After three amazing months without writing a blog post… We’re back! Furlough was really good. The only thing I would have changed is that we didn’t have enough time with everybody. It seemed like we were in the van traveling most of the time! Dallas and  I Traveled back before the rest of them, and stayed at my uncle’s place. We were picked up in Kentucky by the rest of the family on the 11th. They got there the day before and had one day to recuperate. We began our many hours in the van, new churches every Sunday, and living out of a suitcase for 6 weeks!
Our first destination was Ohio, where all dad’s brothers were gathered to visit Grandad and see each other. There was lots of catching up, retelling of old stories, and an abundance of laughter! We girls and mom had a lovely evening reconnecting with Veasna!

After all our goodbyes, we drove through breathtaking views on our way to South Carolina. We had a wonderful time down there connecting with old friends. We went with Charles’s for a lovely day at the lake. And of course, the boys couldn’t let any chance that they had to fish go!

From there we journeyed up to Kentucky and spent a day with Mom’s sister before going to mom’s family reunion. The reunion started Thursday evening and went through Saturday noon. Only being able to see cousins every one or two years makes you appreciate it all the more when you do! We went to a lovely creek and jumped off the bridge into the nippy water! And the last day, those of the cousins that were left made an excursion to Nashville. We strolled around Centennial Park, made a quick trip into the Parthenon, and finished the day by cooling ourselves off with ice cream! We spent the rest of the weekend there with another one of mom’s sisters, and dad’s cousin’s family.

Sunday afternoon we started our long trek up to Canada to see Cordell and Lori. We spent Monday with dad’s aunt in Missouri. Monday night we started for Canada again, and were very, very relieved when we finally got there around 2:30 Tuesday afternoon. The time up there was definitely the highlight of furlough for us! Luke flew up the night before so we were able to all be together for a bit! Lori’s house is a bit small for 12 people, so Lori and Cordell set up a tent and a makeshift shower outside for the boys. Even so it took a while to get everyone through the showers at night! We spent several evenings around a nice warm fire after supper. Of course, if you’re in Canada, and if you’re from our family, you can’t not go fishing. In the midst of all our other activities, we made time for two days of fishing! One evening we took food along and had a lovely little fish fry on the shore of the lake.

Alaina was very pleased with her fish!!!

We had a nice afternoon with Cordell’s family at the park for lunch on Sunday. Tuesday evening came around all too soon! We hit the road once again… we drove through the night, the day, and into the evening again, stopping only for gas and food along the way. We arrived at our uncle’s place in Kentucky a little more than 24 hours after we left Cordell’s. It was just a bit too long a drive to suit us! (Luke went with us back down to S.C.)

We spent a nice day there. The boys went fishing and caught nothing. We girls took the youngsters swimming at a neighbors place, and dad went to work with Felix. We left early in the morning and by evening the next day we had again made it down to South Carolina. We spent the weekend there, said our goodbyes and headed to North Carolina. There, Shane and Tara came and all the boys went camping overnight. They had a blast. We girls decided to go swimming in a pond up on the mountain but soon after we got there it started pouring rain! So we went and visited in a coffee shop instead.

breakfast

Our last day was full of packing, goodbyes, and more packing! Luke drove us up to the airport for the first leg of our long trek back to Cambodia. In San Francisco we met up with Lanita Martin, our new school teacher. We are definitely very happy to have a school teacher this year! After traveling for another many hours we finally made it back to Siem Reap! It’s been good to be back and see everyone again. We’re pretty much back into our regular life now and the children just started with school, the boys are back to well drilling and dad’s as busy as ever!
Thank you for your thoughts and support!
Heather