Trip to Ohio

We took our first family vacation in years to Ohio in November.  We stayed at a gorgeous hotel on the 11th floor next to the Northern Kentucky Convention Center where Priscilla and Miriam helped judge at the National Bible Bee. While the girls were there, Arthur and I enjoyed visiting Hosanna and Nate who were only an hour away. The hotel had this beautiful gazebo in the center of the building.

One day we went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton. This is a WWII RAF plane. If you've ever read the children's books about the RAF you will appreciate this! Good books for boys, by the way!

Priscilla in a space suit at the museum!

This museum was a pretty awesome place to go. There were SOOOO many airplanes starting with WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Others, Presidential, and space. It was during the week and we had the place almost to ourselves.  If you ever get there, go! Plan for a long day though!

My favorites were the Air Force One planes. And yes, you got to walk through them! This was the newest one they had that a number of recent presidents used.

The whole way down to Ohio we could hear a strange noise in the vehicle. We pulled into Nate and Hosanna's place and right away the water pump went bad. So thankful that it didn't happen on the road! God was watching over us! So Arthur was able to use Nate's tools to replace that. Then one of the breaks started squealing really  bad and he ended up replacing that too. He didn't want to get his shirt dirty so we popped into a thrift store and he bought a cheap suitcoat to wear to do his car repairs!

The view outside of our hotel window! This was taken outside but this is what we watched at night. So beautiful and so nice and warm compared to home!

We enjoyed watching the Bible Bee finals that were held at the Ark Encounter. I get so edified listening to these young people quote scripture! Also, we are so thankful for the Bible Bee and the help its been even in our family.

We took some time to go through the Ark. What a great place!!!

The Ark had all their Christmas lights up.

And this picture, a little blurry, shows just how big the Ark is!  Pretty impressive!



Priscilla and Miriam in front of the Ark.

Nate and Hosanna were living in a studio apartment when were there but just got a bigger apartment with two bedrooms. Which they will need come next summer!!! Around June 20th to be exact! So we helped Hosanna clean the apartment. It was already clean but you know how you like to KNOW its clean! They moved in right after we left and Hosanna said she is already enjoying the bigger kitchen and space!

And the sisters together once again for the first time since Hosanna and Nate's wedding. We sure missed them!!! And its hard not knowing when we will see them next. So thankful for phones!!

On our way home we took a few hours to spend at the Creation Museum. I've been there before but I just love this place. We really enjoyed the 4D theater of the six days of creation. Their bookstore is pretty awesome too!

With a trip that long, you need to eat out and we enjoyed Steak and Shake which we don't have up here. We also did a lot of Christmas shopping.

Okay, my family groaned when I said I wanted to go to a corn maze but they went along with my passion for that kind of thing and we visited the Rader family farm. Their maze was closed but their gift shop and food stand was open. They let us look around and we got some great ideas and enjoyed some good fellowship.

When we got home it was hunting season and Arthur got the two deer he was wanting. So our freezers and pantry are full despite the difficult fall for gardening and farming.  We never did get all of my father-in-laws beans harvested and none of the flax.  We get so many flax calls in the fall that finally we just quit answering the phone. People just didn't understand that with 12+" of rain, the fields just weren't good for driving in. Hopefully nobody's septics will freeze this winter.

So now, after a good Thanksgiving, we look forward to all the activities of December.  The house is decorated and warm and I can smell the corn chowder Priscilla made for supper so I better go.  Don't forget to be thankful every day for the blessings God sends your way!