Monday a week ago Meg & I met Amy at Gran’s house, and from there headed to Snellville, GA, for a meeting of all of the girl cousins on my momma’s side that could manage to get together. Everyone brought old pictures and any family history information they had, & we had so much fun comparing notes and catching up. Just such a special time. One cousin, Peggy, has done extensive family research, & had the coolest family tree made up. This was as far back as she has gotten – maybe eight or nine generations back. I just loved looking at it.

All Saints Sunday is one of my favorite services of the year. One thing I love is this banner that the acolyte brings in before the service, shaking to ring the bells. For a couple of weeks before All Saints Day you can list people who have died in a book in the lobby, and pin a bell for each name on one of the ribbons. It’s a beautiful way, I think, to commemorate those who have died that were not members of our church. And the bells are the saints cheering us on from heaven! Of course we pinned one on for Granny.

Last Saturday a week ago my friend Charlotte spent the morning taking in a couple of craft shows here in town. We started out at the one at the high school, where the student council’s craft show was being held. Mallory was there working, and I got this picture of her and her friend Karys being snowmen 🙂

Friday a week ago was Clover’s playoff game, which they lost – and so ended their season. It was hard for us all, because this is Mal’s senior year, and she has gone to school with some of those guys since kindergarten. They were sad & so was she, and that was hard to watch. When we got there, though, Clara was directing traffic for parking. It’s a service project that the ROTC does every home game, but usually the students have to be 16 to be one of the workers. This week, though, with the playoff game, they figured the traffic would be so heavy they would need extra help, so decided to let some of the more mature younger students in on the activity. Clara assured me she thought she was mature enough, and apparently the major agreed, because there she was – although the picture I took wasn’t that good.

There was so much information inside the ark that it just blew me away. I didn’t know there was ever a version of the Bible that referred to unicorns, but I thought this was interesting. I hope it’s big enough to read.

There was also a very interesting display about what all Noah would have needed to know about to build and live in the ark: woodworking, of course, but also blacksmithing, farming to get the food for the animals, engineering, animal husbandry. I had never thought about all of that.

Tuesday when we were in Kentucky we spent the day at the Ark Experience. It really was something to see. Along the walkway to the actual ark there were these beautiful obelisks that told the story of the Book of Genesis up until the time of the ark, with signs that interpreted what each one was about.

Inside the ark was much information about how life was when Noah and his family and all of the animals were actually on the ark. Of course no one really knows any details about that at all, but the researchers had done a good job of working out their theories, and explaining how they came up with their working hypothesis of all of that. Very interesting.

We got this group photo as we were leaving our fun day at the museum.

Last Sunday afternoon my friends Charlotte, Evie, & I loaded up into Pam’s car, & the four of us hit the road for Kentucky. It was quite a drive, but Charlotte had found us a great AirBnB house, so we got there and crashed for the night. The next morning we were up early & drove about 45 minutes down the road to the Creation Museum. It really was very well done. Their theory was that dinosaurs lived when man did, and that dinosaurs are what the legends of dragons, which are in every culture around the world, are based on. Something to think about.

There was a huge display about the Ark. When the museum was built, they hadn’t even thought about The Ark Experience, and in fact that was one of the things that encouraged them to build The Ark – people were so interested in that part of the museum. It really was very interesting. I loved this diorama of Noah and his family building the altar and making the sacrifice to God when they were able to come out of the ark, because we talk about that in Godly Play.

I got this picture of Mallory and her friend McKenzie, from Fort Mill, after the tournament last week. They have been playing together for years, so I was glad we got to see her after the match and had time for one last picture.

Then as soon as we could, Jeff hit the road for Indiana, to attend the funeral of his Aunt Butch, and I hit the road for Rock Hill, for the championship York County Middle School Athletic Association game. I got there just as it started and found Andrew & Sherri in the stands – Jenny got there at half time when she got off work. Our Sullivan Falcons were playing Saluda Trail Middle School, and Saluda Trail has won the championship for many years in a row. In a hard fought battle that literally came down to the last play of the game, Sullivan pulled out of 14-12 victory. The team just went crazy. So much fun. Adam, #54, is right in the middle of the picture, running towards the coach. Loved it.