A LITTLE GETAWAY FROM THE SEM

Praise God, Greg is done with finals. Yeah! One year down and one more to go here at the seminary. Then one year of vicarage. We are excited. The finals were difficult, but he survived. It is kind of funny to see him reading some of his school books just for fun. He says that now he actually has more time to read and enjoy it compared to just reading so much material to complete papers, prepare for tests, etc. Now he can take the time to absorb a little more. But actually he is spending a lot of time playing with the kids and relaxing a little bit.


Last weekend we were able to get away for a little bit. We went to Columbus Indiana to visit my cousin's family. The second picture above is of all of the second cousin kids together. We all enjoyed the great hospitality they offered us. What a wonderful treat. It was really nice for the kids and I to see Greg be more like his usual fun-loving, silly self. It was great! We all love it here, but it has made Greg a bit more serious at times. We did a lot of biking together and even had a chance to go swimming. It was really refreshing(chilly:) but that didn't seem to bother the kids at all, especially Louis the water bug. We also got a chance to go up near Indianapolis and visit some dear friends of ours, the Bramlets from Wisconsin. They have since moved there. We were in a small group together for 5 years. It was a short visit, but so special. We are God-parents to one of their daughters so it was neat to get to spend some time with her. All in all it was a real blessing for us to get away for a bit and have some family time together.


Louis had some standardized testing this week here on campus with some other home schooled children. It was kind of funny, he loved it. We were happy about that. The top picture above is of Caleb, JOJO and Lou enjoying some ...brotherly love:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALEB!

Last Friday the 11th was Caleb's 8th birthday. That means he was king for the day. We took the day off of school and he chose to let everyone have Dusty Road Sundaes for breakfast, definitely not something we do on a regular basis:) We spent the rainy day at Grant's Farm, another neat free place to go in St. Louis. It is owned by Anheuser-Busch. There is so much to do there. We rode the tram that takes you through a wild life area with elk, deer, buffalo, zebras and all sorts of other animals. Elijah was just thrilled to get to ride on a train, trains are his new thing. There is a petting zoo, animal shows, shops, and the world famous Budweiser Clydesdales. It is a beautiful place with a lot of history. The land was at one time owned by President Ulysses S. Grant, hence the name Grant's Farm. It has his log cabin on it. Another neat thing was that the fence that goes around the animal park was made from the barrels of civil war rifles. The boys thought was really special since we studied the civil war this past year. We splashed around in the rain and had a great time. The top picture is of all of our children and the Tiews children getting ready to have some birthday brownies. They are our friends from our church in Tomball, Texas. They are now our neighbors here at the sem.


We also had visitors from Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago. My brother John, Katy, Ella and Grace came down. It was wonderful, we got to catch up and have some good laughs together. They got to attend Springfest here on the sem campus. That gave them a real taste of sem life. We went to the Arch, up Luther Tower and for a bike ride in Forest Park. We even had to drum up an extra bike since we woke up that morning to find that Greg's bike had been stolen over night. Bummer, it has happened to other residents around here also. Thankfully, it was a very old bike. We crammed a lot into a couple of days but it was a lot of fun.

Greg is taking finals this week. It has been so busy for him. He has been in another world, just totally studying, working, and writing like crazy. I think in the last 2 weeks he has had to write 40+ pages worth of papers/tests. That will keep you busy huh? He is plugging away and we are all proud of him for persevering through the tougher times. We are heading to Indiana on Thursday for a little get away to visit my cousins, and Aunt Adrienne and Uncle Thomas. We are all looking forward to time together. The kids can't wait to play with papa:)


The last picture above is of JOJO sleeping. He had just gotten his hair cut, fell and bruised his eye and was all tuckered out. Greg and I laughed when we saw how he was sleeping with his arms behind him like that...so relaxed. He is such a funny kid. The older kids get such a kick out of him.