Longview, Texas, is where Jon's sister Linda, husband Walter and seven children live.
(see picture of Jon, Joshua and the Burklin kids). We arrived Tuesday (July 3) in the evening. Joshua immediately connected with his cousins Spencer (11 years), Lucy (9 years) and Jasper (6 years) and they disappeared into the back yard to jump on the trampoline. We hardly saw Joshua for the next couple days. The 4th of July was mostly rainy so Jon, Walter and the 4 older kids (Lina, Flynn, Mary and Mercy) played one of Jon's favorite games -- Rail Barrons. It was literally an all-day game lasting from about 9:00 in the morning until dinner that night, which was delayed till 7:00 p.m. so the game could be concluded. Joshua and the younger kids were in and out of the house depending on the rain. I got caught up on my e-mail (I was going through withdrawals) and enjoyed reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini the author of best seller "The Kite Runner." I am really enjoying this story about the lives of Afghan women spanning my life time. The rain did let up after dark and we were able to set off a few fireworks to celebrate the day.
The next day Mary, Mercy and Spencer had a sword-fighting class and so Linda and I played lifeguards while Jon got in a very cold pool with Lucy, Joshua and Jasper (see picture of Jon with Jasper). After lunch we were off to a skating party for homeschoolers in the Longview area. I hadn't skated in about 30 years but it was amazing how quickly it came back -- at least I didn't fall. This was Joshua's first time to roller skate and with Jon's help he did pretty good, although Joshua got tired of Jon and I giving him "helpful hints." In the end he made it around the rink a couple times with his cousin Lucy by his side. It was a great couple hours while the rain continued outside.
Friday morning dawned with heavier rain than we had already experienced that week. It was flooding around the house so after breakfast we hit the road. We drove in heavy rain for a couple hours as we headed east into Louisiana and then north into Arkansas. Around noon outside Little Rock the rain finally let up and we turned off the windshield wipers for the first time all day. Jon kept his speed down and we were so grateful for a safe drive as we saw 4 vehicles stuck in ditches on the side of the road and another one that looked like it stalled out in high water. What a drive. Unfortunately we weren't able to meet up with my college friend Beth, due to our delayed travel time -- we were about an hour behind schedule due to the heavy rain -- and scheduled activities Beth's son had. We may be able to connect on our way back when we go through the Kansas City area.
Saturday morning we were able to visit with Jon's cousin Mark Baker and his family in Memphis. They haven't seen each other in about 20 years, so it was fun getting caught up on each other's lives. They have three young boys, so Joshua enjoyed building Legos while we talked. That evening, after a slight detour into Mississippi so we could add another state to our route, we arrived in Nashville at Jon's grandpa Baker's home. We enjoyed dinner with him and another cousin of Jon's -- Tim Lauer and his family. We spent more time with the Lauers and Grandpa on Sunday.
Monday we had breakfast with Dave Baker's family, another cousin that Jon has not seen in decades. After getting caught up on their lives, we went back and played a game of Scrabble with Grandpa. He is 97 years old and beat us all handily. It was a wonderful time, but sure enough after no rain for two days, it started raining as we were loading our car -- amazing! We hit the road about 1:30 and spent quite a bit of the drive in the rain. When we arrived we found out that it has been the driest summer in 130 years here and that day it rained. Amazing! We must have brought the rain with us from Texas.
We hope to enjoy the recreational activities here at Lake Tansi where Jon's folks live. We plan to use the paddle boats, go miniature golfing, swimming in the pool and the lake and maybe going out on a boat as well. Should be fun and I'll update y'all later.
Thanks again for your prayers.
Sheryl
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