Summer Fun at Grandma's (and Grandpa's)

Carter, Andrew, Ellie, Heidi, Julia

Anderson

Caleb, Laura, Anderson, Sarah, Ashton

We had 6 out of 7 Endress children here for two nights. We loved having them, and the weather broke in our favor.  I met Liz to pick them up in the rain and met Bruce to take them back in the rain.  But yesterday the weather was great, and we were out in it for hours.  I delight in how much fun the cousins have with each other! A high point was the text from Ashton on his birthday, Wednesday.  He got his driver's license, (which I think is the official beginning of adulthood.)  I regret that I didn't get pictures of (almost 17 month old) David.  ---Carol

And....We're Home

This is probably of no surprise to any of you if you were following our Appalachian Trail journey. We made it 2 1/2 days. They were hard and hot days, and Dave had had enough. He was adamant about quitting and rented a car...and we were home. You can all imagine what kind of a ride home that was!

So I returned all of Dave's hiking gear and I am in search of new hiking partners. I don't know when it will work out to go back and give it another whirl...but any company would be welcome...from a few days to as long as you are willing to hike.

Drake and Owen...maybe it will work out next time!

Sioux Falls

Perry and I spend the weekend in Sioux Falls with Preston and Kyla.  The weather was pleasant and we enjoyed ourselves.  I am always enthralled with the pink rock out there.  I took pictures of Preston and Kyla on her camera but didn't get any good ones on mine. ---- Carol

Aunt Minerva Saying

Yesterday may have been Father's Day, but I had the perfect opportunity to use Aunt Minerva's saying that I love. I was texting with Mark who shared that they were grilling steaks for dinner. As I closed the conversation I texted him, "Share my love with everyone but save some for yourself."

Any other Aunt Minerva stories to share?

Here We Go!

 

We are packed up and ready to head out tomorrow. We are driving to Olney and our grandson Christian is driving us to Hot Springs, NC. We will stay the night in that little town and then head out early the next morning.

I have started up the journal again at www.trailjournals.com/knobbies/.

No pressure...but you can follow us through that site and, along with your laughs and shaking of the head, and tsk, tsk...we would take all the prayers we can get! You can sign our guestbook on the left side of the page. We would love to hear from you!

PRECIOUS TIME WITH KELSIE

Kelsie came to Illinois to meet her precious little niece, Jett. She is spending some time with us also and we are enjoying that. She spent quite a bit of time working on "fixing" my EJK Blog problem. Hopefully, you will all be able to see this post and I will be able to begin communicating with you again.

French Market

Today was the 2nd time I have participated in a French Market.  My friends Loris & Pat Knobloch have a beautiful garden & host an outdoor French Market in the garden with various vendors that sell things - lots of antiques, antiques, refurbished furniture, herbs, tons of plants, hand-painted art, jewelry, neat finds, essential oils, some produce, etc.  It really reminds me of the many European markets I've been to.  Today I had a booth with food items.  I had handmade Italian cream sodas, turkey wraps, truffle oil popcorn with parmesan & browned butter, salted caramel oatmeal cookies, scotcharoo's, s'mores rice krispie treats & sugared pecans!  Last year I did Italian cream sodas only so I decided to make more food this time.  Italian sodas are soooooo good & very indulgent -- flavored syrup, heavy cream (whoa!) & club soda, stirred together over ice.  Today's flavors were peach, raspberry, strawberry, pomegranate, lemon, pineapple, coconut, OR could mix & match any combination of these.  Pineapple/Coconut,  Peach/Raspberry, & Strawberry/Lemon were quite popular today.  A big thank you to my dad who helped set up all my stuff & stayed to take money & help out in general. I made sure he got a couple of treats as a thank-you!