Family vacation: Day 1

 First step was to bring Mira to her buddies at Crescent Cove. They do a *really* good job there of knowing the kids who stay and of caring for them while they're there.

Kisses goodbye, and she's off.

Next step: load the van! (AND the trailer!) We don't usually use all of the seats in Big Blue because it's pretty tight, but when we need to, we can do 3 (the wide one which used to be the old back row), 3 (the narrower one) and 4 instead of the normal setup where we have the narrow 3, then the 2, and then the four. With this set up, and Mira not with us, and Owen coming up a day later, we had room for the girls' friend, Hope. Here we go!

Our first step was at our dear friends, the Martins (if you've read this blog long enough, you'll remember Chad as the guy who came and helped Matt with all sorts of things on the addition!  (He's mentioned in this post and here are some of his kids at the bottom of this post! Oh - and one with a photo!) They moved away a little over two years ago and WE MISS THEM!!) This was our first chance to visit at their house and see their farm-in-progress, and they made room for us to spend the night.

All of the girls (except Bobbi) in one room!

Got a kick out of this - this is our old bathtub that we removed from our old bathroom before putting on the accessible bathroom! They're using it in an outdoor shower area he's creating.

A few couch cushions, and the trailer behind the four-wheeler worked to bring Bobbi (and the rest of us) on a tour of their property!

It was hard to leave the next day. These people are so special to us, and their home was such a welcoming oasis permeated by the love of Jesus. I hope we can make it up there again!

Our whole crew...and Hope. I just realized that we're almost all color coordinated! Pinks and teals and royal blue? You'd think we planned it!

This one just makes me smile. :)

And then we were off for Duluth, aiming to arrive there at noon...but that's another post.