A wonderful weekend

Remember these friends we met last October? Well, this past weekend they came back! My family has been truly blessed by our friendship with the MacDonald family since meeting them, and we all looked forward eagerly for the time they would spend here.
Their big bus pulled up in front of our house Friday evening for Pizza Night (though they arrived a bit late) and the evening was spent with music and games and good fellowship with, not only the MacDonalds, but about 7 other guests as well.
Did any of you know that Saturday was "International Talk Like A Pirate Day"? I did, and I REALLY hoped the boys would forget it. I don't think they did, but they didn't do anything for it, thankfully. :)
Saturday was spent doing an assortment of things, including going on a walk/bike ride (some people rode bikes, some walked and some didn't go at all!), various card games, a trip to Wal-Mart (though the only people who went there were Carol, A&A, Vincent and I), which ended up including a mini-tour of parts of our city. :) And then OF COURSE we had to go to the falls and the "cliff." Last year we went to both of these places but the "younger kids" as A&A called them, didn't want to go so only those of us from me on up went. This year we all went and got a group picture of all of us kids (since there was no boxcar on the trail to take a picture like we did last year). After we got home people divided up a little for some more talking and games (Matthew, at one point, went out to the bus and he and I talked for a few minutes online until I got off to be sociable and he came inside :P ). The last game we played was a game we played last year, that we finally decided to call "100 with 1 pencil", not knowing what the real name is.

Playing Blokus

And Chess

Peter on the trail

Nathan, Peter and Abbie were already wearing red so Daniel felt left out... this is what they all looked like when we got back from our walk :)

Group picture! :)
Carol... and Nathan... at the falls :)


It was getting dark so we didn't get many good pictures at Wild Cat Glades :(


"100 with 1 pencil"


SIX!

Sunday morning we didn't really see the MacDonalds until we got to the church where they would be singing. They all did a great job and the people who heard them were truly blessed, I am sure.
After their "stuff" was packed back in the bus after church we headed for home, but this time our van carried only 3 passengers: Mom, Dad and Mrs. MacD. while the rest of us piled in the bus. That was fun, I had never ridden in the bus before and it was neat... the bus was SO much bigger than the rest of the vehicles on the road around us! I guess it's probably not so cool to the MacDonalds since they're used to it, but I thought it was neat!
They had another concert at another church Sunday evening but until then they spent the afternoon at our house. After a lunch of nachos, we talked, and played games. Carol taught Amber, Angela, Ben, and I the game called "Kips" (which we had never heard of before), and we taught them "Super Uno" which is a favorite around here. While we were playing Super Uno our friend Korey showed up and spent the rest of the afternoon here (along with Abe, who came a little while before, and Korey's sister and 2 friends who walked from one of the friends' house).
After a little while we decided to teach Korey and Abe the game "I Saw A Bear" and then some of us ended up playing frisbee... sort of. :P We actually just threw it around, but it was fun anyway! :)

Playing "Spoons" after most of us had been eliminated... Matthew won

Carol :)

Hannah

At 4:30 we all (except Mom and Dad who stayed home, Korey who went in his van, and Abe) piled into the bus to go to the next concert. We got there, but the church building was locked and there was no one there to let us in. So we waited, after everything was unloaded from the bus until a lady showed up at 5:00 (we really didn't have long to wait) with a key.
While the MacDonalds set up inside we mostly sat in the pews, out of the way. :) That concert went really well too. :)

Setting up for the evening concert

I LOVED listening to them play together! :) (Mrs. MacDonald was also playing, on the keyboard)



This was probably one of my favorite songs. Please excuse Luke's and Ben's heads in it, and the wobbliness... just listen to the song :D

After the evening concert we stayed for a meal, even sitting close to the same place we sat last year! (Yes, we remembered where we sat then: this year we sat one table over from our place last year) That was one of the most fun meals I've had with them... though all meals with the MacDonalds are fun. :)

Comparing hands... I think it is interesting: their left hands were just slightly longer than their right hands... and my RIGHT hand is longer than my left. I wonder if it has to do with which hand we use the most (I'm a lefty)

LOL!

Hmm... I think they were seeing whose hands were longer...

Daniel

Us girls in the bus

The first MacDonald showed up at our door the next day at about 7:30: Daniel :) and it wasn't long before Hannah came. Around 8:00 Nathan came and then people stopped coming for a little while. The younger kids settled down to play my brothers' new favorite game "Bandits" while Nathan watched them.
At last Carol, Mrs. MacDonald, their Grandpa, and Peter made their way out of the bus... none of them at the same time, by any means! We had some good conversation and fellowship before we were all told that they had to get on the road. :'(

It took about half an hour to say "good bye" but at last, after group pictures, a little game of frisbee, and wrestling, the big bus rolled out of the neighborhood.

Frisbee!!!!

Daniel, Ben, Daniel

Good bye!

We had a wonderful time with you, MacDonald family, and can't wait till you come back! :)
(Photos by Carol, Angela, Vincent, Hannah... and... maybe some others: the camera's passed hands numerous times during the weekend :)