While You're Gone ...

This post is for our oldest, Alli, who is far away from us for a while. She is living in Lima, Peru working at a tourism bureau and is enjoying life. I haven't done a great job at keeping her up to date with what's happening here on Amish Highway 35, so here is a smattering of photos to make her homesick.

While you are enjoying summer south of the equator, we are glad to see the end of winter. The signs of spring are starting to appear.

We celebrated Mitch's 21st birthday with a dinner at the EHaus. Courtney joined us for an evening of good food, laughter, and celebration. Mitch was also lucky that his grandparents happened to be home from Florida for the week, so they joined us too! We missed Grandpa Jay and all his jokes.

I'm pretty sure this happened before Alli left for Lima, but I had to throw this one in. I was excited to be able to travel to Grand Rapids with my sis-in-law and my great niece to see the Princess Diana exhibit. I watched her wedding along with the rest of the world, followed her story closely, and admired her ability to rise above all the adversity in her life. Might I just say that I have April 29th wrote in my calendar and I will be firmly planted in front of the tv to watch the wedding of her charming son, Prince William and Kate Middleton.

One evening while my Mom was home from Florida I invited the whole family over for ice cream and we had the time of our lives!

Alli usually cuts Kyle's hair and since she is out of the country he was overdue. So I did the job. Don't worry, this is only 1/2 done, and I finished it very nicely.

Of course, the evening wouldn't have been complete without some wrestling among the cousins. Looks like the girls are winning!

We all got to do a little loving on Baby Brinley! What a sweet little girl!

And now we have just finished sitting at Abbi's basketball games. For a girl that we made play last year, she has really learned to enjoy the game and isn't afraid to take those left-handed shots. But I gotta say that she has told me she still likes volleyball better. *sigh* I love that girl!

So that's what's been happening so far. We are looking ahead to a great Sunday School retreat this weekend in Shipshewana and a warm spring break in Florida in a few weeks!

If you want to know more about Alli's journey, you can follow her at

http://lifeinlimablog.blogspot.com/

(sure wish I knew how to make this a real link, guess you'll have to copy & paste)