Visiting Nitchfield

We were delighted to spend a few days visiting Kyle and Gretchen last week.

Our first night, Tim and Kyle made dinner for us. Kyle is straining the fresh potatoes from their garden. :)

 Walnut Point State Park is near their home. After a picnic lunch, we girls took a long hike. (We certainly got our exercise that day!)

Homemade berry crisp!

Here are our finished beaded bookmarks.  I enjoyed making them even more than I expected. It is always fun to make something easy that turns out so well.

Becca got to fish the hamburger buns from behind the fridge. I love this face!

When the girls do the grilling....

...I think we might have more fun (even if the burgers have to be rescued by the guys).

It seems visits are always too short.  Thanks so much to our wonderful hosts!

Midsummer Weddings

This summer, we have been delighted to help our friends prepare for their wedding and celebrate the Lord's work in their lives.

Beth and Aaron Alsmeyer were married July 19th

I was able to help Beth make her veil. We used lace that had been on the sleeves.

I am so thankful to have a serger!

Ezel and I arranged the flowers. It was lots of fun...but also nerve racking! Especially since neither of us had never really done flower arranging like that.

The beautiful bride.

She wore her mom's dress.
The groom.

He was giving me instruction on how the ushers were supposed to "ush."

Notice the flowers ;)
Becca was in charge of sanctuary decorations, so make sure you appreciate them. Awwww.
Done with one wedding and on to the next. Can you guess whose hand this is?

-EJ

Answer to the quiz

Well, I know we have been very negligent in our posting....So here is the answer to our capitol quiz.

Yes, the answer is (1) the Hershey bar!

(I know the picture is of a mini, but the answer refers to the standard size.)

Vacation June 2008-Part 6 (Final)

As I'm sure you all noticed from the title of this posting, this is the final posting of pictures from our trip.  As I'm also sure you have noticed from our vacation postings, we like to visit State Capitol Buildings, and the last two days of our trip were no exception.

Have you ever seen a lime green dome?  Neither had we...until we went to Harrisburg.

The PA Supreme Court room in the Capitol building was covered with gorgeous murals with really amazing passages--like the 10 Commandments, the Beatitudes, and passages on natural, moral, and religious law.

This picture makes us smile ;)

Gettysburg

Eating lunch in West Virginia.  

Final Capitol building for the trip: Columbus, OH,  We were too late in the day for a tour, but we walked around the exterior and saw all the monuments they have, including Civil War cannon (Dad said they could be fired!), a statue of Christopher Columbus, a remembrance of the Spanish-American War, and working gas lamps (if you can call those a monument).

This is why we don't plan our vacations in advance--so we have time for serendipitous discoveries.  Across from the Ohio capitol is the Ohio Theatre, which looks as if it had been designed (in 1928) to show the Phantom of the Opera.  We talked to one of the employees who had come outside, and he volunteered to give us a tour of the place.  It makes any theater I've ever been in look plain and simple (except maybe the Paris Opera) !

We hope you enjoyed traveling with us.

Vacation June 2008-Part 5

As seasoned "capitol collectors," our next stop was Trenton, NJ.  

Quiz of the Day:

The amount of gold covering this dome is the same volume as 

1) a Hershey bar

2) a brick

3) a laundry basket

4) a Mini-Cooper

A nice peaceful place for an afternoon nap?  

Not for George Washington.  He crossed the Delaware River at this spot on Christmas Day in 1776 during a snowstorm on his way to attack Trenton.

Two of our nation's symbols: Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

We found Valley Forge to be quite a pleasant place; I suspect George Washington's bodyguard, who would have occupied cabins like these, thought differently.

You know you're in Lancaster County, PA, when you see horse-drawn farm equipment.

Obviously the pretzel is the focal point of this picture, not the people.  We're learning how to twist pretzels at a pretzel factory.

Vacation June 2008-Part 4

Welcome back to New York!

Did you realize that the CIA HQ was in New York?  No, not the Central Intelligence Agency, but the Culinary Institute of America.  Tim and Elli especially enjoyed this visit.  

No vacation is worth its salt without touring a couple of mansions.  This one was one of the Vanderbilts' simplest "summer cottages."

This amazing chapel was built to hold the entire student body and faculty at West Point in 1910 (they were all required to attend).  It has the largest church organ in the world (Becca was green with envy).

The career soldiers who fell in the Civil War are honored here at West Point.

We finally talked Dad into driving through NYC.  The George Washington Bridge connects Manhattan Island to the New Jersey mainland.  Isn't the sky beautiful?

One of the landmarks in NYC: the Empire State Building. 

Shaky hands disrupted this picture of the Statue of Liberty.  It was a lot prettier live.

Ground Zero.

The first bridge to connect Manhattan Island with Long Island: the Brooklyn Bridge.

The highlight of the NYC tour: getting out of the city without a scratch on the car!  Driving in downtown NYC is like driving around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris--the drivers don't seem to recognize that staying in lanes is a good thing.

Vacation June 2008-Part 3

From Lake Ontario, we headed through the Adirondack Mountains and to Lake Placid, where the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics were held.

Olympic ski jump: It looks tame on TV, but those slopes are really close to vertical.

Beautiful mountains--rushing streams--what simple pleasures.

~(in bland tone) Mom always wants to take walks. Why do we always have to walk so much?~

~ O, water...trees...sky...look at those plants, this is so much fun!!!~

These are statements or paraphrases of thoughts from my two sisters. Can you guess which?

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

What a beautiful family photo taken on the shores of Lake George.

Small town, small shop, yet he hand makes 'em and ships 'em all over.

Anybody need a hand-made violin?

Wow, some really big house that I forget where it is.

Never mind, my sisters tell me it's the New York State Capitol building.

This is some other capitol...but which one? 

"Hey, you two, which one is it? I know it's somewhere out East." -Me

"Do you really not know?" -Becca

"ghrratt" -Elli (I think she's tired)

"You're so mean" -Becca (commenting on me writing Elli's grunt)

"Do you?" -Becca (returning to the subject at hand)

"I really haven't a clue, but I might guess Connecticut, it seems like we were in that state sometime." -Me

O goody, my guess is correct, Becca tells me. So this is the Connecticut state capitol.

Ok, no more.