For my own memory log

Some things just need to be written down so I can remember it years later.  This is one of those things.

A few weeks ago, one of Seth's co-workers got baptised and invited our family to watch the event.  Seth knew this guy was making some serious changes in his life and he wanted to see what kind of church he found and what they believed.  It was a huge celebratory event complete with a family cook-out and swimming.

When we arrived, we were a little nervous.  This looked like a rough crowd.  What did they believe?  Do they attend church just for the sake of attending church or are they serious about being followers of Jesus?  Honestly, it was hard to not judge them.  I really really tried to not jump to conclusions because I knew I did not know their story and God knows their hearts.  I prayed for my own judgmental heart a lot while waiting around for supper!  With smoking, bikinis, and other things, it didn't look like a church group at all.

But, after we were done eating and we listend to a couple of guys sing praise songs, most of which I had never heard of, the pastor got up and gave a short devotion.  He explained how he was a drug addict and hit rock bottom.  He came to a point where he had to choose between killing himself or giving his life to Christ.  He chose Christ.  He went on to explain that baptism does not save a person.  Baptism is a symbol of what the Holy Spirit has already done in the believer.

Praise the Lord!  This guy seems to be biblically sound.

We all moved towards the pool and one by one, people got in.  The pastor talked about each person, then each of those people told everyone why they wanted to be baptised.  Then we prayed for each person and then they were eached baptised.  It was awesome.  We were watching people who have been trapped in some sort of sinful life and were now choosing to give that life up for Jesus.  This church was created just a couple of years ago to reach out to the addicts, alcholics, the "low lifes" that some people think would never get saved.  We were watching miracle after miracle as people outwardly expressed their inward change of going from death to life.

During the prayer for one of them, I felt the need to open my eyes.  I don't know if I heard something or what caused me to open my eyes at that moment.  But, I opened my eyes to see my 6-year-old struggle to reach the side of the pool.  She had accidentally slipped in and we weren't sitting by the shallow end where she could touch.  She can swim, but she can't keep her head above water when necessary.  I quickly grabbed her arms and helped her out.  She was safe, but it was a scary moment that only a few of us witnessed.  Praise the Lord for moving me to open my eyes during the prayer and for watching over her!

Anyway, we were overjoyed to watch Seth's co-worker show his faith in Jesus by getting baptised.  His wife also was baptised.  Although we didn't know any of these people, we knew we were connnected by the blood of Jesus.  These people who truly accepted Jesus as their Savior were our brothers and sisters.  Many of them still have a long road of recovery and overcoming temptations ahead of them.  They will need our prayers to keep their eyes on the Lord and not fall back into the lifestyles they were once dying in.

So, it wasn't your typical church group and it was a baptism unlike I had ever seen before.  But I'm glad we went.  I'm glad we could see believers who live outisde our own little bubble of what we think Christianity should look like.  We saw Jesus, real and living and changing lives.  Praise God for this church, for that pastor, and for saving people from all walks of life.  God is love and He does not want anyone to perish.

Baptism does NOT save.  Only by trusting Jesus as your Savior, believing that you cannot save yourself but God Himself came and took your punishment on the cross.  He rose again and is alive and He wants you to live with Him for eternity.  God has already done the work.  You just have to believe.

A bit of a jogging adventure

With school starting and J heading off to public school this year, I am trying to get back into a workout routine.  Last year I started doing the couch to 5K (C25K).  It's a training program to get couch potatoes up and running a 5K in....I forget how many weeks.  I got to week 4 but couldn't get past it.  Then life got busy and I quit.

This week I started it up again.  Since it had been several months, I decided I should probably start all the way at the beginning.  Today I ran Week 1 Day 3.

After I drop J off at school, I get home about 7:00 in the morning and have breakfast.  Then I do my workout, the C25K is designed for 3 days a week.  So, I put my running shoes on, grabbed my ipod, and off I went.  Since the girls are still home, I just run up and down the sidewalk in front of our house.  Last year I did my running around 4:00 in the afternoon or later.  Since I'm now running at 7:30 in the morning, I don't have as many people watching me.  hahaha

The street in front of our house curves around.  It starts out going east-west, but then turns into north-south.  So, I get very confused on what direction everything on my street is because I don't know at what point it goes from east to north.  So, I will just say our neighbor to the north is having the roof reshingled.  I typically turn around in driveways.  I avoid driveways with cars parked in the way of the sidewalk and I avoid low hanging branches.  I always turn around in our south neighbor's driveway due to branches.

As I'm running, the roofers moved their huge truck into the north neighbor's driveway.  That left me with our driveway and the south neighbor's driveway for turn around points and a very short distance in between.  At first I tried to lengthen it out by running around our van.  However, today of all days I parked too closely to the bricks that outline the flower area (which doesn't have flowers) right in front of our house.  I hopped over the bricks and then caught my shoe on the drain pipe.  One of the workers stopped to watch me get myself unstuck.  Then I tried circling our driveway behind the van and run back and forth to the south neighbors.  I felt like all I was doing was turning around and couldn't really get a good pace going.  So, I crossed the street.

I felt ok being on the other side of the street because Seth was home.  Otherwise, I would be afraid the girls wouldn't be able to find me if they needed something.  Although, they don't wake up until 8:00.   Many of the yards on the other side of the street are fenced in.  I wasn't sure where I would find a good turning point.  One neighbor's dog went crazy and barked at me all along the fence as I ran past their house.  Then I ran into a spider web.  I bet that looked hilarious as I ran/walked while trying to pull off the web from my face and arms.  I think the roofers got a pretty good show.  Yes, they did watch me a lot.

I was able to run almost the entire length of the sidewalk.  I turned around debating whether or not to run past the house with the web and dog again.  Then, I noticed the roofing truck was pulled all the way into the north neighbor's driveway and I had room to pass it again.  I crossed back over and finished my run while the roofers watched me run back and forth in front of them.

I'm sure it was more entertaining for the roofers than it was for me.  But I can still laugh because it certainly was not a typical run!  lol  The shower is calling me now.

The trip home

The Piearsons did their own thing on the way back to Iowa.  The rest of us stayed together the next 2 days.  Friday, August 2, we woke up to rain.  We had to pack the van, get ready to go, and left Bob and Lou's house around 9:30.  There were now 4 vehicles with 19 people traveling out of Massachusetts.  We drove in the rain for a little while, but I don't remember how long or how hard.  I had taken an energy shot in the morning because I knew I would have a hard time staying awake to drive.  I wasn't the only one struggling with tiredness.

We stopped for lunch.  I had a caffeinated drink with my food.  Then we hit the road again.

We drove through Connecticut and New York and into Pennsylvania.  By the time we stopped for a break in the afternoon, I was feeling dizzy and nauseated.  Or is it nauseous?  Sick.  I was feeling sick.  I don't know if I had too much caffeine or what, but I was in no position to drive.  I asked Seth if he could take over the driving.  Of course, he did.

We decided that setting up tents in the dark wasn't any fun and if we wanted to get back home by Sunday night, we had to travel long days.  So, we arrived at a hotel around 10:30.

We got up and left around 9:30 on Saturday, August 3.  I was feeling more like myself so I took the wheel again.  We drove through Ohio and entered Indiana.  We stopped in Greenfield for supper.  In case you do not know the significance of this, we are from Greenfield.  Greenfield, Iowa, of course, but it was fun to stop in Greenfield, Indiana.  :)  We continued on into Illinois and again, decided to stay in a hotel.  We arrived around 10:00, back in Central time zone!

Sunday, August 4, we had to say our goodbyes.  The Iowa group headed to Iowa and the Kansas group headed to Kansas.  Since we were packed and ready to go, we left around 9:00, not sure if we would meet up with the Robleses or not.

We decided that we could spare a little time and stopped at the St. Louis Arch shortly after entering Missouri.

It was about noon.  We stood in line as everyone had to go through security like J and I did for the USS Constitution in Boston.  Seth and I had both been there before, but we thought our kids would enjoy the extra stop.  After getting in, we saw the next trip up inside the arch was at 2:45.  Plus, we would have to wait in line to get tickets.  We didn't know how long the line for tickets would take nor how long the ride up would be.  It had been several years since either of us had been.  We simply just did not have the time.  We walked around the museum and then decided we needed to get back on the road.

Seth and the kids are sitting on a bench.

We kept in contact with Andy throughout the day.  They decided to not push themselves any more and stayed in Kansas City for the night.  It sounded nice, but we wanted to get home.

On to Kansas.  We drove through a little rain in Kansas City.  It wasn't heavy rain, but there was a lot of it.

We stopped in Emporia and enjoyed a nice sit-down meal.  No fast food, convenience store food, or picnics!  A real restaurant with real food.  I checked in with my Iowa family who had just arrived home and were unloading their vans.

Finally, we arrived home around 10:30.  We unloaded the van and crawled into bed.

It was a great vacation.

The End.

Just Beachy

We all needed a day to kinda take a break before we hit the road hard again.  So, Thursday, August 1, we enjoyed hanging out in Rockport.

We decided we wanted to do some souvenir shopping so we headed to the little shopping area of Rockport.  At first, we thought it would just be a few of us, but everyone wanted to go.  Once there, we all split up, doing our own thing.  I found my own lunch and then joined the group Little A was with for lunch.  After we finished eating, Little A and I took off to shop.

In the first store, Little A found herself a beautiful stuffed snow owl.  She's been an owl lover since she was little - before owls were the thing to have.  I enjoyed looking at different things in the stores, but nothing jumped out at me.  What I really wanted was a shirt, not a typical t-shirt, but a nice shirt that somehow expressed my vacation.

We had decided to meet at a certain place at 1:30 and the time was coming up way too fast.  I found the shirt I wanted, but the cashier was nowhere to be seen.  I waited a while, even jokingly said, "Ding!  Ding!" and peeked my head out the doorway to see if anyone was nearby watching the little shop.  Well, it was time to go, so I placed the shirt on the counter and headed to our meet-up place.

Once I got there, I saw that Seth and J were the only ones there.  In the meantime, I had been texting my sister-in-law about cookie cutters because she collects them and I found a huge section of cookie cutters.  Since we were the only ones there, we decided to go back and get last-minute items.  I bought the cookie cutters and then went back to the little shop where I had left the shirt.  The cashier had returned and apologized profusely for not being there.  Seth looked around but didn't see what he wanted.  We went back to the meeting point.  A few people needed more time so Seth joined them to get the shirt he wanted while the rest of us headed back to the parking lot.

Seth somehow lost his way after finding his shirt and he couldn't figure out where the rest of us were.  So, he just walked on and was nearly at Bob and Lou's house before I pulled over and picked him up.

It was finally beach time!

We changed into our swimsuits, grabbed towels and beach supplies, and headed to the beach to swim in the Atlantic ocean.

Most of the younger kids stayed on shore and played in the sand.  K, J, my niece and a couple of my nephews went out and enjoyed the waves with us adults.

J is headed out with his cousin.  K is still standing on shore.

Little A

After I had spent quite a bit of time swimming with the waves, I came back to the beach.  2 of my sisters are headed out for some ocean fun.

Aunt Lou plays with my niece.

Sara buries my nephews in the sand.

Another nephew digs in the sand.

Another nephew enjoys the waves.

Little A had started building her rock pile on the beach, but with the tide coming in, it's quickly going under water!  My niece is also enjoying the beach.

My sisters are out talking to my dad.

Mom relaxing on the beach.

I'm here too!  :)

K got buried, too!

It was certainly a blast.  K took a fun ride on a boogie board in the waves.  She was out having fun with us adults.  When she was ready to head back into shore, my dad caught a good wave, gave her a push, and off she went, riding the wave for quite a ways back to shore.

I went out 3 times, each time it was getting more and more difficult to go out and back in.  We finally decided it was time to head back to the house.  We had a special anniversary to celebrate!

For supper, we were given the option of having lobster.  I had never tried lobster before.  Several people decided to try it.

So, I tried my first lobster ever.  Andy helped me get the meat out of the shell.  It was good...but it was hard to ignore the fact I was breaking apart an animal to eat it.  I will have lobster again (in fact I already have), but not in this form.  It was certainly an unforgettable experience that I'm glad I got to do.  But I will never do it again!  Haha

Uncle Ron grilled up hamburgers for anyone who didn't have lobster, and for those of us still hungry after the lobster.

The guys all worked together to cranked the ice cream.

After we finished eating, it began to rain, so we headed inside to have cake and ice cream and celebrate Bob and Lou's anniversary.

Ron and June, Mom and Papa, and Bob and Lou all got married on August 13th.  All in different years.  Ron and June and my parents were married on a Friday (yes, Friday the 13th) and Bob and Lou on a Monday.  They try to celebrate together every year.  This year is Bob and Lou's 40th anniversary.

First, we presented them with cake.

It has become a tradition for us 4 Cannon sisters to write a parody for such occasions.  Well, it's usually Lisa or me who does the writing.  I had surgery.  Lisa had a baby.  I had an extremely busy month of June.  Lisa had surgery.  But, somehow, I found the time and asked Lisa for some help when I got stuck.  But, we got it finished and ready for the celebration.  We sang a Green Acres parody including where Bob and Lou met, their pets, and their wedding day.  They really enjoyed it.  Then K and her cousin came up with this funny little dance and performed it for them as well.

Happy 40th anniversary Bob and Lou!!  And happy anniversary to Mom and Papa, and Ron and June!!!

It was our last day in Rockport.  The Piearsons were going to leave the group in the morning and take their time returning home.  The rest of us wanted to get back by Sunday so we knew we had a couple of hard days of driving ahead.

Time to go home...

Boston

Wednesday, July 31, we made the trip into the city of Boston.  All 26 of us got on a train and rode for nearly an hour making stops in the towns on the way.

Little A took a nap on the train.

Once we arrived in Boston, we split up into groups.  Seth had his own plans so he was going to wander Boston on his own.  8 of us wanted to walk the Freedom Trail.  The rest went to the Children's Museum.

I chose to go on the Freedom Trail.  The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile walk around Boston, seeing the places where our Independence began.  I had walked the trail 21 years before, but at the age of 14, I didn't care.  Now that I'm a little older and I am teaching these historic events and people to my children, I wanted to see it and read about it again.  J came with me, but my girls went to the museum.  I asked my mom to take pics, but I haven't seen them yet and I don't have any to share with you.  But, I did take a few of the Freedom Trail.

We didn't do the entire trail as we wouldn't have enough time and we didn't want to see everything since most of us had seen it already.  My 13-year-old nephew was on a mission for his 6th grade social studies teacher.  My son just wanted to walk.

Off we went from the train station.  While others took the subway to their destination, we just started walking.  We decided to walk the trail backwards since there was more we wanted to see at the end than at the beginning.  Our first stop was Bunker Hill.

We arrived at this monument full of energy and excited about the day.  6 of us decided to take a trip up the tower.  Ron and June opted out of that and sat and waited for us.  It stands 221 feet tall.  There is no elevator.  We took the 294 steps to the top.

TWO HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR!!!

Yeah, if I had a heart problem, I was going to find out then.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely!  We looked out 4 windows and saw the city of Boston on all sides.  I love heights, I love looking down, I loved the sight from the tower.  My brothers-in-law Nate and Andy as well as my dad joined us on the trail.  We all had jelly legs and coming down seemed a tad dangerous when I felt like my legs were going to collapse under me.  But, we made it down all 294 steps.

Andy and Nate read more about the monument.

After visiting Bunker Hill, we saw the USS Constitution.  It was run by military so we went through security similar to that in an airport.  Emptying pockets, removing belts, placing purses and wallets and keys in plastic tubs.  Walking through the sensor where J and I both got beeped.  We got through ok.

J next to the ship.  We then walked around the deck.

Next, we went on to Copp's Hill Burial Ground.  We didn't spend a lot of time there.  I read a few of the grave markers and couple of signs.  We looked at the stones that were shot where we could still see the bullet indentations.  I read how the rich were treated better than the poor and that pirates were hanged there.

We later walked through the Old North Church and then visited Paul Revere's house.

Taking pictures in Paul Revere's house was not allowed.  Here is his statue.

We walked around Feneuil Hall.  This is where men like Samuel Adams made speeches on getting our independence from Great Britain.  Several people were trying to earn a little money by showing off various talents.  Crowds of people stood and watched them.  We stopped and watched a couple.

We walked right passed the site of the Boston Massacre without realizing it.  Thankfully my nephew saw it and got a picture.  Since "learning" about this with my kids this year, I found it interesting that 5 people killed was considered a massacre.  However, it was 5 civilians the British killed, not soldiers.  It is a part of our history leading to our freedom.

Our final stop was at the Benjamin Franklin statue.  It is also the site of the first public school.  From that point, we decided we needed to head back to the train station so we could catch the 5:30 train back to Rockport.

J and I.  We were a little worn out.

Nate and Andy

Ron and Papa

My nephew and June

Seth was already at the station when the 8 of us arrived.  We knew that Tim, Sara, 2 of her kids, and both of my girls decided to go to the Aquarium and take the 8:30 train.  We were just waiting on the rest of the group.  Instead of taking the subway, they decided to walk back to the station.  My grandma, mom, Bob, Lou, Lisa, and Amanda lead the 4 kids and the baby in a stroller back to the station a few minutes before we could board our train.  There were now 20 of us on the train headed back to Rockport.

It was nearly 10:00 when the Piearsons dropped off my girls at Bob and Lou's house.  I heard all about their day, the things they saw, the things they did....I think everyone had a good time in Boston.

A day in Rockport coming soon...

A Whale of a Trip

We made it!

(One little detail I forgot about on the trip out - it rained on us the 2nd night.  A couple of the tents leaked.  Ours did not.)

My sister Lisa and her family stayed with Bob and Lou.  My family stayed in the apartment they rent out on the lower level of their house.  The rest stayed in a hotel not too far away.

Tuesday, July 30, we slept in a little but we had to get ready for a trip out on the ocean to see whales and other ocean life.  Amanda and Ron chose not to go so 24 of us headed out for the whale watch.

K and her cousin

J enjoying the view from the back of the boat

Little A and her cousin at the front of the boat with Seth

My dad and his sister, June

If you look closely you can see the tail of a humpback whale.

I made several picture attempts, but my camera was just not quick enough.  My son, however, captured a lot of great shots on his iPod.

Little A on the upper deck

K on the upper deck.  She was the most afraid of seeing a shark.  When I told my aunt Lou, she said it was not likely that we would see a shark.  Guess what?  We did!  I didn't see it well enough to get a picture, but a blue shark swam next to the boat.  I wasn't with K at the time so I asked her about it later.  She said she was a little scared but she did get a good look at it.  That's my girl.

Another shot of a humpback whale.  She stayed around and showed off quite a bit.

After a couple hours on the ocean, we headed back in.  Here sits my brother-in-law Andy, my aunt Lou, and aunt June.

My grandma who was enjoying a nap.

My uncle Bob

Me with my brother-in-law Tim

J with his cousin

Little A with her cousin

My sister Sara read a few books to some of the kids.  K is lying on the floor.

My dad and my sister Lisa holding her little one.

My mom

Another niece reading

2 of my nephews

2 more nephews

Seth and me

My brother-in-law Nate

We could view this lighthouse on the way out and in

We had left shore around 1:30 and the boat finally docked around 5:30.  We were to meet Amanda and Ron at the Lobster Pool for supper.  As we arrived, I saw Amanda waving and a blonde woman standing next to her waving as well.  I was very confused.  "Who's the girl with Amanda?"  Seth was too busy finding a place to park (which was nearly impossible!) to notice.  One of my kids thought Amanda had made a new friend.  I found that odd.  We drove by again (still looking for a parking space) and I looked harder and thought to myself, "That looks like Barb but she wouldn't be here..."  I was still just so very confused.

We finally parked and I realize it WAS Barb!  What a surprise!!!

She and her husband, Alan, and their son were also on vacation and decided to meet us all out here.  They are long-time family friends from Greenfield who later became family when Alan's mom married my grandpa.

29 people eating together.  The food wasn't too bad.  Seth and I shared a platter of various seafoods.

We also got to see this beautiful sunset as we ate.

We returned to Bob and Lou's house where they had a surprise for all 11 kids.  He turned on the ceiling fan and stuffed animals flew everywhere.  The kids quickly grabbed a few and picked out their favorites, then ran off to play while we adults discussed the next day's plans.

A trip into Boston coming up...