My happy family :-)

Yesterday we had a lot of fun together.  Here are some pictures of us at an outdoor display of mining equipment that was used in Bisbee, Arizona a hundred years ago.

(I'm posting this horrible picture of me only because Conor looks so good in it.)

 

Sophia at the rear of the coal mine train.

 Caroline and Carolyn

 This is my favorite picture.  Doesn't Elizabeth look delighted with the adventure?

 Cool Cat Conor with his little sisters

We had a great day together yesterday.

Bisbee, Arizona

Before we even got up this morning I asked Bill what he had in mind for the day.  He said, "I was thinking of taking everyone to Bisbee today."  Good idea!  He had been there once, but I never had, and of course neither Conor or Carolyn had been there either.

Copper mining began in Bisbee around the turn of the 20th century and was always done mechanically.  No pick axes and mules.  The mine closed in the mid-70s and the town started to turn into a ghost town before it was discovered by artists and Bohemian free thinkers.  Today it is mostly a tourist town with lots of antique and junk shops next to art galleries and jewelry shops.  Quite a number of raucous bars as well, even on a Saturday afternoon.

 

Two of its famous features are the narrow, steep streets and houses clinging to the rocky mountain sides.  Some were shacks and others were nicely renovated little Victorian homes, with everything in between.

 

There is an annual festival to celebrate all the stairs around town and we decided to take part even though the festival is a month and a half away.  This is what we came across:

181 stairs.  I'm not in great shape, but decided to go up because there was art on the walls and I could see some interesting houses on each side and there was a bit of mystery about it all.

On my way!

I thought there was an interesting house at the top, but that was NOT the top!  The path went around the side of it and kept going up and up!  I stopped several times to catch my breath enjoy the view on the way up, and celebrated with the girls when we got to the top.

We all counted the steps coming back down.  Carolyn and I came up with 181 if we counted both the top and bottom surfaces.  The three girls came up with different numbers, but I'm pretty sure 181 was correct.

 

Gonna be sore tomorrow!



Kevin's creative storage

Nothing out of the ordinary, right?

What if I told you only one of them held chilled food?

What if you knew it was difficult to get to IKEA?

What if you knew Kevin is a resourceful boy?

This is what you'd see:

Not-too-subtle suggestion for Carolyn

My niece Carolyn came into the living room laughing today and holding up a quarter.

She told me Sophia (who gave up her room for Carolyn) presented it to her the first night she was here and told her it was to start a fund so she could get her own place and move out.

[snicker]

What would you write?

What if you moved into an apartment that had had an ever-changing set of residents?  And what if some of them had written something inside a desk drawer?

Would you add something?  If so, what would you write?

I would never be the first one to write something, but if there was already this much writing, I might be tempted to write my last name, hometown, and date.

The new resident checks out the old

My niece Carolyn came to stay for awhile and brought her cats.  One of them doesn't come out from under the bed, but the other loves the yard.

 

Two of our little ladies with their beaks in the air.

 

 Let's go over here instead.

 WHAT are those two very strange things???

 Ten seconds after I took the picture above, Curio the cat was slinking away backward, then he turned tail and ran back to the porch.  He is mostly blind and was not about to stay around to figure out what those feathered creatures were!

 

The hens were out all day and there were no eggs in the nest, so I went looking.  I started at the wrong end of the "flower" bed, but eventually I came to this:

Family Home Evening and judging others

We started off with hymn 220, Lord, I Would Follow Thee, and sang about loving others despite their unseen problems (see the words to the song!).

Then we watched the video above.  It's cute, but tells a serious story.

 

Next we talked about some of the children our girls know at school whose behavior is difficult.  Then we talked about why they might have that kind of behavior.  We talked about obvious disabilities and hidden disabilities.

 

Last, we ate vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and drank glasses of cold milk.

Where would YOU like to be going?

I'm guessing Kevin was going to or from an island off the Brazilian coast near Florianopolis.  Where would you like to be going?

I'd like to be on a ferry from Calais to Dover.

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:  Meat on the grill for Labor Day!

Tuesday:  Bourbon chicken (Sun Bird seasoning--sorry, no actual alcohol)

Wednesday:  Egg/sausage/potato casserole

Thursday:  Buffalo Chicken Fingers that we didn't get to last week

Friday:  make-your-own pizza

Kevin on baptismal day

Kevin and some fellow missionaries on baptism day.  I hope to hear more about this day in the future.  Kevin is in the center.  Good looking kid, wouldn't you say?