Tuesday, January 25, 2022

FAMILY VACATION


 Mystique invited us to join them on a vacation to Williamstown, Kentucky in January. We left early Wednesday morning, January 19 and drove through Atlanta to just before the Tennessee boarder. The next day we drove over the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky through a beautiful winter wonderland. It had snowed last evening  and the trees were covered in white. The road was fine. 

Through Vrbo they had rented a house in Dry Ridge, Ky.
It had two floors.
Downstairs had trundle beds
and a sofa bed. Plenty of room for the four children to sleep.
Upstairs there were three bedrooms. Our room had a queen bed.
Two double beds in this room where Mystique's grandmother slept.
And the master bedroom. It has a full bathroom and there was a  full bathroom in the hall for us. Downstairs there was a bathroom for the children at night. It was perfect for the 9 of us.
Upstairs was the dining room, living room and kitchen.  The only problem was the table sat 6, so we brought a table and some chairs off the deck for the children to eat on. 
Three generations. Averie 5, Ashtyn 7, Mystique  33,  Dottie 72 and Vi 89. 
Friday and Saturday we had busy full days and it was good to lay around when we got home. Vi took a nap and the rest watched football. Vi and I enjoyed playing Rummikub and Scrabbble in the evening. Mystique and Eric cooked us dinner each night. Great family time.
Friday we drove to the Ark Encounter. It was very cold, about 19. From the parking lot  we took the bus to the where the Ark and the other buildings are located. 
Vi had been ill before she came and had just gotten the doctor's OK to come.  She had oxygen with her in case she needed it, but was doing fine.  She rented a scooter which was the only way she would have enjoyed it. She did a great job driving it. 
From the building where we  were dropped off at you walked through the rainbow to the Ark.

The size is amazing. 
There was interesting information about the Ark and about how they built this one. Larry watched a movie on the building of the Ark, but it was back at the building where we came in and we rest of us choose to stay at the Ark and explore.



There were some exhibits about Noah.
exhibits on how the animals were housed with representation of the animal inside them.

Hunter loves dinosaurs.
There were films showing Noah being interviewed both in his day and more modern version on this Ark being built.
This exhibit had Noah answering questions.
An animal kind is a group of related animals not related to any other animals. They believe that there were only 1,400  land-dependent vertebrates so there were fewer then 6,700 individual animals.
A kind includes many species.
The Biblical Creation model verses the naturalistic evolutionary model.  Not sure where I stand.
Then on Saturday we drove about 30 miles to the Creation Museum.  This was built first, again lots on dinosaurs.
A friend of Mystique's and her daughter joined us there. They live close by but had never come before.
Vi enjoyed reading all the information.
Larry reading about the New Testament. 
Vi reading the information on Jesus.
The rest of the museum was about Genesis and how it was created in 6 days.


This dinosaur moved and the children wanted to touch it.
From Adam to Noah.

                                                                      JESUS

This is a lot to take in in two days. I am glad the children heard the story of Noah.  The children were excellent and glad Vi could come.  We left Sunday afternoon and got around Atlanta at 5. We stopped in Forsyth, Ga for the night and were back home by 2 Monday afternoon.


Saturday, January 1, 2022

LAST STOP

Our last stop before flying back to Florida was at Bob's and Felecia's new apartment in Thorndale. He had just gotten the key  and was going to move in the next day. I was glad we could stop by to see it. 
It has nice big rooms. There are two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large living room and  kitchen.  
We left Lynda's at 4 AM Friday morning to fly back to Florida. We had no problems, short lines and plane on time. We were in our house by noon on New Year's Eve. I took a nap on the plane but I didn't see midnight. Happy New Year!!
 

CHRISTMAS WITH THE GRANDCHILDREN


 Tuesday we headed to Lancaster to visit Larry's family. We had breakfast with his sister, Barb, and her husband Tom. Then we went to see Brady, Irina and their new baby. We notice there were patches of snow on the ground from the day before. They had a lot more accumulation then we had in Philadelphia.  

Ksenia is only two weeks old.  

After visiting with them we went to Brian's and Dorothy's and took them out for dinner. It was nice Chase was home and could come along. He had just turned 21 so we had a little celebration. We stayed at Brian's so we culd visit everybody.  


Our next stop was to Mystique and Eric and their family.  Averie , Ashtyn and Hunter opening some present we gave them.
My son Bob had gotten this Santa after Christmas last year thinking it could go outside. It sang and spoke and was only to be used inside. Lynda had it in her house this year but was not thrilled with it. So Bob gave it to Mystique and the children really like it.
Hunter is really into dinosaurs. He knows all their names and everything about them.



Averie had gotten makeup from Santa and is loved putting it on. Maybe a little young for that? She is a natural beauty.


We went back the next day and helped make terraniums. They all had gotten kits for Christmas. They had to paint the figures and then put in the earth, seeds, and stones. Larry helped Averie.   


I had helped Hunter and Mystique had helped Ashtyn. 

Hunter's dinosaur one.



Ashtyn's unicorn and castle.

They love to rough house with Grandpa.
We had given them the hopper ball. It is fun outside but I am not sure about playing with it inside.
With all the toys they got for Christmas the boxes were the best.