O, CHRISTMAS TREE, O CHRISTMAS TREE...

Guess who played Quelf tonight?

HE GROWS UP!!!!!

Our little boy is growing up.  This is his first day in school.  Pastor prayed yesterday for all the little children going to school for the first time.  After I elbowed Zachary, he said:  "MOM!"  Anyway, here he is in all his glory:

Yes, he has to wear a uniform!

One sharp cookie!

He picked them out all by himself!  Erin will love them.

Elyse starts today as well! 

Looking forward to a GREAT day of beginnings! 

SUNDAY!!!!!

Finally!  I got my picnic.  A REAL picnic, outside and everything.  We left VH at 7:30 this morning.  We drove 1 1/2 hours to Valparaiso so we could attend FEBC's annual picnic.  When we saw 500 N. we knew the next traffic light was 400 N. the street the church is on.  We were driving along when Dad said, "Did I pass it?"  Come to find out, 400 N. is missing!  Yep, MISSING!  They are tearing it up and putting a bridge over Indiana 49.  If we had known about that, we would have turned on 500 N. took a side street to church.  The detour added five minutes to our drive, which meant we were going to walk into church at 9:10 instead of 9:00.  After putting our dessert on the serving table, we walked outside.  They had turned the tent around so we were actually walking into the FRONT of the congregation.  EVERYONE saw us right away.  Stevia came rushing up to us and couldn't believe we were surprising them (we hadn't told anyone that we were coming).  David Tipton was the speaker (instead of Woody, their new pastor).  It was a pretty good service.  They have a greet time.  Several people hugged us and welcomed us.  There were so many people that we didn't know.  Enjoy the few pictures we took!

Sandy & I yapping our faces off!

Zachary loved playing "Corn Hole." 

Zachary's team came in second!  Dan-0, you would have loved it.

Elyse enjoyed the jumping things.

Zachary yapping at Kevin (L) and Spencer (R)...so much has changed, huh?

Me and Megan - good talk with her!

One happy second place winner!

Please, Mom - can we go home now!  He didn't actually say that, but Kevin had already left and the tournament was over, so we started to get ready to leave.

Thankfully, they had bottled water - I hate their well water, it smells awful.

It was a great time of getting re-acquainted with people and meeting some new folks.  The Widholms moved away three weeks ago.  They are in Georgia now, pastoring a church.  Pastor Rod & Mary were in the Philippines, so we didn't get to see them.  All in all, it was a great day!

TESTS AND EXPLORING!!!!!

Today was Zachary's test to enter WCA (Christian school in the area).  We don't know if he will be going there, but we are checking out all our options.  His test was supposed to be two hours long.  It was actually THREE hours.  While he was getting tested, Elyse and I went to Walmart.  We stood in front of the towel aisle for over 30 minutes trying to decide what color to buy.  Do I ever want to build my own house you ask?  NEVER!  I can't even decide what color towels to buy, let alone make decisions for a whole house.  It is hard enough for me to set up each room after a move.

At noon, we picked Zachary up and headed to Kenosha, Wisconsin, for a picnic and checking out places I found online.  I wanted to see the RED lighthouse.  Thus:

While checking out the lighthouse (which there were three of them), we saw this barge with a HUGE pipe connected to it that ran across the beach.  What it was doing, we couldn't figure it out.  But, we now know of an amazing beach to go swimming some day.  Wish we had brought our bathing suits.

Another lighthouse...

Proof I was there...

 Next, we headed to Lake Michigan shoreline that has HUGE rocks to climb on.  We had our picnic there.

Zachary's apple ended up between the rocks, too deep to fetch it...

One handsome boy in front of gorgeous blue water...

Elyse being Elyse...

Something floating in the water - too far out to determine what it was...

 

We passed a gas station and decided to fill her up.  We saved 30 cents a gallon.  Yep, you read that right - THIRTY CENTS A GALLON!  I think it is time to get out of Illinois, don't you?

Next on our tour, was Sandy's Poppers.  It was a quaint ice cream shop.  They sold popcorn, ice cream and candy that I haven't seen since I was a child (Clark's gum, Black Jack, Mello cups, etc.).  It was a fun treat.

Zachary and I had root beer float ice cream, Elyse had cookies and cream.

Isn't it a cute shop?

The final stop was BIGGBY'S!  I know, we didn't need that after the ice cream place, but that was in the original plan since we don't have them near our house. 

We had a great time!  We are exhausted!  When I got home, I decided to blog and put up the pictures - our internet decided not to work for over 30 minutes.  On Friday, we switch internet providers - we are tired of AT&T.  Can't wait to have better service AND faster service.  Come try it out with us!