Home Again After a Good Trip

We are back home, safe and sound, and (hopefully) in our right minds! We pulled in last night, mid-evening, after a 10-1/2 hour trip. It felt very good to be home, although we really enjoyed our time in Montana with my dad, our daughter and son-in-law, and our two grandkids.

There seemed to be something extra special about this time of visiting with our "kids". There were lots of fun times with all of them, in various ways -- sometimes all of us together and sometimes just us with our grandkids. Sherry and I also found the opportunity to get off by ourselves for lunch out and grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving day was a wonderful time of fellowship and family fun for all of us, and especially good for Sherry and I in the kitchen as we prepared the meal together.

We stayed at my dad's house and did lots of running back and forth between his house and our daughter's house. It was especially nice to have Larry with me this time, since most of my trips over to Montana are done all by myself. I could tell that Dad was really enjoying having Larry there this time. I was totally surprised by him having a new lady-friend in his life! After a little nervous trepidation, I found that I really like her, and actually enjoyed our times together. But I must admit it was also a bit strange for me to be "double-dating" with my dad and his "girl-friend" -- and to realize that I was the married one, rather than my dad!

We have lots of happy memories of this visit! On our last day there we woke up to a brand new world! The ground was completely covered by a fluffy white blanket, and the trees were decked out in beautiful winter-white finery as well, obviously just waiting for Christmas to arrive! What a cheerful sight to the eyes of those who rarely see snow in our little part of the world. (We get lots of rain and gray skies, but rarely are we treated to snow.) Later in the day, we enjoyed lots of snow play with our "kids" in the yard that used to belong to my parents, and now belongs to our "kids". It's wonderful to see that place full of exhuberant life and noisy fun, with lots of love and laughter.

Originally we had planned to travel home today (Sunday), but by Wednesday morning the weather forecast began to sound really bad for traveling--looking worse and worse in the coming days, so we made the decision to hit the road on Saturday morning and give it our best shot. Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland with about 5-6 inches of fresh new snow on top of what was new the day before! Knowing that several people were committing to pray for our safety, we stocked our car with provisions for every possible emergency situation, put ourselves in God's care, and set out at 9:15 A.M.

The drive through the mountains looked like a beautiful wintry scene straight out of a Christmas card! It was truly a magnificent, magical, winter wonderland with lots of snow on the ground and the trees all thickly flocked in glistening, fresh whiteness! The snow plows were out in full-force, trying to keep up with all the white stuff that continued to fall while we were driving. Traveling through the mountains, we saw several cars that had slid off the road, even into guard rails. One car was upside down, way off to the side of the road. It was a bit unnerving to see all that, but God kept us safe, and the trip only took us about an hour longer than usual.

We went to church this morning and then out to lunch afterwards. Our weather is rather blustery today, so we've decided to hunker down and just veg for the day! We'll both enjoy a day of total relaxation.

Wow! What a wonderful week it was!