Happy (very belated) Halloween

Okay, so we're a couple holidays behind.  But we still didn't want to miss out on a chance to post some of the pictures we took this fall. We got to enjoy some Halloween fun because we were doing some baby-sitting while our son and daughter-in-law took a quick vacation with friends to Napa Valley. So we're in charge of our grandbabies . . .

and their dog while we are enjoying some pretty fall foliage in the Kansas City area.

On that walk our granddaughter spotted an earth worm, and insisted on taking it for a walk. What is it about this girl that loves to hold worms?

She also loves all things about horses. We made another visit to the neighborhood horses on this walk to introduce them to her pet worm.

Horses were the inspiration for her Halloween costume. Her favorite movie is about a wild horse named "Spirit" and the girl named "Lucky" who finally tames him. We got her all dressed for costume day at her pre-school, and she made a beautiful Lucky.

In the spirit of Halloween, Carter also helped Gram make green eye-ball cookies. They were as tasty as their name would suggest!

While Gram is enjoying cooking time in the kitchen with our granddaughter, Grand-dude is on the floor playing tackle football with our grandson. Good times!

Mom and Dad flew back in time for trick-or-treating. Our first picture includes Lucky with her cowgirl friend from the movie "Spirit Untamed."

Then we have Superman being held by Clark Kent. You can't tell it in the picture, but Clark's shirt is open, his tie is askew, and his superman t-shirt is shining through.

While we went trick-or-treating, they left a big bowl of candy and glow sticks out on the porch for the neighbor kids to help themselves. You can just see Carter thinking that it would certainly be less work to just stay here and eat this candy, instead of having to walk the streets to go door-to-door for goodies.

Superman is all smiles soaring through the air with his cape flying behind him

After an evening of trick-or-treating, Carter got to pick one goodie out of her basket to eat now. She picked a tootsie pop sucker, but didn't have time to finish it before bath time. So we have a new Halloween tradition at their house. Every Halloween evening you get to eat a sucker in the bath tub. Grand-dude wants to know if he can do that in the shower as well.

We had another family tradition brewing this evening, as Denisa cooked up some witch's brew. It's an easy soup meal to leave heating in the crock pot for after trick-or-treating. It's a little like taco soup in that it includes opening a bunch of cans. Mark was cleaning out those cans for recycling, when he sliced his thumb wide open on a sharp can edge. It's a good thing we had medical help available immediately, as it was a nasty cut.

Luke had some of the glue that physicians use after small surgeries. He glued that long slit closed, and the pain stopped immediately. Even though it was a deep cut clear across his thumb, it healed quickly with no scar. That's a very nice benefit to having a son that is a doctor!

Even with a little boo-boo on his finger, it wasn't a scary holiday. We are enjoying our time with these little goblins and their parents! Happy (very belated) Halloween!

What will Eli do with his first birthday cake?

 We love to take pictures of our smiling baby grandson (and our smiling son). It's so easy to do these days because he seems to be happy all the time. So we were looking forward to a smile-filled first birthday party. We were all excited to see what his reaction would be to his first birthday cake!

It's hard to believe that it has already been twelve months since he was born. If you follow the blog, you might remember that it was also twelve months ago that Mark and Denisa had Covid-19. We missed being there for his birth because we were in quarantine! But one year later, we are glad to celebrate this birthday with others. The balloons are decorating the inside of the house . . .

as well as the outside. We're also blessed with great weather!

We're celebrating at the other set of grandparents' house in the Oklahoma City area. That will make it easier for more relatives to attend. While Eli is taking a well-timed nap, we are doing some last-minute cleaning. That includes leaf-blowing outdoors. Big sister Carter loves to get in the way of that leaf blower to catch the wind in her long hair!

Eli took a long nap, and was certainly surprised to find so many people had arrived to celebrate his birthday. He was a little overwhelmed with all the new faces, and seemed to be a little uncomfortable with being the center of attention. When he was placed in the seat of honor, he wasn't his usual smiling self. Incidentally, that seat of honor is a wooden high chair that has been in the family for many years.

When his own personal cake was placed in front of him, he was a little perplexed. His shirt is off, because we're pretty sure he is going to be a very messy eater as he enjoys his first birthday cake.

Then the entire group burst into song, as we all sang "Happy Birthday." We must have been terribly off-key, as Eli burst into tears. Sorry, Eli, but most of us were laughing at this point.

Even with gentle prodding from his big sister, he didn't want to have anything to do with that cake! He hasn't tasted much sugar in his young life, and he didn't like it one bit. We were taking video, as we were wanting to capture him digging into that cake with delight. Instead, an uncle put that video on facebook with the song "It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to."

We didn't take many more pictures during the party, as Eli wasn't a very happy birthday boy. This was the first time that Denisa's Mother got to see this new great-grandson, and she didn't get to see many smiles.

But after most people left and they took away the cake and quit singing, we got our happy Eli back.

We got a good picture with the birthday boy and Uncle Blake and Aunt Claire.

It was great to have all our kids and grandkids together today to celebrates the newest family member's first birthday!

We took a walk around the lake this evening, and Eli is still smiling. That group includes Denisa's favorite guys! That's a good-looking group of Engel-men!

Then we played inside, where Eli loves going up the stairs . . .

but hasn't figured out how to get safely back down. It's good to see that he still has birthday smiles this evening.

Big sister seemed to enjoy the party more than the guest of honor. We enjoyed a dance party on the stairs and good hugs with Gram.

The balloons all came down and Eli enjoyed the clean-up part of the party the most. So when you read the title of this blog, "What will Eli do with his first birthday cake?" you now know the answer. After all, it's his birthday and he can cry if he wants to!

We invited the boys on the annual "Girl's Trip"

Denisa and her Mother and sisters have been going on an annual "Girl's Trip" for around 30 years. Occasionally, our husbands have been invited, but not often. This year we invited them to join us, so our group was supposed to be bigger. But an important doctor's appointment kept Denisa's middle sister from going with us this year. So we set off on our trip to Branson with just five people for our annual trip. Since being sick with Covid, Denisa's Mother has been working hard to get strong enough for this trip.

Our first stop was Lambert's for lunch. We love the "Home of Throwed Rolls" and we're glad to report that they are open for business as usual. We caught a few rolls from the thrower across the dining room.

Their entrees are generous, and Mark reported that his chicken fried steak--served in a skillet--was very good. In addition, you were treated to the "pass arounds" that are served from big bowls by the wait staff. We got fried okra, macaroni and tomatoes, and fried potatoes to go with our already full plates. And don't forget that we also enjoyed plenty of those throwed rolls!

We had pre-purchased our entertainment tickets, and we had chosen to go to "The Haygoods." If you have been in Branson during the last 30 years, you have probably seen this family perform. They started as a family act with eight little children in Silver Dollar City. Now those musical children have grown into talented musicians that know how to put on a great show.

They have an extraordinary light show and technology to go with their music. Some of the lights were neon bright like in the picture above. Some of the lighting was more subtle like the moving scenes of American roads that were projected onto their instruments. How cool is that?

While there are 7 sons and one daughter in the family, two of the siblings no longer perform. The one girl is an accomplished harpist, and we were surprised at how fun they could make the three harp songs during the show.

We could look around the sold-out auditorium to see a sea of white-haired old people here in Branson in the middle of the week. Then we remembered that we were white-haired old people too.

It was late when we got back to our rooms at the Savannah House. Our favorite part of a stay here is the warm dessert bar each evening. It's timed to be served when visitors are returning from their evening shows, and it features fresh-baked cookies, warm cobbler, and ice cream. We forgot to take any pictures of the Savannah House and it's yummy desserts and breakfasts. So we'll include instead a picture of one of the monarchs that are migrating through right now.

The colorful lantana flowers must be a favorite for the butterflies, as they didn't mind Denisa taking their picture. They are eating this morning and warming up to start another day of flying towards their winter home in Mexico. We are in a monarch flyway zone, and these hardy butterflies travel up to 3,000 miles from their summer home up north to their winter home. This monarch's wings look a little folded  and tattered, but it has a long way to go on its journey. The fact that they can fly so far on those delicate wings is another of God's wonders!

In between eating and going to shows, we also did some shopping. We checked out the stores at Branson Landing, and we timed it to see the fountain and fire show that is choreographed with music. It's a different show each hour, and we enjoyed "The Star Spangled Banner" at noon.

We had absolutely perfect weather to enjoy being outside!

Shopping this trip includes looking for new hiking shoes. We have literally worn out our boots this year, and we need new ones. Denisa is opting for a new pair of New Balance hiking tennis shoes, while Mark is trying a high-top Hoka boot this year. Over our seven years of full-time hiking, we have tried lots of hiking footwear.

We had afternoon tickets for the Sight and Sound Theater. We've been here to see the shows about Noah, Moses, and Jonah, and these productions never disappoint.

This year we are getting to watch "Jesus" and it might be the best one of all. Mark took this picture right before they announced that no pictures could be taken during the show. But the sets, and of course the story, were awesome!

We had hoped to see more Ozark Mountain fall foliage, but autumn is running a little late this year. We drove home a different way, and we could just see some smudges of orange and yellow on the hillsides as we drove by.

Driving this southern route gave us the opportunity to drop in on a special family friend in Arkansas. It was fun to see two 90-something-year-olds enjoying each other's company once again. These two ladies used to work together. Between the two of them, they raised eight daughters in the same community.

We returned to Oklahoma bearing gifts for the sister that didn't get to go on the trip. We brought a DVD of the show, and a puzzle of one of the sets from the Jesus show. We also brought some of those yummy sugared almonds from the concession stand at Sight and Sound. We enjoyed our annual "Girl's Trip" with some boys added, and one girl that didn't get to go this time.

Breaking and Entering and other less felonious activities

We have seen Halloween decorations with fake stuffed legs before, but today's blog isn't just decorative. We're having to do some real breaking and entering and those are really Mark's legs as he slides into a locked house. Why is this felonious act happening? (New word for the day is "felonious," meaning "related to or involved in a crime.")

Remember that we had picked up Denisa's Mother from the hospital after her bout with Covid last blog? We had used her garage door opener to get into her house to take her home. Days later, we drove her and her car to another daughter's house in the Oklahoma City area because she wasn't strong enough to stay by herself. We were back in Beaver and she needed us to get some medicine out of the house, but we didn't have that magical garage door opener that was now four hours away. So we had to break into her house. We're happy to say that the house is very secure, and it took some careful prying of a locked storm window to get inside. Denisa was glad that Mark is so slim and agile that he could slither into that narrow opening. Mark was glad that there was a bed on the other side of that window.

You can be sure that Mark installed a new locking door knob before we left. He also had multiple keys made and distributed them so we won't have to do any breaking and entering the next time.

We delivered the medicine and several other items to Denisa's sister's house in the Oklahoma City area where their mother is recuperating. We're thankful that they always seem to welcome us with open arms. While we were visiting, we did less felonious activities like assembling puzzles.

The sisters also got together for some cooking. This time the three of us made veranika. It's a German dish that our German grandmother used to make for us. She would be proud to know that we are keeping up that family tradition of making "cheese pockets."

Speaking of food, Denisa is still celebrating her birthday. Since Mark couldn't make her favorite dessert while we were in Newfoundland, he made her a coconut pie under the guidance of his Mother. No felonies were committed in the making of this pie, but it was feloniously delicious.

During our trip to Oklahoma City, we bought tickets for the fall musical at the University of Oklahoma School of Musical Theater. Our daughter-in-law teaches in the fine arts department, and it is fun to watch her students perform. They have been telling us how professional these productions are, with a first-rate cast accompanied by a full orchestra. It was so good that our son watched it a second time when we were visiting. We couldn't take any pictures during the musical, but we did photograph the red velvet curtains and stage at the grand theater on campus before it began.

During our stay in Oklahoma this autumn, we've enjoyed some beautiful weather. We've had temperatures up to the 80s with blue skies, and the flowers are still blooming.

But when we saw a hard freeze in the forecast, we had to winterize the motor home. We had planned to take another fall foliage motor home trip, but we are keeping busy with family activities. So Mark got out the page-long list of instructions, and he began the process of removing all the water in our plumbing lines and replacing it with RV anti-freeze. That includes the lines to the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, bathroom shower, outside shower, washing machine, and refrigerator ice maker. Temperatures did dip down to 27 degrees, so it was good to have that done. Now we're back to enjoying warm days again. This is crazy topsy-turvy weather, and we noticed that the lilac bush (that only blooms in the spring) is trying to bloom again this fall. It thinks that it was a quick winter and now it's time for spring again!

While we are off the road, our activities aren't always exciting and the scenery isn't as grand. But balancing some family time into our schedule is good for us, with just an occasional felonious activity to keep it adventurous.