so as not to leave one of those 11 kids behind!! Here we are at our first hotel stop. I will give names and ages in a little while. Rodney took this picture.....

And Jeff took this one.......

Here we are at Epcot....I think Josh took this picture.....

The families that went....

The Swarts......Josh was almost 16; Andy was 13 and Rachel was 8.

The Saunders: Rick, Monica, Aaron, Lauren, Sarah, and Annie. This trip was especially memorable to all of us, as shortly after we returned home, Rick was diagnosed with cancer and died a few short years later. Rick was Chairman of our Deacons while we were at Calvary and one of the best! We love you, Rick, and still miss you!!

The Christians: Rodney, Brenda, Teri and Brad (we would return to WDW 7 years later for a sweet reunion with the Christians).

The Murreys - Gary, Pam, Matt and Meagan......Gary still does our taxes for us -- thank you, Gary!!

Some of the girls riding the monorail....

This picture always makes me smile! Because of the crowds, we got in the habit of raising our arms in the air when moving from one location to another, in order to stay together (with 19 of us, it was hard!). So I wanted to get a picture of the raised arms here and we got so tickled, cause others raised their arms, not having any idea why our group was doing it. You just had to be there, I guess, to laugh with me :-)!!

Our family in front of the Haunted House -- always a favorite ride of our family!

This trip was also memorable as Jeff turned 40 while we were in Florida. This ugly swan vase and black flowers have a "history" all of it's own that I won't go into detail here, but somehow it mysteriously made it's appearance in Florida to say Happy Birthday to Jeff!

Our next trip to Florida was in 2000 and our only child to accompany us was Rachel. The boys were both out of our home at this time. We were living in Conway, Arkansas. The Christians, who still lived in Mesquite, TX, met us in Florida (we both had flown). Rachel was 15 years old.

This was our first experience at staying at a Disney Resort, which we loved and wouldn't ever do it any other way. We went in July, though, and it was one of the hottest summers there as well as back in Arkansas. I think it was around 100 every day, so that did take some of the fun out of it. It sure was nice, though, by staying inside WDW, we were able to go back to our hotel in the heat of the afternoon for time at the pool, or naps in the airconditioning.

Jeff, Rachel & I also went to Universal Studios that time....

Our favorite at Epcot: Test Track!

Which brings me to this year - 2010. Jeff and I just returned from a full two weeks at Walt Disney World. Our first time to go without any children (and I'm sure our last--as next time, I hope it's with several grandchildren!). But even without kids, we had a blast. And as I observed other families with tired, whiny kiddos, I was even more thankful - ha! We had gotten a good package deal through Allegient Airlines for our flight, hotel and park tickets. We were able to go to a park one day, then rest the next day (which was great for these two old people). We would spend our days off usually by the pool (for me it was on a raft in the pool reading, and checking email/Facebook); for Jeff it was in the shade working on his computer or reading, etc, with an afternoon nap in the room. The parks weren't as crowded as what we have experienced in the summer, nor was it as hot. All of which was a real blessing.

We had six days at the Disney parks and one day at Universal Studios.....Our first day was at Magic Kingdom.....

The next park was Epcot (our favorite)

This was a new ride at Epcot (although we have ridden several times at Disneyland in California). It's a great ride!

The landscaping, shrubs and flowers are so, so pretty!!

We went to Epcot 3 different times during this stay. This was our last day there.

We went to Animal Kingdom only one afternoon/evening....it's our least favorite - but still a fun park. Our second favorite is Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). Here are a few pics there:

They have a walk thru museum in honor of Walt - what a creative, imaginative mind that man had!

Our very favorite thing at Hollywood Studios was the American Idol Experience. It was as close as one could get to being in the audience of a live American Idol. After the finale, we walked outside to have our picture taken in front of this huge screen. At the time, Ryan Seacrest was on the screen. We had asked a "stranger" to take our picture. It was to our delight after we looked at it, that Kris Allen, 2009's winner from Conway, AR was on the screen!

An added blessing during this visit was time with Craig, Angela and Kaitlyn Mooney. They live in Orlando and invited us to their beautiful home one evening for a delicious steak dinner and then we joined them at their church, FBC, Orlando on Sunday for a great worship service and then another delicious meal at Boston Fish House afterwards.

After a full two weeks, we were really ready to come home - and looked forward to it (that's not always been the case in the past)! The icing on the vacation cake was that we flew out of NWA, so we got to see Lainey-Bug both going and coming home! She is growing and doing great. I'm already missing her, though :-)!! Yes, I'm very much the smitten grandma!

Of course, Lainey-Bug had to have a Minnie Mouse from Disney.....at this point she could care less as sleep was more important, but hopefully some day she will love her Minnie!

And a "baby" Winnie the Pooh.....her daddy had a BIG Winnie the Pooh, given to him by our good friends, the Lemons, as a high school student--it even went to SOAR at Washington, DC with him :-)!! Goodbye, Disney - thank you for all the wonderful memories!!!