Road Trip

We arrived home last night after a delightful week-long road trip that allowed us to see most of our adult children,  all of our grand-children and Vicki’s brother, Todd and family.  We enjoyed every minute of  this road trip except for the final hour when we started ”letting down” and  realized our fatigue after driving almost 3,000 miles in one week.  We’re not used to so much sedentary time and all of the dietary changes that result from lack of self-control on such a road trip.  Emma and Claire were right when they prayed last Sunday, for God to grant us love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, faith, “and ESPECIALLY self-control”!   Now that we’re out of the Tim Horten’s zone and have more access to fresh fruits and vegetables, things will be much easier. It felt SO good this morning to indulge in a long run on familiar trails here in Des Moines. Later today, after catching up on household chores,  we’re hoping to take a long bike ride as well. 

Our primary stops on this road trip included Grand Rapids MI, Hamilton ON, Philadelphia PA, Mill Run PA and Brownsburg IN (near Indianapolis):

GRAND RAPIDS:

Marley at 13 1/2 months. She’s playing here at the base of her back porch steps, while her Dad and her Papa are building a backyard fence.  Her Mom and her Nana are supervising the project.

 

Paul hard at work on the fence.

 

Everybody worked together in assembly line fashion: Lloyd’s job was to attach the pickets with screws while Paul and his friend, Nate, prepapred the way by putting  in more fence posts with 2×4 headers. In-between Marley moments, Kim and Vicki drilled  pilot holes in the pickets and delivered them to Lloyd. Somehow, we all managed to keep up with eachother.

 

That’s Paul at the far end of the “fence to be”, and Kim with Marley on the back porch steps. You can also see Paul’s new truck at the end of the driveway.

 

The real supervisors of Paul and Kim’s fence project were Macy and Bear. They loved all  the activity. They ran free in the backyard most of the time. Whenever Paul or Kim confined them to the house for awhile, they would continue to watch over the fence project by sticking their heads through the open dining room windows that overlook the driveway.

 

Emma and Claire helped their Papa use the drill for awhile.

 

A quick lunch break. Kristin/Curt/Emma/Claire and almost-ready-to-be-born baby Kuiper walked over to join us.  They came back later in the evening too, when Kim and Paul hosted a back-yard BBQ. Kim and Paul arranged a make-shift table and benches to sit on out of extra lumber supplies and firewood logs. Paul’s parents were able to join us as well. Emma, Claire and Marley all got really dirty as they played in a driveway dirt pit. Who needs a sand-box?

 

HAMILTON:

We took care of Eden for two whole days while Reuben and Heidi were at work. 

 

Eden got a new pair of shades at the Mountain Equipment Coop that we visited with Reuben and Heidi. She wanted them on even after we got inside.

 

Reuben and Heidi treated us to supper at a small Carribean restaurant in downtown Hamilton. We were the only ones in the whole restaurant, which allowed for very specialized service and wide margins for Eden who was getting tired at the time.

 

PHILADELPHIA:

We met Salome and Isaiah in Philadelphia, where Isaiah graduated from Westminster Seminary with a Ph.D. in Theology. Salome and Isaiah currently live near Dallas, TX, where Salome is doing her second year of law school.  We had some good pockets of time with Salome and Isaiah to catch up on their lives and future dreams.

 

We stayed two nights at The Philadelphia House, where Isaiah worked as director for 6 years while he was attending Westminster Seminary. The Philadelphia House is an intentional Christian housing community for international students from a variety of schools in Philadelphia. Many of Isaiah’s former students joined us after the graduation for a party at the Philadelphia House. It was quite a feast with many cooks and a variety of international foods. On the day of the graduation, we enjoyed an early morning run through adjoining neighborhoods. We ran through quite a cross-section of Philly.  Isaiah later told us that some of the neighborhoods we ran through would not be safe after dark.  In the morning light, however, they were very interesting neighborhoods.

 

MILL RUN

We took a break on the 13 hour drive from Philadelphia, PA, to Brownsburg, IN, by stopping for a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water in the Laurel Highlands near Mill Run, PA. Falling Water was exquisite and well worth the stop.

We would highly recommend a tour of Falling Water to anyone traveling anywhere near the area. It’s located just southwest of Pittsburg. We were told that October is the best month to see it, as the fall colors beautifully compliment Wright’s signature red.

 

BROWNSBURG

On the final leg of our road trip, we stayed overnight in Brownsburg, IN, with Todd and Teresa and their children, Isabelle (4) and Andrea (2). They moved to Brownsburg from Racine, WI, 19 months ago, and are nicely settled in their new community. We had to remind ourselves several times that Isabelle and Andrea are our nieces, not our grand-daughters!  Somehow, it feels very similar.

After a walk/bike-ride around the neighborhood,  we shared a delicious brunch before driving the   final 7-8 hour stretch back to Des Moines.  After observing the neatly manicured lawns in Todd and Teresa’s neighborhood, it was quite a shock to arrive home and discover the wild and messy hay field surrounding our house. Apparently it rained alot when we were gone!