Pennsylvania!

On Wednesday the 25th, we drove up to Emlenton, Pennsylvania to Whitehall Camp, of the Church of God.  Jim spent many years here as a youth camper, and his family always attended annual campmeeting and spent many other weekends here, as well.  He has many great memories of this place and the people here.  I spent several Memorial Day weekends and campmeeting weeks here, too.  We had not been back to campmeeting since 1993, so our youngest children had never been there.  It was pouring rain while we were driving around, but we got some pics and Jim enjoyed telling our children many stories and reminiscing.

 
Old cabins.

Campground.

The tabernacle.

This is the trailer that Jim's parents used to own, and where we spent many fun times.  They sold the trailer years ago, but by some twist of fate (God!) it now sits in the exact same lot that it used to, beside Jim's cousin's trailer.  It was fun to see.

This is the little house where Jim and his parents lived until 1974, in New Castle, Pennsylvania.

In the afternoon we went to a very fun Altman family reunion at Jim's aunt Roxana's house.  Here is Caylie and her cousin Eislee.

Dominic and Kyla.

Roxana and Greg.

Celeste, Keelan, Eislee, Jim, Dominic, and Caylie.

Kathy

Kyla and Colsen.

Joy and Jim.

Justin was working on a scarf while we were there.  He did a lot of crotcheting while we were traveling!

Taylor and Keelan exhibiting brotherly love.

Roxana, Sylvia, and Jan - two of Jim's aunts and his mom.

Celeste and Dominic.

Celeste and Kathy.

Celeste and Caylie!

Justin, Kyla, Eislee, Celeste, Dominic, Colsen, and Caylie.

Jim and his cousin Tim.

More Indiana into Ohio!

After a night at my parents' house, we made our way on to Ohio to visit Jim's mom and aunt.  But along the way we first stopped to visit our dear friends, the Maurers.   God brought these people into our lives almost 18 years ago, when He called us to move from Anderson, Indiana to Aurora, Colorado.  The house He had for us to live in was just three houses from the Maurers, and Dan became our pastor for several years.  We shared life together for those years, and watched God do amazing things in and through our church body.  We are grateful for those days, and for the relationships and memories that remain. 

Andrew, Keelan, and Taylor

Then we got to Ohio and stayed at Jim's Aunt Cathy's house.  Here is Taylor and Caylie at the Sprint store, where we went to get a tablet for my parents.  (Yes, family . . . my parents are now online at their house!!)

Jim's Aunt Cathy and his mom, Sylvia.  (And of course the one pic I have of them is blurry.  Blah.)

Caylie's first ice cream cone!  She loves ice cream, but this was the first time to eat it this way!

Grandma and Justin enjoying a yummy ice cream treat!

Our Trip - The Beginning!

We left early in the morning of June 21.  Here we are heading east along the Colorado plains, with the sun not fully up yet.

Halfway through Kansas, we knew we were in Colorado anymore.  We don't have all these big juicy bugs!  I wish I'd taken a photo of the windshield when we got home . . . yuck!

We stopped in Columbia, Missouri for the night, and the next day arrived at my parents' house in Indiana.  Right away we discovered that they had seven baby kitties!

Caylie having fun in the big yard, after two days of riding in the car.

Playing catch with Grandpa.

Caylie with Grandma and Grandpa.

Caylie and Mama.  :)

 Yes, there will be lots of cute kittie pictures!

Keelan, Caylie, Taylor, Justin, my nephew Adam, and my dad holding six of the seven kitties.

My sister Sharon and me with kitties, and a photobombing by Adam and another kitty!

Justin and Caylie on the swingset.  Caylie thought that swing was "scawy" at first, but then decided she liked it after all.

Keelan playing his trumpet in the back yard.

More of the back yard.

The guys enjoying the front porch.

Justin and kitty.

Caylie with cousin Adam.

This was 10:00 at night, when it finally gets dark in western Indiana!  Justin was out in the yard catching lightning bugs.  If you look closely, you can see tiny yellow dots!

June Fun!

Here are some random photos of our month of June!  We have had lots of fun in the first days of summer.

We've been watching Daddy and Brad play softball on the church team.  Caylie has a great time playing with her friends, especially Jaden.

A selfie with my Jussy Fussy Moo.

Keelan enjoying the sunshine and pool at Brittany and Brad's apartment complex.

Caylie and Brittany (and baby!)

Justin is quite the fish these days, after many months of swimming lessons.

Silly kid.

Meadowood Church Community Service Day.  Our group worked very hard to clean up this yard.  The grass was about three feet high when we went in, and look at it now!  A very fun and productive day, and I know the older lady who lives there was blessed.

Justin's been taking swimming lessons continually since last August.  He knows many strokes now, and we are so proud of him!  Here he is with his friend Benjamin at the pool.

Father's Day at Meadowood Church!  Caylie made this awesome tie for Jim.

Since we were gone on Brittany's birthday, we celebrated a few days early.  

Happy 25th birthday to our beautiful daughter, soon to be a mama!  

30-Week Baby!

Brittany is 30 weeks!  We're getting more and more excited to meet this little one! 

1st Day of Preschool!

Since we've decided to start Caylie in kindergarten this year (more on that later), we're doing all we can to prepare her for that, including a summer of preschool!  She will be going three mornings a week and had her first class today.  She was very excited, as she LOVES any sort of class and is SO very social.  When we got there and were waiting for the teacher to open the door, she danced and danced around the hallway.  When the teacher told her she could go see the room, she ran right in with no hesitation.  When I picked her up she was very happy, and told the w-h-o-l-e story of her day in her crazy English/gibberish.  Silly kid.  :)

Here she is just before we left this morning.  (Yes, she is sporting several Hello Kitty tattoos.)

And here she is in her new classroom!