A few Father's Day photos ...

Father's Day has come and gone this year in kind of a BLUR. I don't know how else to describe it. Before we left for church this morning, our dads (Andrew and Grandpa Jones) opened up wonderful Father's Day cards from Sabrina and the kiddos ...

We worshiped together this morning at church ... I opted out of serving the 3-year-olds so that I could sit in the same pew with my usually faraway family members and just soak up the joy of the Lord. I loved sitting next to Olivia this morning in church ...

I was so thankful to see my brother and Carol just briefly before the service began. They were very understanding of my request for a nice picture of them ... PLUS, I got to give them another hug and kiss and send messages home with them to my nephews and nieces in Florida ...

After church, I served lasagna and garlic bread, along with cold vegetable pizza ... but I neglected to take any photos of our dinner! Very soon afterwards, Sabrina and family packed up their van and it was time for them to leave us. I purposely did not take pictures of them leaving. I'm a little tired of the whole leaving thing ... and long distance everything ... and wishing our family could be closer ... so NO pictures!

Sadly, Livie (Olivia) left her brand new SOFT and WARM and COZY Grand Haven sweatshirt on the recliner in our family room and we didn't discover it until it was too late for them to come back and retrieve it. We'll wait a few days to send it down to Austin ... who knows what we may find left behind in other rooms of the house that we could send all together?

I have 130 pictures to look over and edit from Emily's baby shower yesterday. Her Aunt Vicky's house and property was SO amazing ... and Emily was so beautiful opening her gifts ... I just have to show you the best of those pictures! But not tonight!

Surprised speechless!

I talk a lot. Actually, I talk TOO much ... on a regular basis ... and it's almost impossible for me to talk without using my hands ... you know, waving them around a lot to help me express myself. But I've been sitting here at my computer really struggling to find words to help me tell this next little story. I suppose I should start at the beginning!

Several weeks ago, our main kitchen (we have TWO very small kitchens ... long story) oven would not heat up ... basically, it was NOT working. So Mr. Jones took it apart to see what the problem was. In the meantime, while he was figuring it out, we just used our other oven in the other small kitchen through the hallway and into the room we use as a family room. That oven was working just fine, so ... no big deal! Mr. Jones discovered that the igniter had gone bad in our main kitchen oven so he simply replaced it for a cost of about $70. I was impressed. After all, I couldn't take apart an appliance ~ let alone discern what the problem was and actually FIX it ~ and then put it back together again. No way.

Yesterday, however, that very same oven that Mr. Jones "fixed" several weeks ago ... broke again. Did I tell you this oven is at least 20 years old? So perhaps it was an "age" issue (getting old is kind of rough sometimes!) and would keep breaking every few weeks ... who could say? I casually mentioned that the oven was not working to Sabrina, who then told Andrew that our oven was busted. Honestly, I wasn't stressing out about the broken oven ~ after all, we did have ANOTHER one that worked just fine ... and God certainly wouldn't want me to whine like a spoiled child just because I didn't have TWO working ovens anymore, would He?
But our favorite son-in-law got to thinking ... and his brain started spinning ...

... and he came to a very firm decision that we ought to have a new oven!

Last night was the last night Andrew and Sabrina, Olivia, Jackson and Karis were going to be with us. Sabrina kind of hinted that perhaps she and Andrew could slip away for just maybe two hours late in the evening and have a little "date night" together. As it was, Adam and Emily were over to help us "old folk" with the little kids ... so we sent them off with our blessings! We had NO idea what they were up to ... and also, that Adam and Emily were equal partners and co-contributors to this diabolical plan! So Grandpa Jones and Uncle Adam played baseball outside with Jackson (who, by the way, is an incredible little baseball player!) and Aunt Emily and I stayed inside with little Karis and did our cool foam ABC puzzles. After about an hour, our phone rang and it was Sabrina asking that I gather up the children and come outside to the front of the house because she and Andrew had a surprise to show everyone. I agreed to round up the family, and soon we were watching Andrew open up the back door of their van exposing a very LARGE box inside.

I was really baffled at this point because I could not figure out WHY Andrew and Sabrina would buy a huge present for their kiddos that they would have to haul all the way back to Texas ... when they arrived 10 days ago, their van was so packed FULL that they had to have a car-carrier on the top just to fit all of the suitcases, etc. What on earth were they thinking?!!!

Good grief! They opened the box and LOOK! A spanking brand new Frigidaire stove/oven ... for me and Mr. Jones! Our old broken one was quickly disconnected and taken out to the garage (yikes! The tile was SO yucky underneath). Sabrina cleaned up the back wall where all of the nasty grease and stains were, as well as the completely gross tile ... and then Adam and Andrew installed our beauteous oven!

It was a perfect fit!

I do LOVE shiny clean surfaces ... in fact, I had endeavored to clean our old oven so thoroughly, that I had wiped the numbers clean off the knobs ... I think the numbers floated down the drain with the extremely strong cleaner I was using. Missing numbers made setting the temp in the oven a little difficult!

I know the title of this post is "Surprised speechless!" and you are probably thinking I am certainly talking a lot trying to tell you this story ... but I am still without words to express the heartfelt love shown to us with this gift. We do thank Andrew and Sabrina, Adam and Emily, and have designated this our gift for the year (or more!) ~ both our birthday's, Father's Day and Mother's Day, as well as this coming Christmas! I successfully used our new oven this morning. It was so easy to set the oven temperature (because it is a digital one!) and I baked the crust to use for my cold vegetable pizza ~ and then at noon today, I baked lasagna and garlic bread for our Father's Day meal ... worked like a charm! :)

Our fun and lots of family Friday!

Look! Olivia and Andrew FINISHED my 1000-piece lighthouse puzzle late Thursday evening! They only just started working on it Sunday afternoon. When it came to putting the last two pieces into the puzzle ... they were missing! I searched the living room area and found ONE piece under the couch ... so it was put in its place ... but what about that ONE last piece of the lighthouse?!! I was feeling all alarmed about it, because it's so very fun to put in the LAST piece of a huge puzzle like this ... and suddenly Olivia appeared with a small ring box and presented it to her dad ... and inside was that last piece ~ she had put it aside (secretly) to give to her dad so that he could be the one to put it in the puzzle. I thought that was really sweet of her!

Friday morning we went to Robinettes to eat one of their fresh-baked donuts. Here is Jackson out front in the wagon. I was so pleased to actually grab this shot of him ... he is faster than a speeding bullet and I usually miss great photo opportunities because I am ... TOO SLOW on the draw!

Jackson and Karis out front of Robinette's ...

This is Felicia Flamingo. I'm not sure I told you about her! Karis picked her out at the zoo on Thursday because she came with this cool little purse and she was pink and ... Karis liked her! She came along to Robinette's with us for a donut. As we were sitting at our picnic bench eating, I noticed Felicia was not at our table! I asked Karis WHERE she was. Karis very nicely told me Felicia had been "naughty" and was in "time out" all by herself ... and then Karis pointed WAY across the dining room to a table ~ and there was Felicia! Karis named her F-E-L-I-C-I-A just that morning. We had gotten out our baby names book and opened up to the letter "F" and I read her all of the choice "F" names for baby girls. Karis liked Felicia the best!

The donuts were very yummy!

While the grown-ups were doing a Meijer-run, Karis and Jackson and I were dropped off at a nearby playground to ... PLAY! The following pictures are of Jackson digging with the "digger" at the park ... this was the best photo opportunity I had of him ALL week ... he was so intense with this machine and I was able to take picture after picture!

Here is Karis going "way high" on the swings ...

And this is Karis with her hair all full of static from the slide ...

Later in the day, Adam arrived from Minneapolis ... and my brother and sister-in-law from Florida! What a great family day! I had not seen my brother (David) and wife (Carol) in two years ... so I was really happy to see them ~ but our visit was way too short!

Emily is absolutely adorable in her sixth month of pregnancy with OUR grandson #5!

Nana and Grandpa Roy came over too ... except I cropped Nana out of this picture because it wasn't good of her ...

Notice how Emily (our family hairdresser) is assessing my most recent haircut ...

And this is a self-portrait of Sabrina, Adam and Emily ... I'm not sure WHO was holding the camera, but I loved the result! You can tell how humid and hot it was in our house last night just from the shiny faces ... I don't have time to photo-edit the shine out right now ... but I know they will forgive me!

Today (Saturday) is Emily's baby shower. I'll try to show you some pictures of our time there later on tonight ...

It's Diana's birthday today!

We've had a house full of folk all week at the Jones Junction ... but I want to be sure to say a very Happy Birthday to Diana Joy today ... we are thinking of you here in Michigan! This pretty picture of Diana was taken at the Toy Train Museum up in Alamogordo, New Mexico, back in March when all of us were together.

I'm praying, Diana, that this year in your life will be the happiest ever ... the deep down kind of happiness that brings true joy, contentment, and peace! Happy, happy birthday!

Psalm 90:14 ~ "Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives."

A blast at the Zoo!

You can't BELIEVE how past my bedtime it is tonight ... and here I am uploading pictures on this crazy blog!!! I think Mr. Jones is right ~ I am addicted to this little journal! Plus, I've had a whole bunch of issues with the internet tonight and have no guarantee whatsoever that I will be able to publish this once I'm finished ... AND right now, I am unable to move pictures around like I usually do once they've been uploaded so the order is ALL MESSED UP! This will no doubt drive me crazy ~ but having said all of that, I did want to show you our day at the John Ball Zoo. So hang on tight and try to follow!
These photos are of Jackson and Karis playing on the wooden train while they wait for their mom and dad to do the Sky Trail ... Olivia and I did the Sky Trail after Andrew and Sabrina had tested it out!

Sabrina and Andrew waving good-bye to the little kids, going down the ramp to the Sky Trail.

See how they are wearing harnesses? That's because this is kind of like a rope obstacle course and it's kind of high up off the ground ... it would kind of do damage to your body if you slipped and fell ...

The Flowers at the park ~

I was going to intermingle these flower photos here and there throughout this post, but they will NOT BUDGE from where I have originally put them, so here they all are at once!

So gorgeous!

Our Adventures at the Zoo!
We talked it over for a long time today and just could not make up our minds which was the BEST part of our day at the zoo. Was it the Zip line?! Or how about the Stingrays?!!! Or perhaps riding the camel? Or doing the ropes at the Sky Trail?

Karis voted for touching the Stingrays ... look at her precious little face after she FINALLY touched one! Watching these creatures glide and fly through the water was almost overwhelmingly beautiful ... and touching them was ... well they are the softest creatures I have ever felt! Cold and sleek, but very very soft and slippery too! We also got to touch two shark that were kind of sleeping at the other end of the pool right here with the Stingrays. They felt like sandpaper on their tails! Isn't that cool? Isn't God just beyond cool? I have more pictures of the Stingrays somewhere on this blog ... out of order, naturally.

Here are a few general pictures of the zoo ~ and by the way, the John Ball Zoo was about the worst zoo EVER when my boys were little. I was completely amazed at how they have fixed it up and added such fun stuff to do!

Doesn't it look like a jungle out here?

Jackson and Karis playing the bongos ...

The above picture is the little kids watching Olivia and I get OFF our camel, after our ride. Yes! I rode on a camel AGAIN! I rode a camel over in Israel and was scared to death ~ I made Sabrina get on the back of it to keep me from falling off! Today, Olivia rode on the front and I rode on the back. We cracked up while doing it ~ what a bumpy ride!

I took the above picture pointing the camera over Olivia's shoulders ... the pictures of us actually on top of the camel are somewhere farther down on this post ... how annoying that I can't fix the order!

Jackson riding "Angel" with his daddy. The other camel, "Sassy" was taking a nap.

Some pretty amazing animals!

An iguana ...

A great penguin exhibit ... I had no idea they talked so loud!

A lovely flamingo ...

Shark!

These are a variation of a llama, but smaller I think and called something like a Gnuamo (but I've spelled it incorrectly) ...

Magnificent beasty tiger!

Queen of the beasts ...

A very cool blue frog ... he probably has an official scientific name but I didn't write it down and have forgotten it!

Jackson petting a pygmy goat ...

Cutie Karis enjoying herself HUGELY!

So cute!

Back to the camels ... I would like to introduce you to "Angel." She was a very bumpy ride ...

I can't tell you WHEN I have had more fun!

And here we are back at the Stingray pool ... you have to put almost your whole arm in the water as deep as you can and just stay really really STILL. The stingrays are trained to come up to a person's arm and just brush against it. It is amazingly wonderful to feel these incredible animals!

Oh my! I bet you didn't see that Olivia was WAY UP HIGH in that bunch of trees did you? Well look again very carefully ... do you see her? She is on a zip line way above the trees ... like a monkey!

Olivia went first because she was the bravest! And then it was my turn! YES! I did the zip line. It was such a blast!

OK. I'll be truthful. I was scared stiff! I love heights ... I just do not like speed combined with heights and I didn't expect it to go this fast! I screamed all the way down!

That's me up there! Isn't that hysterical? I was screaming and laughing at the same time!

A cute picture of Andrew and Sabrina all harnessed up and ready to take on the ropes!

Back on the wooden train with Jackson ...

Olivia and I did the Sky trail too ... so here are a few pictures of that ...

Being with grandchildren makes kind of a kid out of me!

That was SO MUCH FUN!

We went shopping at the gift shop on the way out ... little Karis picked out a whale hat and called it "Shamu" even though we were no where NEAR Sea World! She loves Shamu!

And Jackson picked out a Lion hat .... GRRRRRR! Well, I bet you never thought I'd stop showing you pictures tonight ... me either! Good night!

"All creatures of our God and King

lift up your voice and with us sing ... Alleluia! Alleluia!

Let all things their Creator bless

and worship Him in humbleness

O praise Him! Alleluia!

Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son

and praise the Spirit ~ three in One ~

O praise Him!"

[from All Creatures of Our God and King]