Excerpts from my journal...

I realize that this may be incredibly boring to everyone but my mom, but feel free not to read it. :) For those of you that don't know them: Sheldon is Matthew's brother, Michael is my first cousin and Leonard and Twila are good friends of ours, sort of adopted Uncle and Aunt.

October 15 – We were just packing up to leave Red Lake, when Darla called to say that they were sick and weren’t sure that we would want to be exposed to their germs. Since Matthew had an appointment with Dr Lockyer in Dryden, we decided to leave Red Lake anyway, since we were all packed up and ready to go. ...Matthew and the girls swam for almost 2 hours before supper. It turned out to be a really nice break between Red Lake and the start of our trip, and I was glad that we had decided to go to Dryden instead of staying in Red Lake that night.

Oct 16 – ...drove to International Falls. ...We sat around and talked for quite a long time while the girls played very nicely together. Later on, Darla and I went out to look for Sunday clothes for Aimee and Sierra at the second hand store. We also got a few things at K-Mart and then came back to get supper ready. After the kids were in bed, Darla, Sheldon and Matthew played a game of Settlers.

Oct 17 – It was Sara’s 14^th birthday today. Matthew took our girls to the radio station to see what Sheldon does. We did a little bit of schoolwork and then Darla gave the girls some beads and let them make things with the beads and then iron them to fuse them together. (She’d bought a bucket of 6000 beads and most of them were used up by Saturday evening!) ...after the kids were in bed we played a game of Tikal. (Matthew and I had never played before.)

Oct 18 – Darla made waffles for breakfast and then Matthew went to the radio station to hang out with Sheldon. I gave the girls baths and they kept on making more bead crafts. ... After we cleaned up from lunch, Matthew and I went on a bike ride. It was my first time riding a recumbent bicycle, and I think I liked it. It’s quite different! When we got back, Sheldon and Darla were ready to play Tikal again. I enjoyed it much more this time. While we played, Sara was making a special apple dessert that she’d wanted to try for her birthday. We had a big dinner of ham, baked potatoes and more, then we had the apple dessert with ice cream for dessert. The guys watched hockey all evening.

Oct 19 – We went to Sheldon and Darla’s church – New Life Chapel. Sheldon led the singing/sharing time and then Matthew (and I) did our MAF presentation. After the service there was a potluck lunch...We didn’t stay too long after lunch, then went back to Sheldon’s to pack up. We left a little bit before 3:00 and drove to Mike and Connie’s house close to Nashwauk, MN. Our girls were a little bit overwhelmed by meeting their 6 girls all at once, but it only took about 20 minutes till they were playing with the 4 youngest and enjoying it a lot. We ate a quick snack/supper, then changed and combed girls for church. We spoke at their church (Cloverdale?). Again, it was a small crowd, but lots of people really seemed interested. ... After church, Teresa drove all the girls home in Nisly’s van and Mike and Connie drove with us. We had a snack of ice cream and cookies and pretzels and finally went to bed around 10:30. (We stayed next door at Connie’s parents’ house.)

Oct 20 – Mike was gone to work and the girls were gone to school, but Connie babysits a 3 year old girl, Chloe, and had 2 neighbours there for coffee, as well. She made us a breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, toast and juice. After we were done eating, Matthew took our Caitlyn to find their Caitlyn at school and spend the day there. Connie and I spent most of the morning sitting in her living room, catching up on the past 4 years. Matthew went to get the school kids at about 3, ...When Matthew and the kids got back, they saddled up one of the horses and Matthew gave all of our girls rides and then went for a ride himself. (They have 3 horses, a bunch of goats, a rabbit, a bunch of the dogs they raise and a few kittens running around.) The 4 oldest Nisly girls had a volleyball game that night...They played a homeschool group for the best of 5 games and quite easily beat them. Our girls were very excited, and it was possibly the first sporting event like that that they’ve ever been to! After the teams were done playing some of the men who were there played against the girls’ team, including Michael and Matthew. The men barely won. :)

Oct 21 – We tried to get up a little bit earlier, and were over at Nislys’ house by about 7:10. We ate a quick breakfast and said our good-byes and were on the road by about 8. Connie had packed a lot of food for us – cinnamon rolls, apples, sandwiches, carrots, and cookies. We had a long day of driving down to Kalona, IA to Leonard and Twila’s house. We got to their house about 5:15 or so and then had a good supper ...I bathed the girls right after supper and then let them play a bit until it was bedtime. The rest of us talked till about 10:30.

Oct 22 – Soon after we woke up this morning we could smell bacon and hear Twila out in the kitchen. She made pancakes for the girls that looked like rabbits with chocolate chip eyes and noses. Of course they loved that! ...Twila and I took the girls to the cheese factory to see how the cheese curds are made. There are 3 or 4 windows looking into the room where they process the curds and the girls loved watching it all. One of the men working there clowned around for them (he ate a cheese curd and pretended that it nearly killed him, etc) and of course they thought that was great. After we’d watched them for awhile, Twila bought us some cheese curds to taste. Yum. Our next two stops were stores run by the Amish. ...one was a sort of general store with all kinds of things. I’d told the girls they could spend their money there and it took a LOOOOONNNNNGGGG time for them to decide what to buy! ...Twila made me a cup of fresh mint tea with honey and we sat and looked at my scrapbooks. Matthew went with Leonard on a service call. (This morning he answered e-mails and took the van in to a mechanic to have some stuff checked out.)