Family Time

We traveled to Lee's Summit, MO, in April to meet up with our son, Daniel, daughter-in-law, Shannon, and two grandkids, Maleia and Josiah.  Once again our dear friend, Sam Hizer, shared his van with us.  He picked all six of us up at the airport!  We stayed at the Abundant Life Baptist Church mission home and what a blessing it was!  We kept a low profile, staying at home most of the time (except for a couple of doctor/dentist appointments.)  In typical Kansas City fashion, the weather varied from cold, in our opinion, to hot, in Daniel and Shannon's opinion.  One day we had the heat on in the house and another day the air conditioning.

Staying together in the missions house gave people the opportunity to come to us and minimized the need for getting the kids in the car multiple times per day.  On Saturday, we took Maleia and Josiah to the Kite Festival at Longview College, where, unfortunately, there was so little wind the big kites could not get off the ground.  Our good friends, Jim and Debby, their son, Garrett, and granddaughter, Camdyn met us there.  The kite festival was just the beginning of a great day--hurray, we were able to go to Gates for lunch.  I know there are many barbeque opinions, but for our family, a beef sandwich just doesn't get any better than the one at Gates.  I think Daniel and Shannon bought 3 bottles of sauce to take back to California.  By afternoon we were back at home and waiting for Stephen's three brothers to arrive.  The four Parris boys played a quick round of golf at the Longview Executive course.  It was great to have everyone for dinner at the house; a special thanks to Shannon, Denise, Mandi and Tanya for helping with the Lasagntons!

Sunday we worshipped in the 8:00 a.m. service at ALBC and then visited and briefly shared in our Community Group (Sunday School class) at 9:30.  It is always fun to see new faces and connect, if even for just a few minutes, with friends at our home church.  We appreciate everything ALBC does to support us and the ministry here.  We couldn't be here if not for their faithful prayer and financial support.

We caught up with my family at lunch on Sunday afternoon.  I'm telling you that the 14 of us made quite a few trips to through the Chinese buffet at Legends of Asia.

We had hoped Stephen's parents might be able to make it to Lee's Summit, but his mom's health restricts her ability to travel.  So, instead, Stephen, along with his brother, David, traveled to West Plains on Sunday afternoon to visit his mom and dad.

There was a quick trip to the plaza and another one to Town Center, but otherwise, we just hung out with the kids and grandkids.  Okay, we did make it to Custard's Last Stand a couple of times!  Except for the two places mentioned above, we didn't eat at any of our favorite restaurants this time--we didn't even have pizza.  We did, however, eat two meals, in the Guenther kitchen!  Just can't beat Terisa's pot roast, potatoes with all the trimmings for the first and then hamburgers, brauts and dogs on the grill for the second.

I've attached a couple of pictures--enjoy!

 Four Parris brothers, Mark, David, Stephen and Michael

My family--me, my dad, my sister, Kristi, and my brother, Ron.

 Our chunky and very happy grandson, Josiah!

Maleia and Josiah hang out in the front yard with grandpa.