Rally Staycation 2019

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally snuck up on us quickly in the summer of 2019, perhaps because summer already seemed half over after two weeks in Mexico. So I got our school books ordered and everything organized for fall and then we got the house ready to rent for the fifth time since 2015 (2016, 2017, 2018). This year we rented twice, back to back to two different groups. It's a good way to make some extra money and it's always worked out well for us. 

Since we had to be out of our house for so long (Aug 2-15), we stayed at Shari's for the first five days. Shari and Jesse went to D.C. for a couple's get away and the girls went to the ranch, so we house sat for them. It worked out wonderfully.

While there Terry realized our kids basketball knowledge was woefully shallow. That's what happens when your driveway is a hill and you don't have a hoop. However, when we returned home he ended up buying a used hoop and setting it up despite the incline. 

August 2nd was our first night at Shari's and since they were still in the house packing and what not, we went out to eat. Culvers is the best. 

The next day, August 3rd, Shari's crew was gone. I made waffles with the sourdough starter Shari left out for me. I look weird but they were good. 

Evie spent the first night away with Abigail and came back with pink hair.  

Terry and I drove across town to check on our house, get the mail, and water our plants. We needn't have bothered with the watering since it poured on us while we were there. 

I made pizza for dinner that night since it was Saturday. 

After church on Sunday the 4th we went to the ranch to hang out with the girls and Terry's folks. 

Walking down to the bridge.

Rock throwing per usual. 

Poor pregnant and hot Luna. What a great picture of her though. 

Roller coaster fun. Ezra wanted to go forever.

I looked after Rebekah.

Terry and I took a four wheeler ride to check out how full the stock dams were. 

Very full just like in 2015 when we were out at the ranch for the same reason. 

Our favorite little corner. 

Green and flowers everywhere! 

On the way back to Shari's place we stopped by our house again to check on it. The renters said to check out their "trikes" in the garage. Whoa.

I also discovered my very first dahlia of the year! Due to the wet and cool summer I had to wait until August 4!! That's very late.

Worth the wait.

The next day, Monday the 5th, Terry went to work and I took the kids to Sarah's house to play with the orphan they were hosting, Lena. She is one of the three from Christmas 2018! 

They played in tubs of water and then had a water fight that Samuel and Ezra just couldn't resist. I think Evie may have spent the night?

On Tuesday the 6th we went back to the house to clean since our first renters were gone (I think?) and MORE DAHLIAS!!! 😍💗

We also visited my parents (to drop off a car?) and ran into this visiting Australian Shepherd puppy. 😍

Shari and Jesse had come back that day and we had some fun cousin time as we got ready to depart on our own vacation to Colorado the next day. 

That's a pink tongue. 

Hart Ranch with friends and YG, Rally renting prep

Two days after Evie got baptized, Abigail and her family invited us out to Hart Ranch with them. Thumbs up with right Evie.

We had so much fun. Naomi, Julia, and Ezra are behind Samuel. 

Ezra really took to falling in sideways after Evie taught them all how to do it. 

She choreographed them all falling one by one into the pool. 😮😅

A couple days later we discovered a random present at our house. It was a Lego Bible (a kids Bible animated with Lego people and bricks)! Prae gave it to the kids who she rightly knew would love it. So sweet of her. 

Now that July was ending, August and the Sturgis Rally were right around the corner. We had to be out of our house by August 2nd for our first set of renters. There were many jobs to do. 

I worked in the middle of all that cleaning and organizing and left the kids a list of things to accomplish. 

I worked a fair amount last summer due to one of the ladies being gone for maternity leave. It was rough filling in sometimes...just because I'm not there often enough. 

We sold our Bowflex, thank the Lord. I really never wanted it to begin with and after a year and a half of mostly gathering dust I was only too glad to have it gone.

I also washed the dust from all the hutch dishes (and untold number of many other tasks).

I made enough breakfast burritos to last us on our upcoming five-fish day vacation to Colorado. I did the same thing for breakfasts on our sabbatical trip. And apparently two years was not enough of a break from them because the kids whined incessantly about eating them. 😤

We put an extra bed where the Bowflex had been. Trouncie enjoyed it. 

Upside down he looks like he's smiling. 😂 That's certainly a new look for him. 

Just one day later we went back to Hart Ranch for the youth group closing event of the summer. The littles played mini-golf, which they love.

It was unseasonably cold (like it had been all summer), and though it looked like it was going to pour all evening, the littles still had a lot of fun in the pool. 

The hot tub was more like it though. I think it did rain on our way home. 

Noah is in there with the big boys at the bottom right. Two days later we went to Shari's to house-sit while our place was being rented and Shari and Jesse went to Washington D.C. for a vacation. 

Evie's baptism!

On July 28, 2019, Evie was baptized!

Terry did the short devotional about baptism. It's not a salvific thing, it doesn't save you. It's a picture of a salvation that has already occurred! 

Russ interviewed all the people so we could know they were actually trusting in Christ alone and not in their baptism. 

Evie had already believed that she was a sinner deserving of Hell and in need of Jesus rescuing her from her sins. He did this through his death on the cross where He took on all of humanity's sin and was punished by the Father entirely. He paid our debt, something we could never do through our good works (like baptism to many people). Our good works (like relying on baptism and acts of service or a good life) are like filthy cloths to Him since He is so entirely perfect and holy. But if we cry out to Him in conviction over our wrongs against Him and trust Him alone to save us, He does it. 

Evie's good friend Abigail was baptized as well. 

And so was her mom and my friend Amanda!

Terry even go to baptize Evie. 

Going under the water signifies our death with Christ. 

When we come out of the water it is symbolic of our having risen to new life with Christ in His resurrection. 

Thankfully my mom got a video for me since the video I did end up getting couldn't really see the baptism at all. Mom's video is first and mine is second. 

Abigail coming up. 

And I just had to include her hugging her dad Danny afterwards because it was so precious. 

Afterwards the church went to a nearby park to celebrate and eat a picnic together. Noah's in that tree. 

This is fairly random but has to do with baptism. I gave Evie an old book of mine from high school and college that I used to keep favorite quotes in. While perusing it we discovered that little circled "quote" my dad inserted. I had no memory that he ever did this. It's so my dad, and funny. I must have read it at that time though because I commented "What?" and my sister inserted a translation, "baptize." "You can't baptize a cat."