Weekend with Family

As I mentioned on Monday, our grandparents and Great Aunt drove up from Ohio for the weekend in order to attend Josiah’s rodeo and Ben’s Graduation ceremony. We had a great weekend with them and were so glad they could come up for these occasions!

They arrived on Friday morning before Josiah’s rodeo. We all attended the rodeo and spent the afternoon at home relaxing. Then we ate an early dinner so that we could make it to Ben’s graduation ceremony at camp. Afterward, we all went out for ice cream and then went to bed quite late!

On Saturday we ate a delicious breakfast of homemade carrot muffins, cheddar cheese, and cantaloupe.

I don’t believe that Ben made an appearance until after 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. J He was sleeping like a baby when I left on my morning run at 7:00 a.m. I can’t really blame him for sleeping so late. They had a grueling schedule at camp and Thursday night was spent on an overnight hike.

It appears that others in the family thought a siesta would be a good idea as well. Zack is sleeping in the bottom left corner, Zinnia is in a green shoe box at the far top, Mikey is sacked out by the couch, and Abuelo is dozing in the recliner.

Photo Credit: Roma.

As a belated celebration of Ben’s birthday, my Abuela and Titi cooked up a big Puerto Rican feast. Josiah couldn’t wait to take a peek. J

We had rice and beans, roasted chicken and root vegetables, bread and butter, salad, and homemade punch. It was a very satisfying meal!

For dessert we had oatmeal raisin cookie bars that Mom made and chocolate chip cookies made by one of our neighbors. Who doesn’t love a good cookie?

After dinner was cleaned up, Ben opened his birthday gifts from our Grandparents. He received some nice new clothes and some money to spend as he pleases.

On Sunday we all went to church together in the morning. Church was quite crowded because we had one service instead of the usual two. The reason behind that was that Sunday was our Pastor’s last day at our church. After lots of prayer, he felt God was leading him and his family to pastor a church down in Texas. He will definitely be missed!

After church, we had a final farewell picnic for Pastor and his family. The weather turned out wonderfully despite the forecasted rain.

If you ever want to have some good food, go to a potluck at a Baptist church! J (Recipe for the broccoli salad pictured coming soon!)

Our relatives had to leave part-way through the picnic. We were so glad that they could come, even though our visit was short. Around 2:00 p.m., our family left the picnic to go to our missions team meeting inside the church.

Part-way through the meeting we were interrupted by Pastor and his family to say our goodbyes.

A picture of our families together. We’re going to miss them so much!

We finished our meeting around 3:30 p.m. and finally made it home. It was a long weekend, and a bit bittersweet. But we are thankful for all God has blessed us with!

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. . .”

Ephesians 3:1