Thanksgiving Weekend

It is amazing how much you cherish spending holidays with family when you haven't been able to for 5 years. We had a GREAT weekend with both sides of our family.

On Thanksgiving day, we headed out to New Tribes campus where Steve's parents live to join in the annual "Turkey Bowl". Before the men started the big game, Ben was practicing his football skills. Looks like he may still need some practice. Like with opening his eyes for example.

Steve's brother Dave and his wife came in from Nashville for the weekend. We all had fun reconnecting with them.
I love Ben's smile in this shot.

brothers

Mikayla and Grandpa called Aunt Chris (Steve's sister) since she couldn't make it up from TX this time - we'll see them at Christmas!

Steve had a blast playing in the staff vs. students "Turkey Bowl". He played for the staff team since his parents are staff, and they won! He looks pretty cool in this shot, right? Well, it doesn't tell the whole story of his whining and complaining from sore muscles for the next 3 days! :)

Snuggle time with Uncle Dave & Aunt Steph. Our kids have some pretty cool uncles and aunts - biological and adopted!

23 people crammed into Steve's parents little place for dinner - us & both our parents + Dave's in-laws + my cousin and kids + my Nana + one of the New Tribes students. It was good but crowded to say the least. Special memories though! I didn't get a pic of the whole group, but here is a sampling. :)

Later that night after most people headed home, a massive wrestling match/pillow fight broke out between our kids and Uncle Dave. Pretty intense.

Check out that hair!!!

attack!

Over the weekend, the kids also got to help Grandma Jackson set up her Christmas village. They are at the perfect age for this, and they all had a wonderful time and made some precious memories together.

sprinkling the "snow" for the final touches

the finished masterpiece - at least as much of it as I could fit in my screen!

We are SO thankful to be here with family this Thanksgiving/Christmas, and we will cherish every moment, every memory!

Huntin' with Grandpa

Steve and I just got back from a wonderful visit with our dear friends in Wichita, Kansas. Thank you to all of you who took the time to listen to our hearts and really connect with us. You have been such a blessing to us this past term, and I know that God will continue to use you to encourage us to press on. Thank you!

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While we were in Kansas, the kids stayed with Steve's parents and went hunting. They were up before the sun, and Zach was bright-eyed and ready to roll.

Ben not so much.
All suited up and ready to go.
Those deer don't stand a chance.
(Don't worry, that's an itty bitty bb gun that Zach is holding!)

Eggs, grandpa style.

Chillin' with Gram

the hunters

and the reader

(now SHE knows how to hang out in the woods all day!)

and who knows what Ben is doing

I am sure you will be surprised to learn that, though much fun was had and noise made in the woods, they didn't see any deer all day long. Hmmm. Wonder why that is? But the point is - priceless memories were made.

Shopping & Autumn Trek

We are in the throes of speaking at various churches about the work with the Agta as well as getting ready to head back to the Philippines in January. Today Steve and I spent the day shopping in a city a couple hours away, and we had a very successful trip. Steve needed some lightweight, durable convertible pants (the kind that zip into shorts) so that he could wear them on the motorcycle then zip them down to shorts in the village heat then back to pants once the mosquitoes come out, and I wanted some stickers for my scrapbooking (I know, a little trivial compared to the village pants!). Well, we found a 50% sale on all stickers at Hobby Lobby (yay!), and we found several options for pants at Bass Pro Shops (ranging in price from $20 - $180). Amazingly, he actually like the $20 ones best (though in fairness, he didn't even try on the $180 ones!) so we got two. Then we also discovered a close-out sale at the Bass Pro Outlet store where I bought FIVE good namebrand tanktops and ONE pair of shorts for $18! We also got a waterproof bag for bringing our camera/phones in the boat to the village and a miniature super-absorbent camping towel that fits in your pocket. The list of things we need is still long, but a successful day like today goes a long ways! :)

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and on to more interesting things...

On Saturday, Steve was in Louisiana at a ministry conference so the kids and I went on a 6 mile trek through the woods with my parents. Ended up being a LONG haul, and we were WASTED afterwards, but we had a great time.

Stopping for a Necco Wafer break

our picnic lunch - the kids proceeded to catch a small frog here which we (read: I) ended up carrying for like 14 miles

the first water we came to after lunch - also the F.R.V. - Frog Relocation Venue

as we were hiking, my dad started tellling the kids that he thought we might find some snowballs on the trail in a certain spot. While they were quite incredulous, since they haven't had much (any) experience with snow, they wanted so badly to believe it so they kept hunting for snowballs with him and firing questions at him about where they might find them. Well, while they were relocating the frog, my mom planted the snowballs (you know, those coconut covered white things?) along the trail. Wish you could have seen their smiles when they found them.

Zach liked the coconut cover best, Ben liked the cake inside so they swapped.

We were exhausted by the end of the day, but we made some great memories on a crisp fall day.