Jesse James, Ozarkland, and the Dodgers (12/30/18)

As soon as the kids were up, they begged to go to the playground. As soon as they hit the freezing weather and saw the ice on the slide, they realized their mistake. It was still nice to stretch and get moving, though. Rosalie found a musical instrument and was able to read the letters and play a song!  I was so impressed! They were soon ready to go back and warm up in the cozy cabin while Arthur loaded the car. This cabin also had a loft bed, so the kids were excited.

After Arthur scraped the frost off the windshield, accidentally snapped the frozen window washing tube, and recharged the dead battery - we were off.

Our first stop was Meramec Caverns at Uncle Steven's recommendation. It was a beautiful drive. We'd like to come back some day and canoe down the river and take the cave tour (1.5 hours, so not an option today). You can go look at the main cavern for free, so we wandered through the gift shop and then went inside to look around. It was neat! Apparently, Jesse James and his gang used to hide out there!

 

 

We piled back and hit the road. There was an accident, so they detoured us off the main road for awhile. So, when we signs for Ozarkland, we figured that was a good place to stop and stretch our legs. 

 

We got some ideas for home decorating:

  

Sharing the same parking lot was a huge junk pile, er, "antique mall." This one was too dangerous to allow the kids in, but Arthur had a great time wandering through. We thought Uncle Ed would have gotten a kick out of this.

Rosalie kept yelling in my ear, so I borrowed Grace's earphones.

Finally, we made it to Oklahoma City. This is the one stop on our trip where there wasn't a KOA available, so we are staying in a hotel. The kids were bonkers from the long car ride and we could see a Bass Pro Shop from our hotel window. We decided a nice walk was in order to run some of the stink off of them. It worked. When we got there, they were in awe of the aquarium and animals and, well, just everything. Grace grabbed my phone and went a little crazy with the pictures. I had to delete about 500 photos later.

I took this photo - finally a quiet moment!

 On the walk back to the hotel, we saw these banners in the parking lot. Earlier, we had looked out our window to discover a baseball diamond (so cool!). Apparently, Oklahoma City's Dodgers are the feeder team for our Los Angeles Dodgers.

The view from our hotel room.

In our hotel!

 After Bass Pro Shop, we stopped by IHOP for dinner and admired the city skyline. We will have to come back someday and explore this city more thoroughly.

And We're Back (12/24 - 12/29/18)

Outside Emmanuel - brrrr!

Sorry for the radio silence everyone!  That was the most overwhelming (in a good way) week ever! We went to a beautiful Christmas Eve service at Emmanuel Lutheran (first home of The Lutheran Hour). The music was just gorgeous with a full orchestra accompanying the choir. Joseph was melting down, so we went to the nursery where I met a mother whose kids go to the preschool there and a dad who gave me job leads for Arthur.  Both pastors introduced themselves to us and we were able to have a cookie and chat with Pastor Springer's parents after church. This school may be an option for Jane and Joseph (it's Pre-K - 8th). We are still researching, but felt it was very welcoming.

After church, we got home and left cookies and milk out for Santa. Grace spread her reindeer feed (oatmeal) that her reading teacher gave her before we left California and we tucked the little ones in bed. Then, Jane and I got to work. This was her first year helping Santa and it will be a new tradition for us. Wrapping, drinking cocoa, watching Christmas movies, and she had the idea of dropping wrapped candy canes in a path from the fireplace to the Christmas tree (that proved to be a hit).

Toasting our California family and also new traditions on Christmas Eve.

 

In the lobby at Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Hey! That's for Santa!

Santa's elves

The kids woke up at the crack of dawn on Christmas (of course) and were thrilled to follow the candy cane trail. The girls each received a Breyer horse and Joseph got a toy train - that ended up being way louder than Santa realized. The batteries have "disappeared" for the car ride home.

Freakazoid! Thanks, Santa!

Rain (from the Spirit movies)

"Rose Petal Spot" but "Rose Petal" for short

Grace ended up naming her horse "Paris France"

Playing horses

We went to church at Redeemer Lutheran and really loved it. The whole church is full of children. For the first time in our lives, we weren't the loudest family at a service (although, no one at Trinity has ever said a word to us). It is very "high church," with kneelers and much ceremony. I absolutely loved it and Jane told me that she felt like this was home. Arthur wasn't quite used to this much ceremony, but the kids liked having kneelers.

We were invited back to Christmas dinner with the congregation that afternoon - I wish I had pictures! Apparently, they are a very close knit congregation (though, very welcoming to visitors!) and figured since they were all just sitting around on Christmas afternoon, why not get together?  So, it was a huge potluck! There were so many children there and they were just running around in a pack while parents took turns supervising. A group of them ended up out on the playground, another group was exploring the classrooms, and the parents were fine with all this. Some of the families brought board games and puzzles and the older kids were hanging out with each other. A family that had moved from San Diego recently pulled us to their table and we discovered we had a lot in common. Redeemer's Classical School is ideally where all our kids would go, but we'll see. I think Rosalie and Joseph will definitely fit right in (once Joseph starts kindergarten). Grace is a maybe - we might need to put her in public school for services. Jane is also a maybe, depending on whether they end up adding upper grades next year. But, again, everyone was so friendly. That seems to be a theme in Indiana.

The day after Christmas we spent househunting. Eight houses, six hours, four children, that was stressful! We found some houses we like better than others. We put an offer in on one, but they came back with a counter offer that was too high for us since it needed central air and a new roof. So, we are considering our other options. Here are some photos that Jane took that day - she was our right-hand woman and took excellent notes on the pros and cons of each house.

The house we stayed at was near a lake.

Rosalie and Grace swing while Jane takes notes

Hmm. This house needs some work.

We saw frost for the first time and it is so beautiful. When it finally melted, Joseph wanted to

know what happened to the diamonds!

The next day, I stayed home with the kids and did mounds of mounds of laundry while Arthur went back out to our favorites with the realtor and the Springers who had lots of good advice. We then had pizza at the Springers' house and discussed the pros and cons of each. They surprised the kids with amazing Christmas presents. Joseph received a Little People combine with a farmer, horse, goat and rooster. He insisted that I go back to California right away to get his barn to go with it. He has been playing with it non-stop! Jane, Grace, and Rosalie received cozy mermaid tail blankets to cuddle up in, plus jewelry and stamps. They loved it!

On the 28th, we put an offer on a house (which didn't work out, sadly) and then met Ryan and the Springers for lunch at Sweetwater for Grace's birthday. They had a giant slide which made Grace one happy girl. The kids must have gone up the stairs and down the slide over a dozen times.  They were good and worn out that afternoon!  We later had dinner at an excellent BBQ joint called Shigs in Pit (ha ha) and then got an early night.

ZZ Top Car

Today we drove and drove and drove and drove, stopping only for giant roadside attractions.

World's largest windchime and rocking chair

Gigantic birdcage and mailbox (too cold to go try them out)

Now they're working on world's largest see-saw

Here comes St. Louis!

Happily my cousin Amy and her family was on the other end of this drive. They surprised us with pizza and we got some fun cousin time and I got to tour her beautiful home (haven't been out to Missouri since they moved). It was so great to see her and Steve - can't believe how much the kids have grown.

Well, that should bring you up to speed. We will see what tomorrow brings!