One of my greatest joys is hanging out with these people I call family.  So we took a few days recently to go away together enjoy each other before the demands of the summer press in again with VBS and strings camp and all sorts of work needing to be done.

We started with attending Die Fledermaus at Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point.  The cast joked that the name should be "perspiration" point, but the evening was lovely and breezy.  While in college, Aaron and I played our cellos in the pit for this opera, and it's one of our favorites.

Watching our kids get excited about music thrills me.  Our options are so limited when we are living overseas, so it's a treat to indulge in as much music as possible when we are back in America.

We went back the second night of our get-away for The Barber of Seville.  We absolutely rolled with laughter at this version set in the Roaring Twenties!

We stayed at the Sherwood Court, which gave us ample room for our morning "Jesus Time" as well as a beautiful space for family games.

  

We introduced the kids to Trivial Pursuit, since it was a version from the 1990s, we got to introduce our kids to all sorts of people like Cal Ripkin and Milli Vanilli.  Lots of laughter could be heard while we played in the bits and pieces of time when we weren't running around doing other things.

Like floating the Buffalo National River.

If you look closely, you can just see the kids in the picture above as they round the bend.

Our kids were in their element.  Paddling away in canoes.  It's called "floating" the Buffalo, but our kids are used to having a paddle in their hands as a method of transportation, not entertainment.

So they paddled constantly, sometimes standing, like our neighbors in the village.

After a long day on the river, it was nice to come back to Sherwood Court and the beautiful vintage dishes!  I found out just a little bit about the Universal Potteries of Cambridge, Ohio, and a little bit about the National Brotherhood of Operative Potters whose stamp is on the bottom of this little pitcher.

Now I'm going to keep my eyes open for this sweet morning glory pattern.  The kitchen (which was very well stocked - much to Sarah's delight!) has several of these pieces as decorations up around the tops of the cabinets.

When we got ready to load the van and leave after less than 48 hours, the engine began billowing smoke and smelling like an electrical fire was about to break out.  My wise husband (who probably didn't know that the rest of us had circled up in the living room and begun praying for him) chose to call the tow truck instead of trying to drive to the mechanic.  Everybody was super helpful and within four hours, we were on the road home with a new alternator.  Thankful for God's perfect timing!