Summer Tour//Week Two

 Week two of our summer tour was spent in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland.  We did concerts in churches and at a Christian trucker's event and were blessed by the hospitality of many wonderful people along the way.  It was a special treat to see many of our relatives in PA.

We loved getting to spend time with these third cousins.  Now that some of us are grown up, we don't get to see each other very often, so it was wonderful to have part of a day all together.  Our mothers have been friends for a loonnggg time and us kids have played and laughed and debated game scores (and other things:) together nearly our whole lives.  Another cousin (far left) who lives in the area also joined us for a day.

We do the "crazy picture" well, huh?

a little ladies' picnic with cousins.  These girls have such a party together!

the Nerd Violinist, formerly known as Rebecca Bontrager:)

Loved awesome lunch on the deck with cousins!  Good food and that connection we have as cousins makes for wonderful times.

The bus takes lots of cleaning and maintenance as we travel.  Mitchell does a great job keeping the exterior of the bus clean.

Carson is very diligent with staying on top of things involving oil, grease, and generators.  We are so grateful!

Dutch Blitz with cousins

ice cream with friends after a concert

Sunday dinner on the lawn

best buds

Jug-a-lug!!!  If you've never played this game, you really must try it!  After Sunday dinner, we started reminiscing about our ultra-competitive games in years gone by, and we decided we simply must play once again.  It was a party!

late night campfires.....telling stories.....laughing together....sharing our hearts.

I do believe some of the best times happen in kitchens.  Memories are made and hearts knit together as we gather in the room that celebrates the blessing of food and the gift of family and friends.  

keeping entertained by the very gifted storyteller that was in our midst. =)

Good times over dinner....this girl traveled with us a few yrs back and she's pretty much just an extension of our family. =)

This swing.......has provided hundreds, perhaps thousand of hours of sheer exhilaration for many happy children!  I loved it when I was a child and now my little siblings love it just as much!  

kindred spirits

  Doing dishes with this lady is sure to bring merriment and good times.:)

We were so grateful that our schedule allowed us to attend a Zook family reunion. 

(this was a reunion with our Grandma (Zook) Stoltzfus' siblings and their children and grandchildren. Not nearly everyone came but there was still a pretty big crowd! Mom loved connecting with her cousins and we children met quite a few relatives we hadn't known before)

My cousin and I ate lunch with our grandparents and some of our great aunts and uncles.  It was so fun!  These dear ones have lived longer than us and have so much wisdom.  Most of all, I love the legacy of loving Jesus they have passed on to us.  And their well-developed sense of humor is  pretty great, too!

The watermelon boys.

My grandmother Stoltzfus and her sisters- they are such warm, caring, Godly women.

the sisters swinging!!!  I love this picture.=)

This is the home where my great grandparents lived.  A smaller house on the same property is where my granparents started their life together.

This house is so fabulous- staircases and rooms and amazing woodwork everywhere!

Aunts and cousins

Chelsy and Grandpa looking at old family photos

some of the guy cousins looking at photos

We had a sharing time in the afternoon, and we heard many stories that gave us a greater understanding of our heritage and family history.

Grandma and Grandpa

hayride

This is the house where my mother and her family lived until she was eight.

the barn

Grandma and her siblings

Grandma, her siblings, and their spouses

Singing at the Transport for Christ rally.

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.  Serve the Lord with gladness.  Come before His presence with singing.  Know ye that the Lord, He is God."

Psalm 100:1

-posted by Allison

Summer Tour//Week Two
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