Visit to the Blackshear's

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go with some families from the church I attend here to visit some of their friends.  The family we visited lives in Missouri, but for awhile they were commuting down here to Arkansas to attend church.  The Lord later provided a church for them closer to where they live.  Now, in order to visit with their friends here in Arkansas, they host an annual "Birthday Bash" -- basically an excuse to have a lot of families over for a great time of fellowship.  :-)  They invite the families from the church in Arkansas as well as from their church there in Missouri. 

I must confess that, having been born and raised in Texas, it was rather shocking to me that we could drive for less than one hour and be in another state by that time.  :-)  I know that Texas is an exception from other states, in that you can drive all day and still be in Texas, but it still surprises me.  Really it shouldn't -- I know that I am up here in the very north-eastern part of Arkansas, and am not far from several different states, but I just can't seem to wrap my mind around it. 

The weather there was much colder than it was in Arkansas!  I was glad to have brought a jacket.  Even with long sleeves and pants, I was still cold -- people kept telling me that my lips were blue.  :-} 

But that didn't matter.  I had a wonderful time visiting with the people I know from the Arkansas church as well as with people I hadn't known before hand.  It is amazing how fast you can fit in to a group of people when you have many mindsets and ideologies in common.

The Blackshear family is renting their house from some friends of theirs, and what a house it is!  There are lots of windows, decently sized bedrooms (meaning they are not gargantuan), plenty of family living areas, and a huge yard/property to boot. 

This play house was already built when they arrived.

Petra took some of us on a tour of the property.

They even have a little pond... although it has been receding since they started renting.

What reunion of friends would not be complete without a game of football among the men and boys?  They all apparently had a blast, though -- as usual -- many of the men were sore the next day.  :-)

 For the littler boys, dirt and cars was more appealing than the football game.

We girls spent a lot of time visiting in Petra's quaint little bedroom.  We discussed all sorts of topics, including photography.  Some of the girls love to take pictures in mirrors.  I haven't tried that very often, and this attempt didn't turn out very well.  My problem was that the lighting in the room was not suited to photography, and I couldn't use the flash since it would just reflect in the glass.  But mirrors are fun to use in photography; I'm going to have to start experimenting some more with this format!

 

In the evening the men built a bonfire.  Oh, did it feel good to stand in front of those flames and warm up!  All too soon we had to load up the van and leave... but what a wonderful visit it had been.