We're back!

Well, it was alot of driving, but also some good visiting! We stayed with Tamara and Mark the first nite, and that's always fun. That Mark is a GREAT chef! He had marinated some pork ribs for us for the whole wkend before! They came served to us with garlic mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli! He even made a special cake, so the meal was complete.We stayed in Dallas (Plano, actually) the next nite, with John and Jeremy, who were at LeTourneau with Terran! They come up to CO to help ERnie out with logging, and also give some time to the YWAM base here at Cimarron. Good friends! Then the next nite we were to make it to Patrick and Barb Goodwin's place in Alabama, but it would have been so late, so we stopped at a motel and just called them. But Patrick had come home from his job in Pensacola, FL just to see us! So I felt bad about that. He had to leave early, early morning the next day, so we didn't get to meet him. But we spent some time with Barb, and caught up on some genealogy stuff! Patrick's grandfather was brother to Ernie's grdpa, if anyone is interested. :-)Then we made it to Ocala, FL the next nite, Thurs, the 10th. We stayed at a motel again, and then got the U-haul and furniture to the right lady's house the next morning, and had it unloaded in less than an hr! We left the U-haul there and were free of it for the rest of our trip!So we had a few hours to do what we wanted before going to Julia Duda's house in Oviedo, so we drove to Daytona Beach! Yes, we've been to that beach!! It was neat, and about the warmest day we ever had in FL. But, the only thing not so great was that it was BIKE week. Herm and Marilyn should have been there! It's like driving in a beehive! There were thousands of different kinds of bikes on all the roads!We got to Julia's near supper time, and she can't eat certain things, so we got some Chinese food, and Julia tho't we would bring it back to the house and eat with her, but we had it in the shop, instead. So when we got to her place, there was the dining room table all set for us!! How embarrassing!! She was pretty gracious about it, tho. Wish I could post a picture of her on here. She's up in her 80's and a bit forgetful, but elegant in her own way.The next day we let Arlin and John go to Disney Quest, a virtual reality type place. They could 'build' their own roller coaster, then ride it, etc. They went back there in the evening, so I think they enjoyed that the best. Ernie and I walked around the Disney Marketplace, and stopped to see a movie, Man of the House.The next day we went to Sea World, but E & I had to leave early to go the the timeshare spiel. The 90 min. talk went to 4 hrs!! ~because Ernie gets into telling stories! HA! Anyway, we said NO to the timeshare, but bought an option, that can be used in the next 2 years. So we hope to do something with our whole fam, if they can all get the same time off. We have 300,000 points to use, and we can use as many or as little as we want at one time. These pts. can be used on the the US with this option. So that was our Sunday there! Monday the boys went to Blizzard Beach, with a dropoff a water slide! They enjoyed it, except we had rain for over an hr. so they had to sit and wait it our, in case of lightning. Ernie and I were at Epcot Center, and enjoyed the Canadian and Chinese pavilions. It's neat that they have the workers as nationals for the country they're representing. So we met a gal for Alex, Alberta! I sure could hear the CDN accent from her!!! Every sentence went UP in tone, instead of down, like you're ending the sentence. Do we really stick out that much? We must, because as we were talking with a guy last nite, he asked Ernie if he was from Canada!The next day John and Arlin went to MGM and did the rides there. We would drop them off, and E & I would do other things. That day we went 'shopping' and got souveniers and some awesome tangerines!! They were three for 99 cents, and we bought two boxes, so we had to count out 198 oranges. They are so juicy and good! We also got some grapefruit, but it's just okay. :)Then Tues. nite, the last nite we were in FL, we went to Tampa airport to meet a friend that was flying in from Pakistan. She had been at YWAM Cimarron, married a guy from Sask!, and now they had a business in Paki. So that was fun to see another city, and meet her and family.We left the next morning to get to Nashville, TN!! We drove through Atlanta, GA is such a rainstorm!! We found out that they turn on their hazard lites when it's that bad. You can hardly see the car in front of you, it pours so hard.So we got to Adams, TN, actually, north of Nashville. It was so neat to see the city and all the buildings, and think of the people that move there to try and make it big in the music scene! We didn't see any of them, tho. :)We stayed with the YWAM director of that base, who is a Menn. from PA, and had been at the Cimarron base and logged with ERnie about 5 summers! So it was good to connect with him and his family. They are married 8 years and have five kids!! What a joy!We had an easy day the next day, and I really liked that part. Don't like just staying at someone's house, and then leaving early morning. It feels like we're taking advantage of them. Anyway, we had a tour of the whole base, and then Lea cooked lunch for us, and we were on our way to Kentucky!!Can hardly believe we were there. It's like one of those places that's way out there, and you don't think you'll ever see it. But we stayed with some friends that Tamara actually met first! They were Mission Builders on the Africa Mercy, and Bev always says that she met our son-in-law first! She did, and she approved of him! Ron had to work the next day, but we had brkfst with Bev, in their lovely new 4000 sq. ft. house!We stopped at Ft. Knox, and went through a military museum there! Actually met some Canadian military that were training there, and talked to them a bit. We hadn't heard a thing about the RCMP shooting in Alberta, so talked about that a bit. The way I DID hear about it, was an email from a niece that lives in Red Deer. No news about it down here, except on CNN, I guess.So that day we didn't get too far, but for the last couple days we drove throught Louisville, KY, St. Louis, MO, Kansas City, MO, and then all the way thru Kansas (not as flat as SK!) and into Colorado!It was a good break, but it's always good to get back home.Now, this is Easter weekend, and it seems way to early, because winter is still fighting with spring, and maybe winning out! It was SO cold for the Easter egg hunt that Keagan went to! But we'll have one indoors tonite with Keagan and Kaden, and have the joy of watching them find their gifts! It sure will get more expensive when we have more grandkids! :)Well, tomorrow we got to Terran and Naomi's for Easter dinner, since Terran is on call for his work, so can't come to Montrose. We will enjoy it, tho, because we don't see them as often.Next weekend we'll be altogether again, because Wade and Jenn are having Kaden dedicated at church, so Mark and Tamara plan to come up, also. We enjoy family get-togethers!Comments, please!! HAPPY EASTER!!