Month: July 2020

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July 2020 – A busy month – full of fun family adventures, activities, and events!

We enjoyed a July 4th Bar-be-Que and swim at Ben & Heather’s house. Carl, Beth and Anya also joined us. It was a beautiful and relaxing day in Rocky Ford!

Happy birthday to Kaylee! (June 30) She is so full of joy, giggles and smiles! In July the family also celebrated Tate & Kimberly’s anniversary, Jon’s birthday, Nick & Rachel’s anniversary, Anya’s birthday, and Lorree’s birthday! We had a full month of family love and celebrations!

Gary and Wanda came to visit us at Glen Eyrie. We had a great picnic lunch and toured the campus – including the castle. It was great to get together and get caught up with each other!

Carl, Beth, and Anya traveled to Michigan for a vacation and to see Anya’s cousins! They had a great time together. We loved these pictures they passed around the family.

Anya threw a big birthday party and invited lots of friends and family for her First Birthday! She shared her beautiful smiles and those big blue eyes with everyone – we all felt the love! Love you Anya – Happy Birthday!

She wasn’t too sure at first….then Mommy put a taste in her mouth. She LOVED her first birthday cake – so much fun!

…and of course the presents! Anya really had fun opening the gifts and was full of big smiles! (I think Jayden and Issac wanted in on the presents too – LOL!)

Nick & Rachel and the kids came over to Glen Eyrie for a day trip. We hiked the “Lady Bug” trail and enjoyed a cookout together. We also toured the campus – the kiddos loved riding in the open 6-seater golf cart. It was a sunshiny fun day!

These are just some of the random pictures we get from our Family Chat group – its a joy to have a constant connection with all of our kids and grandkids – much love!!

“Happy Birthday Nana!” For Lorree’s birthday, Anya and her parents took her out to eat at a favorite Mexican restaurant. It was a wonderful time together!

Probably the most significantly-shocking event this month was seeing Megan off to college – did I just type that? Another milestone in her life (and ours!) Megan is at Faith Baptist Bible College in Iowa studying, Biblical counseling and Office Administration. Praying for a great year for her!

Corny mirror picture, but its fun to look back and re-live all these memories and adventures – hard to believe this was just one month!

Now, we’re running into the next adventure fast – SELAH! (Find out about this in our next post!)

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July 2 – 23, 2020 SOWER’s Project #6 at Glen Eyrie, CO – We stayed for another round – this time as Group Leaders!

Yes – we are still at Glen Eyrie, Colorado. We signed up for both June and July – this month we will be the Group Leader (GL) for the team. This is our first time being “in charge”. We moved to a roomier site and changed our view of the beautiful area area us – so colorful!

Our first attempt as leaders – planning a FUN group adventure, was to see the Colorado Springs fireworks show! The city had arranged for 8-10 locations scattered through-out the city to launch an amazing and colorful show for all to see. We told our group to meet down at the Volunteer Center lawn – we would be able to watch and enjoy an amazing show together – BRING THE POPCORN!

This is all we saw! Our view was behind the trees and the nearby hills – UGH!

We did see a VERY small burst of color through the leaves of a tree a few times – so we did the proper Ooh! and Ahh!….but what a disappointment. One couple encouraged us with…”Well, as group leaders you can only go up from here!” We all had a good laugh and certainly made a memory! LOL!

We met together – outside and separated – to abide by the COVID-19 regulations that were still in effect. We wore face masks only when in the buildings that had Glen Eyrie guests and/or staff. Dennis met with the facilities managers (Aaron and Jason) and received our work list for the coming weeks. We separated into teams and went to work – our official SOWER song ends with the words: “unto HIM is due our best, our all!”

Our first week was filled with gardening, painting, laundry, re-finishing benches, sewing, and painting speed bumps! Everyone worked hard and well together – this team was such a blessing! Harold & JoAnn Flaugher, Jack & Shirley Krohn, Gary & Diane Smith, Dale & Barbara Livengood, Robert & Gail McCandless, Larry & Gerrie Bliven, and us

On our breaks, in the evenings, and weekends we did a variety of “fun” things and enjoyed getting to know each other in different settings. We have a lot of good memories!

Everyday was an adventure as we served the Lord at Glen Eyrie – God had specific things for us to do – and had brought in the right people. Our “to-do” list was constantly getting checked off -“DONE”! …and then more to-do’s were added – we will never run out of things to help with!

So many projects, so much work, and all done with love and smiles. This has been a great experience both as leaders and as co-servants/workers. Dennis turned in three pages of accomplishments – the facilities staff were so grateful for all we did.

We enjoyed getting out to celebrate a great month – we were able to go to the Flying W Chuck Wagon for dinner and entertainment (they had been closed for a couple of years due to a local fire). We had a great time – very inspirational and patriotic!

We ended our July work assignment – everyone was already talking excitedly about what and where they were going next. The SOWER’s ministry is a great way to spend retirement serving others with the love of Christ! “RV-ing with a purpose” is their tag line – and it definitely is!

SO…… we’ve been up to something as well! We’re pretty excited looking ahead to our next amazing adventure – God continually surprises us. Sometimes childhood dreams do come true….check out our next blog!

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June 25 – July 2, 2020 Weekends in JUNE – full of life and fun with the family!

Lorree was feeling creative and wanted to start a new quilt project. So after a fresh haircut – we went shopping! We love the colors and the design, this will give her something to do in the evenings!

Carl & Beth sold their house and purchased a new one! Papa helped Carl install a new larger microwave before the big moving day

Moving weekend was June 13 – we had a good group to help with the move, it all went well! We even got cooled off in the late afternoon with a downpour of rain (it felt good!). So thankful for Carl and Beth’s new home and the room it gives them to raise little Anya! We were all tired – but it was a good tired!

Welcome Home Gary! We were over joyed to learn that Gary was able to go home after 12 weeks in the hospital and re-hab recovering from COVID-19 and bed-sore complications. God was so good to restore his health and prolong his life here on earth. More healing to come – but a joyous celebration today! (June 18th). We were able to visit and have lunch together the next weekend!

Fathers Day! We enjoyed a weekend with Ben & Heather and family in rocky Ford. Ben cooked ribs on his new smoker (sooo good!) then we relaxed in their backyard pool. We had a great day! We also touched based with all of the fathers in our family – we are grateful for the solid spiritual foundation they are leading their families with – so thankful for God’s presence in their lives!

19 is a great number! Wow, our 19th grandchild, Faith Lorraine Johnson – born June 19, 2020.

We flew out to meet her and help Ray & Sarah – and play with Jeremiah and Asia! So much fun! God has truly blessed our family and we are thankful to Him for all of these precious lives!

Just a few more of these kiddos….Faith is full of expressions – and yes she does cry ({{hugs}}} !

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, off to work we go. Ray & Sarah now needed more beds! We were able to help them re-paint and carpet Jeremiah’s room and build and add full-size bunk beds to both Jeremiah and Asia’s bedrooms. Everybody worked together and got the job done – it was a fun weekend!

These beds will be great as the kids grow – and will still have room for Nana & Pap when we visit!

…and the food just kept on coming! This was a “ten-pound-project”! LOL

We will “see ya later”! We had a full month of weekends in June – so much adventure – so much to thank God for! Praying for more fun and adventures in the future!