Esther is Still the Baby!

I know everyone else is waiting for the new baby to arrive - so are we - but in the mean time, I'm getting some things done I wouldn't have otherwise - and one of them is posting these pictures of Esther :) There's a lake here in town with a walking trail around it and we've gone a couple times recently to walk - you can't see them well on this picture, but there's ducks in the lake and Esther was pretty excited to see them, which made it more fun for us as well!

"Duck" is one word in her growing vocabulary, along with baby, Daddy, dog, milk, ball, teeth, and "nana".

Esther was pretty tired and cranky when we went to this Christian bookstore, but thankfully they had little chairs and a kids movie playing - she doesn't see a lot of movies, so it kept her entertained quite well while we did our shopping close by :)

Another day we took a picnic lunch to a park in Nashville - they had this old train engine on display - it was huge!

They also have a life-size replica of the Parthenon in Greece - sorry this picture is dark, but it gives the feel of how big it was!

Yes, I know I'm huge! You may pray with us that the baby will come soon!

This is the front of the building, they also had a museum inside, but since we're not really into Greek mythology, we skipped that part...It was pretty impressive to see though!
They had a pond at that park with ducks too -
Grandpa O. gave Esther a "piggy bank" for Christmas, and Aaron gave her some change we had laying around and taught her to put it in the slot. She's had lots of fun with that project! We try to keep an eye on her though so she doesn't put the money in her mouth....
I was trying to get a good picture of her in her new dress from Auntie Rebekah, but she wouldn't stay still long enough...
Playing peek-a-boo, one of her favorite games :)

So Esther's doing well, I actually feel pretty good too and since I tried to get most of the baby things ready like three weeks ago, I've been doing other little things, such as trying some new recipes - the pita bread and overnight French toast turned out well, the squash souffle did not - and reading some books - such as Loving the Little Years, and The Power of Motherhood - both good and encouraging and ones I'll probably reread every couple years. Even if I did end up with a whole list of things I need to improve on after reading them! Aaron's been keeping busy with church work - he did a funeral, and a couple new people have joined the church - and is doing a great job.

Anyway, hopefully next time I post, Esther will be the "big" girl!

We've been talking about going down to visit Aaron's brother and sister-in-law in Missouri for a while, and had a free week so we left after church on Sunday and made it back Saturday afternoon. We also spent a couple nights with my cousins in South Dakota and it was fun to catch up with them too - unfortunetly, I forgot to take pictures while we were there...

Josh and Danialah took us to a BBQ restraunt in Kansas City - it was a cultural experience :)

Esther all dressed up :)

It was like 70 degrees one of the days we were there! Aaron and his brother spent time cutting wood and working in the garden and working on a car - guy things - and us girls just kind of hung out.

Also, when we were in the city, we walked around down town (there were a couple men giving carriage rides...) and went in a giant bookstore.

February Travels

Hello! No exciting pictures this time :) We've had kind of a crazy couple weeks and are glad to be home today - finally! First, we went to a Pastor and Wives retreat in Green Lake,WI - about a ten hour drive. The ship above is in Duluth - I don't think I'd like to live in that city, but I really enjoy driving through and seeing the lake and ships...

The retreat was a little harder with a baby! I'm going to have to get used to this getting up and walking out thing :) She did pretty well on the drive though except for the last three hours of the way home - enough is enough!

Overall, we had fun!

Then, after getting home Saturday night, and having a busy Sunday, Aaron took off Monday afternoon for TN - and he got home Thursday night - and it's a 20 hour drive both ways! His brother bought an outdoor boiler from a company here in Warroad, so Aaron deliverd that and picked up some things his parents had given us. Then on Saturday we went to Grand Rapids, and Monday we went to Grand Forks, with Sunday in between...but the Lord kept us safe and we're not planning any more big trips for at least a little while :)

On Monday, Aaron surprised me in the morning by telling me we were going to the "Fall on the Farm" day at the Mennonite Village Museum in Stienbach, MB. That's one of my very favorite places to go, and Aaron enjoys it too, so we had a great day! One of the main attractions was the old fashioned threshing machine demonstration.
Aaron enjoyed all of the old machinery - this is a steam powered tractor. Here it was hooked up to a sawmill type operation.
On special days like this one, they have people in the different buildings demonstrating different skills. I took my few-second turn at butter-churning. Although...I had to buy butter yesterday and it makes churning not seem like such a bad option :)
The windmill - we chatted with the "miller" (as well as several other people) and he said the wind in southern MB is too sparodic to keep up a windmill all day.
Aaron on the deck of the windmill. On the drive up, we talked about our memories of the last time we went there together - about a month before I even knew he was interested in me :) My family was suspicious though and paid attention that day, but at the end, they concluded he really didn't like me - it was just the farm! I'm sure glad we were wrong :) !!

Aaron in the "Semlin" - basically a sod house. We figured we could probably make one of those fairly quickly and cheaply....

They butchered a hog that morning and were working on it all day, then concluded by having an auction to sell the different parts. In this picture, I believe the man is making "head cheese". I've never had it, but I've heard it's something like bologna.

Since there's only two of us...we bought a couple treats.

We shared a "waffle with vanilla sauce" - it was very good and a lady gave us the recipe, so I'm going to try it one of these days. Maybe she felt bad - when Aaron gave her American money, she said, "oh, you don't look like Americans." Is that a compliment or an insult? :) We certainly don't look like Canadians, but she must have mistaken us for Mennonites...It actually was kind of nice, there were soooo many ladies in skirts of one kind or another, that I didn't feel like I stood out :)

Aaron in front of an oak tree that came from the acorn of a famous oak tree in Southern Russia where many of the Mennonites came from.

Our Big Trip - part 1 of 5

This time I have a good excuse for taking a long time to post - we were gone for almost 3 weeks!
In spite of our good resolutions, we didn't take a lot of pictures, but enough to do a couple posts.

We left on a Sunday afternoon and drove to Souix Falls to visit my aunt/uncle/cousins there - Aaron had never been there and hadn't gotten to visit with them a lot, so that was nice for him - and it was great to see how much the babies have grown - and we got back some more wedding pictures which I'll have to show you someday.

After a too-short visit, we drove down to Warrensburg, MO where Aaron's brother and his wife live. I had been to Warrensburg twice for ACE conventions, so it was funny to go back for a different reason :) It was nice to get to know them a little better...then the next day, we left for Clarksville, TN to visit Aaron's parents.
We drove through St. Louis...
Aaron's parents have done a lot of landscaping and have a beautiful backyard - Aaron helped out with a couple projects there. We also went to their church a couple times, Aaron met with some pastors, and I got to meet a new Grandma, Aunt, Uncle, Brother-in-law, and other family friends. It's a little late now, but I'm still glad I like Aaron's family :) I met so many people on this trip, it's going to take me a while to remember them all! Also, we helped Aaron's mother help with a lunch after the funeral of someone from the church's deaf ministry. That was a new experience for both of us!
Beautiful countryside in TN.

Our Big Trip - part 2 of 5

Over the first weekend we were gone, we went to Union City, TN - about 2 hours west of Clarksville - so Aaron could preach at his "home church" and meet with some pastors there. He showed me around some too - I enjoyed getting to see the places where he's been so I can picture them.

This is the house where Aaron's family lived from the time he was a senior in highschool, until just a couple years ago.

This church is actually just one that Aaron's sister went to, but it's pretty typical of all of the churches we visited - red brick with a tall steeple!
On a Thursday, we drove from TN to Maryland to visit Aaron's brother, Nathan - Aaron helped him out with some yard work and church work and they got to go fishing one evening. I got to meet another Sister-in-law and an adorable niece and nephew!

Above is just a senic view - there's lots of those in the mountains. Personally, I think they're beautiful to look at, but not meant to be driven through! Actually though, we were blessed with great weather for traveling and it went as smoothly as you could hope for.
Yes, we did drive through all of that fog!

We drove to Avon, IN (near Indianapolis) on Wednesday to visit a church there where Aaron was an intern, then the next day, we left around 8 in the morning and drove all the way home! It took a little coffee and a few breaks, but we made it by 3:30 in the morning! It was a great trip, and now we're glad to be home and working on planting our garden...which you'll here more about next time - and hopefully it'll be sooner than 4 weeks this time!

Our Big Trip - part 3 of 5

Aaron's brother in Maryland lives about 45 minutes from Washington DC, so one afternoon we went up there to look around. I'd always wanted to go there, but never had - and we really didn't plan it before we left, so it was a nice surprise!

Unlike the rest of our trip, we did take pictures that afternoon, so the next three posts are pictures from Washington - The pictures may bore you, but it was exciting to see the things in person.

We were able to park right in the mall, but it was at a 2-hour-meter, so we walked pretty fast the whole way there and back - we had to have put on over 3 miles throughout the afternoon!
The Washington Monument - it's very tall!!
One of our favorite things was the relatively new WWII Memorial - it was large and very impressive - just like the war it represents.
There were two halves - one for the Pacific and one for the Atlantic theaters. Also, each of the "pillars with wreaths" that you see, have the name of a state on them. Of course we found MN and TN :)
From the other side. There were some current Marines there assisting WWII veterns to see the place.

Our Big Trip - part 4 of 5

As we walked along, we saw the White House to one side, but we didn't have time to take a closer look.

The Lincoln Memorial as viewed from the WWII Memorial - I forget exactly what they call this pond, but it was pretty and there were ducks with ducklings swimming around in it.

It doesn't look like it, but there's a lot of steps to get up there! We were visiting on a Tuesday, so there weren't tons of people, but there were some - a lot of highschoolers (probably on Senior trips) and I was really surprised at how many foreigners there were!

Abraham Lincoln himself - his Gettysburg Adress was on one wall and an inagural speech on the other.

The view from the top of the steps -

Our Big Trip - part 5 of 5

On our quick walk back to the van, we went by the Vietnam memorial. Unlike the WWII one, this memorial seemed almost like a graveyard for all of those people who were unable to be buried here in their homeland.

After a quick break at the van, we added a few more minutes to our meter and walked the other way towards the Capitol. This is Aaron by part of the Ulysses S. Grant memorial.

These are sort of all the same, but I couldn't decide which of them I wanted to use, so you get to see the Capitol building from 3 different distances...We talked about several other things we'd like to see and do if we go back to Washington someday, and one of them is to tour this building.

As you can see, it was cloudy when we first arrived, which was much nicer than if it had been really warm, but it cleared up not long before we left.