Weekend in the Mountains

Our irresistible, darling little Baby Hannah in the yellow aspen. (Sorry if I sound like a doting Mommy. I am!)
Checking out those aspen leaves...Do they taste a little like lettuce? (Carrie is holding her from behind to keep her on the log!)

Sorry, I spent quite a while trying to figure out how to turn these pictures around, and I got them turned on the computer but they wouldn't stay turned when they got on the blog. I have already wasted too much time trying to fix it. So just turn your head or page down!

This is the three boys on a log in the aspen near the cabin where we were a week ago.

Sorry again. I'm just not going to try for a fourth time. Here are our four girls. How they loved getting their pictures here! I could put on a picture of each child, but they would all be sideways, and I won't bother you with too many more sideways pictures.

Thankfully some of these photos came out all right. Walmart put a lot of my photos onto the disc sideways, and that is why I am having problems. Here my dear husband and I are, on the same log as the children were, under blue sky and yellow aspen. It was a beautiful weekend which we enjoyed despite not getting nearly enough sleep. But the beauty we enjoyed made up for it. Hopefully more photos soon.

We missed getting this picture of the girl cousins at the reunion playing wedding in one of the dorm rooms. They had found some white curtains to dress up in. Carrie was the bride, and the groom was--Well, they said he was Mr. Nobody. After all, this was an all-girls game. You should have seen the frantic frenzy to get everyone ready for the picture. Natasha (center back) was just like the regular, harried wedding coordinator getting everyone and everyone's "clothes" or flowers in just the right place! Back row around Carrie are Gabriel's Andrea, Joella's Susanna, Fain's Natasha, our Rose, and Gabriel's Bethany. The front left girl is Gabriel's Carrie, and the girl on the right is Joella's Charity.

GRINNING GARDENERS!

Proud of the vegetables we grew in our tiny gardens, the children line up for a photo.

Rose has turnips, Carrie has a cucumber and lettuce, Sam more turnips, Timmy turnips, and the baby is trying to get a bite of lettuce. Danny has a shovel, of course.

Final pictures of the reunion

Oops, the above picture is what happened AFTER the reunion! The day after we arrived home, our second batch of golden doodle puppies arrived! We were thankful they waited till we got home. We were delighted to have eight living puppies! Lots of work ahead!

Back to the reunion--Here is a picture of the food line. Craig insisted that the boys let the girls go first--thanks, Craig, for teaching a bit of chivalry! Craig and Joella headed up the cooking and organizing all the help to make meals. They did a wonderful job! Sunday noon's slow-cooked roast beef that Chris and Kezia donated was tops to me.

Saturday evening we celebrated Charity's and Gabriel's Danny's birthdays. Cake and icecream were eaten around the campfire.

Up we go, into the wild blue yonder!

I think this is my favorite photo! Just before we were getting ready to leave on Labor Day, Monday, I suggested getting a picture of us three sisters. Then we decided to have the husbands in on it, too. And then Kezia suggested that the husbands HOLD us! And, can you even more imgine, the husbands CONSENTED!!

What I like about this picture is how happy everyone looks--especially the husbands! Whether it is because they are thrilled to have us for wives or whether they are just tickled that they can still pick up those wives is a matter of debate, I suppose.

Tire Shop in Salina, Kansas

Story follows

We stayed so much later than we expected to Monday that we didn't get to visit the St. Louis Arch as we'd hoped, but that saved us money anyhow. Jonathan's dad on the phone helped us get a hotel room on Priceline, in Salina, Kansas, which ended up being a bit of a fiasco. The air conditioning didn't work, and Jonathan ended up opening the window and the inside door both, to get a cross breeze. But then he couldn't sleep because every little noise made him think someone might be coming in! Plus Timmy had been sick and his breathing sounded awful, and his heart was racing. Jonathan wondered if we'd end up taking him to the ER. Finally that awful night was over, and we started off early in the morning for home.

That wasn't the end of the adventure. Twenty-five miles down the road, we came upon a stranded vehicle with a tire off and two guys by it, one waving us down. We stopped, and ended up trying to make room for one big colored guy and his flat donut tire. We thought we'd just take him on to the next station, but Jonathan soon realized it would be many miles on our way to find help. So we turned around at the next median turn-around--right in front of THREE policemen! Thankfully, they didn't even stop, but we were pretty cautious driving behind them. Unfortunately, the donut spare tire turned out to have a hole in it as well, and the guy was pretty upset and frustrated. We spent a couple hours going from one shop to another trying to find another tire--the problem aggravated because the guy didn't know the make or model of the car he'd been riding in. It belonged to his friend, and his friend back at the car 25 miles away had a cell phone that was dead. We finally had prayer together with Paul, the guy we'd picked up, to ask the Lord to undertake for us and help us find a tire. To make a long story short, after stopping seven different places, we finally found a shop that appeared to belong to Christians. The guy there looked in his vehicle book, and made a couple calls, and figured out the make, model and size of tire needed, and outfitted the donut with a new tire. The above picture was taken in this cute tire office. It had this harvest display in the middle of the show room, and the whole room was decorated with antiques. Very unique, and very good service! If you ever have tire problems near Salina, check out Bengston's Tire Shop for good service.
We weren't sure why the Lord let this happen. We sure didn't expect to be held up two and a half hours when we first stopped to help. We could have been almost half way home. There didn't seem to be much reward for it, in earthly terms. It was a really miserable time some of the time, but at the same time, God's mercies were evident. We just committed this little situation to Him and prayed that something about it would count for eternity. If nothing else, it was a chance to show our children that sometimes you just help for nothing in return. You cannot always expect a reward or think that everything you do will shine with a great purpose. Sometimes your only payment will be more misery. But even when you don't understand why you got stuck in a situation that you feel helpless about, you can trust God to bring good out of it--even if it only shows up in eternity!

Visiting at Grandma and pa Morley's house

On Saturday, Dorcas and Ben's family and our family went to see Grandma and pa Morley's home, as we'd never seen it yet. Then our family also went to see the house Chris has so beautifully remodeled for Kezia as well. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures. I would have loved to at least have taken a picture of the outside of their home, with all the pretty wooden barrels overflowing with flowers. That's what impressed me the most. You don't have to have a large or gorgeous house to make it beautiful outside with flowers, and beautiful inside with love. The main thing is for a home to have love, and that sometimes does show through the beauty of the way it is built and the work put into making it beautiful with flowers. May God bless all such homes, whether humble and lowly or large and beautiful, where Christ is first, and love abides.
Jonathan and Grandpa are visiting above, while Samuel Morley is up a tree by the house. The children had fun climbing up into the old haymow as well.

I had to get this photo of the little boy inside of Chris! He accompanied the two Samuels up that tree.

The three sisters there at the time--Anna, Kezia, and Dorcas--with our mom and dad--and babies, of course. I always did think my sisters were beautiful. But you don't have to have a lot of beauty to get married--I proved that! And you don't have to be gorgeous to have cute babies. I also proved that! Ha ha! You just have to have a handsome hubby! Ha ha! In all seriousness we are very blessed and have so much to be thankful for...

like for your handsome hubbies! And ones, who, on top of looking half decent, also treat us nicely. We are very happy and blessed wives. We don't look a bit unhappy, do we? Not even after having seven or nine children--except Kezia, who hasn't started yet.

Jonathan and I were both very grateful to my brother Gabriel's wife Elizabeth for giving some of her time to give us some foot treatments. She has taken training in foot reflexology and has been licensed to be able to help a lot of people with various ailments from MS to epilepsy. Jonathan was having a terrible problem with his eye burning, as he's had in the past sometimes when he's under a lot of stress. Driving in bright sunlight really aggravates it. Elizabeth worked on the nerve endings on his feet, and he felt it really helped his eye problem. She also worked on my feet, and for someone who doesn't understand the nerve endings and blood vessel systems, it might sound funny, but my sore throat had disappeared by the time she was done working on my feet. I felt the two treatments also helped my hurting shoulders. She said she can stop a seizure by working on the pinpoint area for the pituitary gland on the big toe. A young Amish woman has been coming to her for treatments because she was having 10 to 20 seizures a month, and they were ruining her life. Now, after Elizabeth has been working with her, she only has one or two seizures a month, has a boyfriend, and is so happy that she can live again. I wish I could learn more about this simple method of helping a person.

Fun with relatives

Four of the five Morley sisters visiting on the porch of the dining hall. (Iva couldn't come) Gabriel is here as well, and Dorcas's daughter Esther and baby Fletcher.
Baby Hannah meets Grandpa Morley for the first time. (Grandma was out here in CO for her birth.) Hannah won Grandpa's heart right away. Whose doesn't she? She sure won ours!!!

I had to capture a picture of the three oldest girl cousins working in the kitchen. They are shredding cheese and getting lettuce ready for taco salad. We had to make lots. There must have been about 52 people to eat!

Chris managed to get off work early Friday to join Kezia and us at Crest Haven. They had a late lunch together. And then he unloaded the hit of the weekend: his and his father's two four-wheelers!

I wanted to get at least one snap of the lovely little bouquets that Joella and her family had put together to brighten the tables. The zinnias and other flowers are from their beautiful flower garden across the lane. I also managed to get Elizabeth and her two little boys in this picture!

Reunion Activities

Every morning at the reunion we had devotions, usually on the wooden benches around the fire place. Friday morning Craig Bradford is leading worship in this picture. This is before Gabriel's family, Kezia's, or Grandpa and ma's have arrived. We had fun singing songs and choruses and being together.
This is from another direction. The dining hall is in the background.

Now it's dishes time! "You do those dishes just so!" Fain " cracks the whip" over the younger girls as they do the breakfast dishes. The children split into three groups: the younger girls, the older girls, and the boys. They took turns doing dishes and sweeping and cleaning up after each meal.

Kezia and Gabriel and Elizabeth's family finally arrived. Grandma Morley had been with Gabriel's family the last two weeks, and traveled back to Illinois with them in a motorhome borrowed from Elizabeth's sister. It broke down at the Christian Aid Ministries campus in Ohio, where they visited Wednesday, and it took them a day to make repairs. We envied them getting to travel in a motorhome, but not getting to spend a day stranded because it didn't work right!

Craig and Fain directed the game of Kick-the-Can (another version of Capture the Flag). Dorcas's boys sure could run! Jesse was a good player, flying across the line and kicking the can before anyone could catch him.

It was in the middle of this game that Grandma and Grandpa Morley arrived from their home. It didn't get captured on film, but Dorcas and Anna, the two oldest daughters, both came across the grounds to greet and hug their gray-haired dad at almost the same time. Neither of us had seen him in person for about six years, as he was in Florida when we were at Kezia's wedding. Then Grandma came over at the same time, with tears in her eyes, to hug us as well. It was great to see their joy in seeing their children and grandchildren again. It was worth the many weary miles and hours of travel to see so many together again.

It is our fervent prayer, when life's journey is ended, to all meet again together with the Great Heavenly Family!!

More pictures to follow!

Morley Family Reunion

After a grueling trip, we arrived at Crest Haven Family Center in Illinois at about three o'clock in the morning. Our family stayed in a little cottage on the campground. Above is everybody that was able to come to the reunion, except for Grandpa, who had gone home before we were able to take pictures. Gabriel's family came from Pennsylvania, Dorcas's from Vermont, Fain's from Texas, and us from Colorado. Kezia and Chris and Grandma and Grandpa came from about twenty miles away. Joella's family lives just across the road, as they are presently care takers for the campground.
Here are all 29 grandchildren present. Had all the grandchildren been present, there would have been 43! ( The 44th is on it's way to Craig and Joella's family!)

Here are all the girl cousins, 15 in all.

All the boy cousins (except Dorcas's baby Fletcher who did not care about pictures) - ready to run, jump, climb trees, and tease the living daylights out of their girl cousins!

Dorcas's family (Dorcas is the oldest of the Morley children and has the most children) was the only one we managed to get a picture of as a family! Sorry! The time sped by dreadfully, and we only got these group pictures because we decided it was more important to take pictures than eat the supper that was waiting all ready for us in the dining hall! We wanted to get the pictures before it got too dark and before Dorcas's family left the next day. We were all so glad the Barths could come. They brought a lot of love, and also some Vermont cheese and a half gallon of real Vermont maple syrup for each family. Their oldest son, Peter, was the master photographer of the reunion, snapping shots of almost everything you could imagine.

Visiting Old Town Museum in Burlington, Colorado

On our way to a Morley family reuion,we stopped at the Old Town Museum in Burlington, Colorado. Mom had ordered a kit with free tickets, so we got to go in free. Here we are on a brick street in an old town display. Each building, such as a barber shop, harness shop, church, schoolhouse, prison, print shop, soda shop, bank, and general store, contain artifacts and antiques related to the building in the 1800's and early 1900's.
Sorry this picture turned out crooked. This is a sod house and schoolhouse in the old town.

Sam in front of an old fire truck in a building that had old wagons and antique farm machinery in it. There was an enormous yellow and green threshing machine, similar to one Pa Ingalls may have used. There was a white hearse for children's funerals. There was a medicine wagon too. Also there was a chuck wagon display and a tepee display.

The girls looking at a covered wagon display.