Matthew's Visit: Days 6 & 7

Saturday rolled around, and it was Joel and Matthew's last full day at our place.  They would be heading out Sunday after the church service.  So, we decided to make the most of our day.

We started out by milking together with my grandmother and then headed up to bottle feed the baby goats, which was our routine for most of the mornings and evenings.

As I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, Matthew and I made it a point to have devotions together in the mornings after chores.  We also have been working on memorizing passages of scripture together, which is what we are doing in the pictures below...repeating it back for the other person to check us on it.

During Matthew's whole visit with us, my family pitched in with all of the extra chores, giving me as much free time as they could.  We even had about 22 baby goats born while he was here, and had some customers coming out throughout the week to look at them, and my family handled pretty much all of the first kidding season.  Add that to all of the normal chores and they were pretty busy.  I appreciate all the hard work that they put in to let me spend time with Matthew while he was here so much!  They are the best family a girl could ask for!

Around lunchtime, Matthew, Joel, Noah and I headed to town.  We decided to take one more walk through Hopeland Gardens since it was our last day together.  Joel had some computer work that he wanted to get done, so we dropped him off at the local McDonald's and headed for the Gardens.  

Noah was our photographer that day and he did a fabulous job!

It was rainy out that day, so we decided to take a couple of umbrellas, and it was good we did, as it started sprinkling on and off throughout our walk.  

(It was not that warm of a day, but Matthew had taken off his sweatshirt so that we could sit on the bricks without getting wet.)

Being silly...!!!!  He's so much fun to goof around with.

Noah...our wonderful chaperone.

Walking...

Simply enjoying being together....

Walking some more....

Hmmm...this road or that? 

Here we are inside the old stables that have now been renovated into a horse racing museum.  We stepped inside for a few minutes, just to take a look around.

Making faces at Noah!  

I'm usually the photographer.  I'm not used to having my picture taken so much. 

 I can't have all of them be serious, now can I?

This brick path meanders all throughout the garden and makes for a very nice stroll.  We only had to sidestep a few puddles, but we never had to get our feet dirty or muddy.

Noah...I think he might have been getting slightly bored....

From a new angle...

(See the gnarly, twisted oak tree in the corner!  There are a ton of live oaks throughout the gardens.)

We decided to stop at this reflection pond to pray...

After Hopeland Gardens we stopped by the Way family's house (my piano students and good friends) so that they could meet Matthew.  They were all very excited to meet him and they even played a few songs for him on their piano.  

That evening, we milked early and then headed out to a new pizza place that we'd never been to.  They ended up having a ping-pong table there, so we played while we were waiting for our pizza to cook.  Mom ended up being reigning champion, beating Dad, Joel and Matthew several times!  She had a ping-pong table growing up and was quite good at it, beating Dad many times before he practiced up on his spin moves, enabling him to pull some tricks on her!  (We enjoyed playing so much that all of us kids pitched in with Mom and Dad and bought a foldable ping-pong table for our place!  It has become our favorite past time and we are all improving our skills with the game.  Ethan and Savannah are really getting quite good at it!)

Later that night, when we got home we played family Cranium.  It was a hoot!  In the pictures below, Joel and Ethan had to sit back to back and stand up together without using their hands.  They made it look so easy; they ended up doing it a few times just to prove that their was nothing to it!

Sunday dawned bright and early.  After milking and feeding and then eating breakfast, Matthew and I shared one last devotion time together before getting ready for church.  Matthew and Joel then both packed up Matthew's car, and we headed for church.

Matthew brought several of his instruments, so he was asked if he wanted to join in the worship service.  He thrilled everyone by playing his guitar, penny whistle, and dulcimer!

After the service, they loaded up the instruments, got a quick bite to eat and then it was time to say our goodbyes...

Enjoying the porch swing at church...

Matthew works for his brother in the landscaping business, but since it is in Ohio and there isn't too much lawn and landscape work to do in the winter, there are usually three months off after nine months of hard work.  Since he gets most of the winter off, after spending the week at our place, Matthew has spent the last several weeks down in Florida, where Joel lives, doing some landscaping work for a friend, working on his music, fixing his buddy's car, reading articles and studying books, and doing a lot of praying for his future.  He will be arriving back at our place near the beginning of February and will be spending at least two more weeks with us, working alongside us and seeing more of what everyday life is like for us.  

So...until next time....