"This post is soooo three weeks ago, but I wanted to do it anyway."

This is more from "the weekend" in Edgerton. There was SO much that went on that weekend, and I have so many pictures to share, but life and kids got in the way of posting in a more timely manner. I still wanted to post about it, plus to make a long process and story short, I got a discount to upgrade my collage program and have been messing around with that here and there and wanted to share those too. So here we go!

It is a 4 hour drive to my mom and dad's farm. With kids that is generally 5+ hours. We actually made this trip in a little over 4 hours, because the kids did so well and we had a...


...van picnic! We stopped for chicken strips and fries and shakes for supper on the way and decided to try to eat in the car and the kids were so excited about it! Made easy for G&W by cutting up the chicken strips with "purse scissors" and putting them and fries in a cup. The kids thought that this was seriously awesome. =)


Little bit of background on the first event of "the weekend." When my parents had been married 25 years, we as a family went and had professional pictures taken. When they had been married 30 years, we took another family photo (not professional for that one...I set it up...Grandma K climbed a ladder and took the photo...turned out great though!). Well, they now have been married a bit over 35 years, and we were all going to be home for "the weekend", so Thursday morning we had a professional photo shoot at the farm...


...in front of the barn. It was a lot of fun and the pictures turned out great! If you would like to take a peek at a slideshow of them, click here.


And this...


...is my brother M (and his lovely wife A). This picture is not from "the weekend." This is back from May when he graduated from Western Theological seminary. Baby C and I flew out for that and had a great time, but I never got around to blogging about that trip! Anyway, the reason I post this picture here is for 2 reasons. #1: "The weekend" was really all about M. He was ordained as a minister in the Reformed Church in America and we all were in Edgerton to witness that and be a part of the service. #2: Even though "the weekend" was all about him, I did not take one single picture of him! I did not try this. It was not repressed oldest child feelings of it was ALWAYS all about him, the baby, coming out. It was not because I did not enjoy the ordination service. And it was not because I did not like his new haircut. It was just one of those things that happened! Fortunately, I was able to get a few pictures from others...


...so I can show you a little of what happened at ordination. It was a beautiful service and very meaningful, really tying the stories and words of scriptures vividly to the here and now for M and all of us. Friends and relatives participated with music, preaching, reading the charge to M, and serving communion. M's first church is in Nebraska and him and A will start there in September. M, it has been a privilege to see you graduate from seminary and be ordained this year. We know that God will do wonderful things through you and A and are excited for you to be a pastor (a real live one! =). We love you and will continue to pray for you and look forward to coming to visit and being able to worship with you!


OK, another possible reason that we don't have any pictures of M & A is that they left on Friday for a month long vacation starting with a family reunion at Yellowstone Nat'l Park and then spending the rest of it in Washington with A's family where they will celebrate her brother's wedding. S also had to leave on Friday to go back to work being that it was semi-annual inventory on Saturday. But the kids and I stayed at the farm for the weekend and so did a lot of our relatives so there was much more fun to be had. Like with this guy...


...my Uncle R. He works for the National Park Service and lives (literally!) at Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park in Colorado. One of the things my Uncle R is famous for is his pizza. Oh, his pizza! =) So Friday night 14 of us gathered to eat Uncle R's pizza. He makes his pizza from scratch...


...and we always have fun helping him. And this year Uncle R gained a little helper, G, and became her friend forever for how much fun she had with him! Uncle R commented that it was a little bit of de ja vous having G help him as he remembers me helping him when I was little too. W helped too - he helped himself to a large amount of pizza toppings while we put it all together. So much fun! Thanks for the awesome pizza, Uncle R!


This is Dad:


This is the shed that Dad built (or is building):


My dad is building a new machine shed this summer and was working on it throughout "the weekend" too. When we arrived, the large vertical poles were being put in, and by the end of the weekend they were all up with crossboards on too. G&W had so much fun watching and "helping" and also playing in the large pile of pea gravel near the shed. Update on the shed: the cement floor has been poured and now rafters are also up!


On Saturday, Mom and I and the kids took a quick trip to visit my Aunt R and cousin C. Here is our attempt at a group picture!

It was so much fun to see my cousin C and her little guy E, who is 10 months old! It is neat because there are 10 grandchildren on the K side and we were all born in the span of 6 years! So all of us are in very similar stages of life right now. And of my Grandma K's 8 great-grandchildren, one is 6 yrs old, one is almost 4 yrs old, and the other 6 are 2yrs old and under! So lots of little kids fun. And Gma, I have to tell you what G said the other day to a lady in the grocery store. She was wearing one of the outfits you made her for this summer, and when the lady complimented her on it, she told her proudly that "My Nana made it! She make ALL my clothes." =)


The last event of "the weekend" was of course, Sunday dinner...


...around Mom and Dad's ping-pong table. There were 20 of us for Sunday dinner which doesn't fit around Mom and Dad's dining table. This has never been a problem for Mom and Dad, they just moved dinner to the basement, threw a table cloth over the ping-pong table and we all enjoyed sitting down together, eating and fellowshipping with each other. The piano was handy too for a hymn sing - Aunt M played and we all called out favorites that we wanted to sing. I remember doing this at my Grandpa R's house and think it is a great tradition to continue.


After dinner, Dad and Aunt J drove the kids and I a little over an hour down the road to meet S. After switching cars, we kept on driving, had another van picnic for supper, and we were home in time for the kids to go to bed. It was a wonderful weekend - tiring!, but just wonderful.

And totally worth writing about 3 weeks late...