Big fun weekend

Last week I get a new welcome rug for our front door. I LOVE it!!  It pretty much has the same colors as my rocker pillows.  And the porch planter is turquoise too.  

Here's a walk around to see some of our flowers from this past week. 

 

I think I'm managing to stay ahead of the bugs on our rose bushes.  If you remember, last summer the leaves on our rose bushes were destroyed.  I got a powder to dust them this year.

But oh my, the leaves on so many of my other flowers are being so destroyed - the zinnias, begonias, hosta....   I have never had this problem before.  

Now, on to our weekend!  On Friday evening we drove to the Harrisburg area to meet Alex and his dad.  We were getting Elizer for the weekend!!   My heart was so happy!  I took this picture for Destiny.

We were so fascinated with the cloud formations on the way home!

Elizer wanted to do puzzles when we got here.  

On Saturday morning Dick put together the foam airplane that the Sunday School had given to the kids.  They had so much fun with it.

There's a song that he really likes.  Here he is dancing with it.  More like break dancing, I guess.

We went to Get Air in the afternoon.  As we waited in the car for Hunter to get there, Elizer "sang" with his favorite song.  I gotta work on matching pitch with him, haha!

He and Hunter had a lot of fun at Get Air, as they always do.

We expected rain that afternoon, which is the reason we went to Get Air.  But it was nice and sunny!  So after we left Get Air we went to nearby Burger King's drive-thru, then we went to airport park.  

Then we came here for a while.  The boys were having fun playing a game together on their devices. 

We finished their time together with ice cream sundaes.  Then we took Hunter home and got gas in our car.  

Bubble bath before bed!

When we left the house on Sunday morning we were leaving for the whole day and had to remember all the things we would need.  

We went to church first, of course.  Elizer had to be Grandpa's boy because there was no children's church that morning and our friend Emily, who usually takes care of him, was not there this week.  He had fun drawing on this board.  I never noticed before that he sticks his tongue between his lips when he's concentrating!

We left right from church for Reading, a little less than three hours away.  We had lunch packed for us to eat on the way. 

Frank was getting baptized!  He has become close friends with Manny Mercado, a realtor who buys houses to flip.  Frank and his crew do the remodelling to get the houses ready for sale.  Manny is Latino and married to a girl from a Mennonite family.  Now Manny is one of the pastors at this Mennonite church in Reading!  He has been a wonderful influence in Frank's life, and the church has been like family to Frank and the girls.   God moves in mysterious ways! 

The baptism took place at a park along the river, within walking distance of the church.   Each person getting baptized wore a white gown and shared a bit about what led them to the decision to be baptized.  Frank was the only adult. 

In the picture above are Lisa (RaeLynn's mommy) and Dick.  Behind them are Frank's bio sister and mom.  Frank's son J'von and his girlfriend Leslie are standing with Jada and Elizer.  As you can see, it was starting to rain. 

Here's the video I took of Frank's baptism. 

After we went back to our cars I was feeling wet and chilly and very ready for my jacket.  It was NOWHERE in the car!!!!  I could not believe it!  I never go on a day trip without a jacket because I am always colder than other people.  But I guess there were just too many things to remember when we left the house before church.  UGH!!!  

We were planning to go out to eat.  Dick and I went to buy the birthday cake.  I forgot to say that in addition to this being Frank's baptism day, it was also his birthday!!   I got wet going into the store, which was very air conditioned, then I got wet again coming out of the store.  UGH again!!

We went to Outback Steakhouse and got a nice big table.  Amazingly, I was not cold there.  Elizer was so happy that Mariah was there.  He had never met her before.  She's Frank's bio sister's daughter.  Elizer didn't know her name at first, but he kept calling her "cousin."  

Jada, Elizer, Mariah, and RaeLynn were on the bench on the back side of the table.  Well, RaeLynn was there sometimes, haha!  

This was our crew.  Left to right - Frank, me (taking the picture), Dick, Leslie and J'von, Jada, Mariah, Elizer, RaeLynn, and Lisa.  We had a really good time.  So much fun!

I forgot to say that the reason Alaya and V'anni were not there is because Alaya's cheerleading team was at a competition - guess where??  State College!!!!  What in the world?  We would have loved to see that!  Isn't it crazy how there are so often more than one important thing in a day.  

The server had taken the birthday cake to the back, then brought it out when we were ready.  

Later we discovered the candles I had bought for it - a 4 and a 6.  I had completely forgotten to give the candles to the server, so I guess she improvised with those three candles.  None of us even noticed that his cake had just three candles on it.  Oh how we laughed when we realized it!

By the end of the meal RaeLynn had completely warmed up to us - first time ever.  She decided she really likes Elizer!

I couldn't believe it when we walked out the door and she put her hand in mine and walked to the car with me.  Lisa was behind us and took these pictures.  

She gave us all goodbye hugs!  And please notice that it was not raining for a few minutes!!

From there we drove to Lancaster to return Elizer to his daddy.  He was very happy about that.  They are thick as thieves!

THEN I decided I had been cold long enough.  I knew Dick would need to have the car much cooler than I would like it, which is why I always travel with a jacket or a blanket.  We knew the Park City Mall was probably closed, so we stopped at a Weis Markets not too far from Alex and his dad's house.  I told Dick, "Our Weis Markets sells lots of Penn State sweat shirts.  Maybe they sell something like that here."  The store was SO COLD!!  But whoohoo!!  I found a display of hoodies that said "Lancaster, Pennsylvania"  and I bought me one.  More money than I would have liked to spend, but I really needed it.  Oh how wonderful it felt as we drove the two hours home in the rain.  I was a very happy camper.  And so was Dick as he turned the AC up to his comfort level!

And that's all for this time!