A while back in Sunday School we were doing a video called Love & Respect. Emerson Eggerichs suggested that if he didn't his wife to accost him during his "transition" times to and from work, etc., he should set aside a time for her to talk to him. What he did w/his wife was to sit down in their bedroom alone at some point in the evening and visit with her even though the kids protested. Terry's idea for us was to have a weekly outing on Friday afternoons.
We started out just w/coffee... Well, neither of us really drank coffee but you get the idea. But a few weeks ago we decided to have a late lunch at Runza. What is Runza you may ask? It's a Nebraska fast food chain that we have grown to really love. A couple in our church owns it. But at first we were like, "Runza gives you the runza" and we were scared of their food. =) But as I said, we've grown to love it and now we go every week - the coupons help.
So, what do we do w/the kids? you may well wonder since the whole idea is to be, you know, ALONE. Our good friend Kathy Hult watches them for us for one hour every week! She's awesome and Noah really loves her. A couple weeks ago when it was cold, and therefore boring, and we were stuck inside, Noah repeatedly asked to go to Kathy's house (I'm working on him saying "Miss Kathy" b/c that's just nicer and more respectful).
Kathy loves it too. We were at their house earlier this week to work on her husband's, Dave, testimony for youth group when I discovered some new toys. I gave her a hard time b/c I knew why she bought them - for Noah and Evie! But she insisted they're also for future grand kids since her daughter just got married last year. So sweet!
I really love this time alone with Terry. I also really love the time away from the kids. I love them but dog gone it, I love getting away. And I really love Runza as well.
"Kaffry's house!"
Terry ordering w/a coupon from the sister of our church secretary. She always calls him "Pastor Terry." So weird for me, still (the title). She took our picture when she brought our food. Terry is incapable of just smiling in a photo, just in case you were wondering. He has to be silly. =)
Dessert. Apparently I can be silly too...
The look from the outside. I love what the sign says, "Don't be silly try our chili!" He he.
Though I felt really silly taking pictures like a Nebraska tourist, I think it will be fun to look back on this sort of thing when we're older...especially since Terry can hardly remember last week =). Sorry Terry, I'm being too hard on you. Love you dude!
I said "all of us" meaning all of us Six Packers. Noah and Evie were technically middle schoolers so they were legit. Since I came along as a leader, we brought Samuel and Ezra, figuring they were old enough to not drown if they were wearing a life vest.
See, little Samuel came along! It was so cute and sweet having the littles along.
Evie was in my van too. Ezra was in Terry's and of course he didn't take any pictures. 😏
When Samuel got bored I entertained him with Snapchat filters.
Four hours later we arrived at Sonny Brook Camp.
The girls (and guys) got their tents all set up. Samuel and Ezra slept in Terry's mini cabin and I slept in a cabin room by myself. For a light sleeper like me, it was heavenly. Plus, I can play the "old" card now.
We grilled dinner.
And made jokes.
We feasted.
Yeah we feasted. The day before I had helped Terry buy all the food at Sam's Club. We actually bought too much.
Afterwards the guys played football and the rest of us just hung out visiting.
Evie found a crew to chill with.
Noah befriended Charlie, who actually ended up with our smallest puppy, Babs who they renamed Ruby.
Ezra prepared the fire pit.
What a blaze he got going. Not really. That was the firefighter Steven's work.
I had someone to keep me warm.
Devotional later in the cabin.
It was after 10pm but Ezra wasn't disruptive or sleeping. He was just lying there casually waiting for us to be done. I thought it was rather cute.
Bright and early next morning we drove nearly an hour up river.
The picture I took of the group isn't great, but it's better than the one our Sonny Brook guy took with me in it.
See. But I'm there on the left.
Next we walked up to Smith Falls, as is tradition. It wasn't actually hot enough to need cooling off in the frigid waterfall, but we went under it anyway.
Samuel, Ezra, and Evie on that rock.
I tried putting all the videos of our family into one but it just wouldn't work. Here's the view of the falls when we first got there.
Terry holding himself under the cold water. It was like a right of passage, a way for the guys to prove their grit.
Thankfully Mike held onto Ezra so he didn't slip off that rock.
A quick video of the group standing under the falls.
On the walk back down to the shoving off point, someone had dropped one of our river toys. Terry and Steven ran off in hot pursuit. Terry waded out to grab it in time but was very nearly swept away. That river was very high and fast. Not dangerously so, but usually this river is pretty slow. But with all the rain we'd had every creek, stream, river, and lake was a lot higher than normal. It usually took us six to eight hours to float back to the camp. This day it was just four and a half. And quite a lot of that was lunch, and waiting for people to swim/walk back who'd missed our stop.
Just getting it. It was hard to stay together since the river was going so fast.
Samuel, Ezra, and Terry. The littles eventually jumped around from tube to tube.
Noah floating past.
Fast forward an hour or so and we came to our 2015 lunch beach where we rode those freedom tubes...except the beach was under water. We managed to pull our tubes onto the now steeper bank and troop back to the waterfall we liked to visit. That's Terry going under. The water really pounds you and all the guys wanted to see how tough it was.
The crowd of onlookers.
Even Samuel went under the waterfall, with Terry's help.
From there we continued floating since it wasn't lunch time yet. Samuel had joined this amoeba, as Terry liked to call them.
Here's Evie's group.
We finally found a beach that wasn't underwater and stopped for lunch. However, one conjoined group of girls missed the stop and were swept passed us. The rest of us had to wait while the guys ran after them to pull them out and then they walked back upriver to us. Then we found another waterfall, this one sort of a stair step.
It wasn't long at all after that before we were done.
Me and Ezra.
Terry and Samuel.
Once pulling all our tubes ashore at the camp, most of us showered and then we all packed up so we could go have dinner in Valentine. That was over an hour drive to Valentine, but we were rewarded with Runza. Runza was our favorite Nebraska chain when we lived in Gburg.
After moving away from home in 2007, I became weary of emailing recent photos of our kids to the grandparents. So I started a blog. And even though we moved back home in 2012, I still really enjoy keeping track of our lives!
