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We spent the last weekend in September in Paducah, KY as guests of John and Kathy Stubblefield, friends of ours from church. The Sandages went as well, so we were a party of 8...6 adults and 2 kids. Yes, the adults were outnumbered! (smile)
Amy and I went down in their van with Emily and Harrison. Here are Harrison and Emily just as we were pulling out of the driveway...they did great on the road, although it's safe to say they were this happy the WHOLE trip:
John and Kathy have a trailer out in the woods of rural KY - it was AWESOME!!! It was great to be out in the boonies for a few days! Delmar and Chris were "initiated" by John right away. Note the "gold" chains - a first-timers tradition with John for any man who stays at their cabin. The guys had to wear these all weekend long!
Harrison also had his first experience sleeping in the top bunk of a bunk bed - he LOVED it!
Friday night was spent on the deck, just winding down from the drive and spending some time together. There were LOTS of laughs, as usual. (For a peek of Delmar's party wear, see blog titled "Some Day My Prince Will Come". Please note we have John to thank for this...)
On Saturday, we went to an outdoor flea market and Harrison found a cowboy hat - it will be perfect for his costume in our church play (Harrison's role is the toy cowboy...rumor has it he will be patterning Howdy Doody).
After the flea market we went to a barbecue festival in downtown Paducah. I tried to stick with the diet by eating chicken, but the food smelled delicious! Harrison went on a pony ride and Chris got in touch with his "inner Jamaican, Mon!"
We drove past the Kentucky Dam and Chris got this picture:
Saturday night we went to "Patti's 1880 Settlement" for dinner. The food was fantastic, but the atmosphere was even better. We took several pictures there. Here are just a few:The boys 
The girls
The butterfly chair (a big hit):
Delmar, Chris, and "Dad" (aka John)
A family photo that turned out very well if I do say so myself!
Sunday morning we went as John's and Kathy's guests to their church, The Potter's Hands. It was a wonderful service and everyone was so welcoming. Harrison had a fantastic time at kids church and said he can't wait to go back to church there again.
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend full of lots of fun and fellowship. The only "bad" thing that happened was Harrison's first bee sting - right before we left to drive the 4 1/2 hours home! Fortunately, he showed no reaction to it, other than the trauma of the "bee attack".
We really enjoyed our "KY Vacation" and hope we will get to do it again sometime.
Much thanks and blessings to John and Kathy for being the best vacation hosts EVER!!!
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of taking a business trip to Savannah, GA. While I've spent time in GA before, I'd never been to Savannah and I can see why it is known as "the Sweetheart of the South." We stayed on River Road, so the picture below was a common sight - these barges came by all day long. A tour guide said the water in the river was only 42' deep and yet these huge barges continued passing through. In case you can't tell how large this is, the cargo it is carrying is tractor-trailers...I'm used to seeing those hitched to semi trucks, not floating by on the river!
Just outside our hotel was this statue. It is a memorial to the perseverance and struggles of the African-American slaves in the south. A poem by Maya Angelou is written on the bottom, which says:
"We were stolen, sold, and bought together from the African continent . We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave ships in each others excrement and urine together. Sometimes died together and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together. Today we are standing up together with faith and even some joy."
I was reminded of the priceless beauty of freedom and appreciated this statue for the honor it gave those who deserve it.
Another statue that really got my attention was the "Waving Girl". The story is that of a young girl who watched her "beau" leave on a ship and promised she would wait for his return. She spent the rest of her life daily waving to the ships that came in, hoping her young man would return. But, she never saw him again.
I've always been a sucker for a good love story, but I wasn't too crazy about how this one ended...
Would you believe me if I told you the fountain below was built of parts ordered from a catalog in the 1850's? At least, that's what our tour guide told us...wonder what that would cost today??? The fountain is in Forsyth Park, one of many beautiful parks in the city.
And, because I was in Savannah, I had to get a picture of the Spanish moss hanging from the trees. One interesting fact about this moss...it's full of chiggers, so you DON'T want to touch it!!!
We also took a trolley tour that gave us a taste of the various types of architecture in Savannah. It was very interesting that there were so many different styles of buildings. Here's a Victorian-style home:
And, we also saw many Colonial-style homes. This was called "Rainbow Row", due to the number of different colors on each home. The blue color is called "haint blue" and is commonly seen in doorways of homes around Savannah...it is believed to keep the evil spirits at bay.
That's the extent of my "tour guide" job...I think I'll leave the rest of that work to the professionals! Hope you enjoyed it!!!
In the last blog, I mentioned the storm, so I thought I'd show a few pictures of the fun we've had tonight.
Here's the little creek in our back yard...it turned into a river within minutes:
Here's a shot of the water pouring out of the gutters...lots of rain but fortunately no high winds. More storms are coming this way, but most seem to be out of our range. Sometimes it's things like this that remind us of God's awesome power!
We had another cause to celebrate on Cinco de Mayo - we got to witness a double rainbow! I took a few photos of it, but the second rainbow faded very quickly. This picture was the best of the bunch...but it's still a little hard to see. It's nice to have these reminders of God's promises to us.
There was also lots of things for Harrison to do there. His favorite was the Barrel Train - a very clever contraption that he got to ride around the farm.
My personal favorite was the pumpkins that we could use for pictures. It's not very often you get to turn your son into a "punkin head", but doesn't Harrison make a cute one?
He also went through the Kiddie Maze (although if you ask me, he was a little big for that one).
