When we left Michigan near the end of August, we went to Pennsylvania for a few days for Kingdom Fellowship Weekend, a gathering of 1-2,000 Anabaptists for teaching and fellowship. To say the least, it was a bit overwhelming! When a large gathering here is a hundred people, to be in the midst of that many people we didn’t know was challenging. We had some relatives there, though, and it was great to catch up with them, and we met up with several people we knew way back, before moving to New Zealand. That was good!
We spent about 12 hours on the road the day we traveled from Michigan to Pennsylvania. That was a long day! Most of it was quite boring, driving on the turnpike. We did spot a few interesting things, such as a few bald eagles. And, somewhere in southern Michigan, we saw this enormous beam being transported. The children were pretty impressed.
This woodpecker was outside our room at the camp. Because we had just been with my mom, who is quite a naturalist, we were all especially attuned to things like this.
Before breakfast on our first day there, I took the children exploring around the campground. They loved this bridge and tiny amphitheater! They spent some time running around the benches.
Another favorite place at the camp was the playground, where the girls made a lot of sand turtles one day and then wanted me to take a picture of them.
We had another long day of driving the day the camp ended, when we went back to western Ohio to Gayle’s dad’s house to prepare to fly home. This was the sunset that evening, somewhere between Columbus and Preble County.
These next three pictures were actually probably taken before we went to Michigan, the day that we sorted and did our preliminary packing. My sister-in-law was sorting through closets, and found a lot of dresses she and her sisters used to wear. She had fun dressing our girls up like herself! The quilt was hand-made by a great- or great-great grandmother, some hundred years ago or more.
When we got back to Grandpa’s house, the children were excited to find more kittens. This one was especially exciting because it looked “just like” the cat in a book we read at Grandma’s house in Michigan, The Almost All-White Rabbity Cat by Meindert de Jong (an author whose books are out of print but I want all of them!).
The children also had great fun hunting insects with a net. They got this grasshopper and butterfly, and wanted them recorded.
The very best find, however, was the snakeskin Mr. Imagination found at his aunt’s house. He was delighted!
They have the books by Meindert de Jong at eBay…though it might be a lot of money for shipping.