September 18 GIR Celebration

Friday Evening:  The Sunday school class I attend at Calvary is called "Growing in Relationships" and has a 31 year history of being a class. Tonight the class invited everyone to a celebratory potluck in the newly renovated space at the church. It was a fun night of people remembering the early days of the class, how people met and got married, film clips from days gone by, etc.

Bev invited Ted to come, so I facilitated that! Ted was introduced to everyone he hadn't met at the last social gathering, and it turned out that he actually knew 2-3 people that went way back in his life--it's a small world. It's always fun to be with these two because they always run into someone they know and the they talk about old days together. Ted is 92 and Bev is 91, so they have quite a lot of people that they know and even though these two "old folk" just met each other six months ago, they keep finding common old friends that they have!

Ted and Bev . . .

This "room" is at the far west end of Calvary's buildings.

They tried to gather everyone for a group picture, but the group has gotten so large that they had to split the group into three separate pictures. I only took this one picture. I can't name every single person in this picture, but I have become acquainted with quite a few of them this past year and am glad about it.

I think the average age of people in this class is right around 80, so I'm one of the young ones!

September 17 Wedding Rehearsal

Thursday Evening:  This is the week! Chris and Ella are to be married two days from now, and tonight was the wedding rehearsal over at Whippoorwill Farms (their wedding venue). It was a really beautiful evening as everyone gathered to go over all of the details of the upcoming ceremony and reception. The wedding photographers, planners, the pastor, the wedding party, parents, grandparents, and everyone else in the family who could make it were there--Emma and Kota did not have enough notice to request time off from their jobs, so they were unable to come.

I took a few pictures (just a few) of the happenings ...

Here is the Best Man--Tyler (also Chris's best friend for probably a dozen years now)

Pastor Lou running through some of the details of the ceremony--directing the wedding party as to where they should stand, etc. and going over a few things with the bride and groom.

Chris looked very solemn as they practiced their vows ...

Matt is also in the wedding party--see him? He is right next to Tyler . . . and here comes the bride ... being walked down the aisle by her dad.

A nice smile from Chris! Tyler is taking it all in ...

I didn't get any pictures of Ella's face during any of this time. Why? Because I am NOT the wedding photographer, and I most certainly have been in the way. I took these pictures from where I was told to stand/sit during the rehearsal.

When all of the formalities of the rehearsal were rehearsed, everyone went into the barn for pizza and celebration. I wandered around a little bit outside because it was so pretty out there, AND rain is 90% predicted for Saturday. Ouch. We had a brief rehearsal inside their little chapel (plan B in case it rains), but I didn't take any pictures inside of it because it wasn't well lit.

This is inside the barn where we ate our pizza and visited with family. I love barns! This is an especially pretty one.

There were a few goat and donkeys wandering the fields. I'm not sure WHICH donkey (below) let out a mournful "HE-HAW" during the actual wedding ceremony (Saturday), but I sure was relieved that it was only ONE outburst and not a prolonged number.

Isn't it so pretty here? A very nice venue, unless of course you would rather be married in a church--which is my preference ... but perhaps it's because I am old. Anyway, I love the sky in these picture.

Across the grassy yard, the white building is where the reception will be held. I took a few shots in here because I really liked how it looked, PLUS I was relieved that the reception would not be out in the rather chilly barn.

Two more days ...
 

September 12 @ Deer Tracks Junction

Saturday:  Cal and I arrived at about 10:30 this morning to explore and play at Deer Tracks Junction. When I was purchasing tickets, I found out that with my $75/yr membership, it also came with FOUR free passes. This is the first I ever was told this! So I used one of the four for Cal today and now I have three left! Cool.

Cal has a lot of fun playing here. He is six and although he is not crazy about heights, he does like exploring in all of the tunnels they have built into the playgrounds out here. He wore the head light in all of the tunnels and told me he could see EVERYTHING.

I love this picture of this little guy--this is SO him!

As I watched other children Cal's age, these tunnels were the BEST thing out here. It was difficult to get some of the little kids to even be interested in going to see the animals because these underground tunnels are a total maze of delight!

We visited the prairie dogs, who are always entertaining ...

Cal liked being in their habitat!

This little man is very focused, if he is interested in something, his attention is 100% along with his enthusiasm. I love this.

The EMU, as always, cracked us up. We were feeding them carrots, but I turned my back on them for a second and didn't realize how close I was to their beaks, and they mistook my orange paper admission bracelet for a carrot and practically bit off my arm!!!!! Don't mess with these guys! Sheesh.

Cal got along well with all of the animals in this little area: the pigs, sheep, goats ... he really had a good time feeding them.

He was a very intense machinery driver ... (below)

Cal did make it to the top of a smaller playground set and was super proud about it!

Here he is explaining that we are fresh out of carrots ... these little pigs did not understand and kept following closely ...

Cal continued to try to make himself clear: "WE ARE OUT OF CARROT YOU GUYS!"

We did have some seeds for the birds, so we went to the BUDGIE pavilion next.

Cal loves feeding the birds, who were very interesting today! A few of them were completely determined to get INSIDE of my purse!

One of the young staff boys poured some seeds right into Cal's hands and the birds fed right out of his hands. He was pretty thrilled about that.

Aren't these budgies SO beautiful?

Cal said they tickled his hands, but sometimes they would nip at his fingers too.

"There's a bird on your shoulder, Cal!"

After we fed the budgies, Cal requested to hold the guinea pigs. He is very gentle and careful as he holds them. They make soft little squeaking noises, which I guess means they are happy.

Cal played in the corn for a very long time. It wasn't too crowded today, so he had a lot of space to dig and play.

We went in search of the bears, but only found the Coatimundi, three of them. They are "cousins" to our raccoon up north, but they are from S. America.

There is a stairway to climb if you want to get a bird's eye view of them--so we did that--Gregory insisted.

By this time, it was very near our lunch time and Cal had seen all of the animals he wanted to see. We did shop for awhile in the gift shop and Cal ended up choosing a tiny stuffed fox, super cute, and named him "Tiny Sneaker." He got to go to Culver's with us. See it hiding inside our #37 order sign?

Cal ate his entire cheeseburger and fries and root beer, but announced he was "too full" for his ice cream, so we didn't get any. Cal's not a huge fan of ice cream! 

I sure had a nice time with this little guy on his overnight visit. So thankful I have these little ones to love and play with.