Back from the Conference

Hello All!
    The "Gospel Centered Marriages for A Glorious Church" Conference was great!!  The only problem was that we could not attend all of the wonderful sessions that were going on at once! My favorite, and I think the pivotal message of the entire conference was Paul Washer's "The Center of All Things- The Gospel".  Now that we are home we've begun listening to the sessions we missed on CDs (which you can order here).  We met a family who lives in our area while we were there, as well as a family from Alabama and some friends of the Holston family! 

    We will need to get more wood in before snow flies, Mommy and I are hoping to do a bit more canning and Thanksgiving is right around the corner!  In addition to all of that, Christmas is coming, secrets are developing and the new Vision Forum catalog seldom lies idle!  Hope all is well with all of you in blog-land!

In Christ,
For the rest of us,
Tiffany

3 Great Conferences!

Hello Everyone!
     Things have been quite busy around here!  We've canned Grape Jelly, Peach Butter and Tomato Sauce recently; as well as made a quick visit to the Henry Ford Museum to see the National Archives' Civil War Exhibit (Family Day = Free Admission!!)!  We know of three wonderful conferences coming up that we thought we'd spread the word about:

1.  The "Gospel Centered Marriages for a Glorious Church" conference hosted by the NCFIC, October 27-29, 2011 in Asheville, NC!  You can get more info here.  We're registered to go, we just aren't sure how!  The trailer roof is pretty much complete, but we still need to check out other things that could potentially be a problem.  One way or another we're going!

2.   The "Family Economics Conference" hosted by Kevin Swanson's "Generations with Vision", March 8-10, 2012 in Chicago, IL!  Not sure if we'll get to go to this one or not, but it looks great!  They're going to top off the event with Liberty Day (a re-enactment of Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty, or Give me Death!" speech)!  Info for the conference can be found here; and info on Liberty Day here.

3.  The "Teach them Diligently" convention, March 15-17, 2012 in Spartanburg, SC!  Many of you will remember the whole debacle surrounding the home school convention we attended earlier this year (our previous post is here).  This new convention stands in direct opposition to the failings and compromises of  GHC Inc..  Ken Ham, Voddie Baucham, and Doug Phillips are the keynote speakers along with other familiar names like Israel Wayne, the Mally Family and the Young family!  They are being very careful to screen their vendors, and have an awesome "About" page.  The price can't be beat either: $30.00 for the whole family if you register before the end of October!  Their website can be found here.

That's pretty much all I have to say for now; we're all really excited to see "Courageous" in just 10 days! Yippee!!  Hope all is well with our friends, from the east coast to the west coast!

In Christ,
For the rest of us,
Tiffany

The Cincinnati Convention Controversy!

Hello Everyone!

     We've spent a good deal of our time since the last post getting ready for, attending, and recovering from the GHC Convention down in Cincinnati!  Three days before we left, we caught wind of Ken Ham having been kicked out of the conference for "un-Christian like behavior"!  One of the speakers at the convention, Dr. Peter Enns, was going to be selling his new bible curriculum (published by Olive Branch Books) that instructs parents not to teach their children about sin and that the first Adam was merely a metaphorical representation of Israel.  Ken Ham knew what Dr. Enns was teaching and so posted a warning to attendees on his blog which we had seen and appreciated.  He also made a brief comment during an earlier convention that he has since posted on his blog.  For standing up and warning parents about Dr. Enns heretical views, the Great Homeschool Conventions LLC. board accused Mr. Ham of questioning Dr. Enns' salvation and being arrogant!  This sparked a great amount of outrage towards the convention organizers and hundreds of comments protesting this action were left on their Facebook page and sent to their inbox.  They ignored the emails and deleted most of the Facebook comments, even going so far as to unfriend some of the people who had complained.  At the same time Susan Wise Bauer and Dr. Jay Wile came out in defence of the convention and Dr. Enns.  Our first reaction was to cancel the trip, but that would only have punished the innocent vendors who had paid for their booths months in advance and had already shipped their goods to Cincinnati.  The convention would not give any refunds and we had already set up hotel reservations and to attend the Father- Son Campout at the Creation Museum that weekend.  Mommy and I spent a long time carefully looking over the vendors and speakers web sites to get a feel for where they stood and we made sure to avoid  any we were unsure about or who blatantly backed up Dr. Enns. 
    
      We arrived in Cincy safely the day before and got all set up to attend the next day.  When we got to the convention the next day it was amazing to see how many people were wearing "I support Ken Ham" or "I'm a Ham" badges along with Creation Museum and AIG hats, pins, and shirts in silent protest of the convention's decision.  Doug Phillips was also speaking there and made indirect references to Dr. Enns' heresy in all of his talks.  We actually ended up spending most of our time at the Creation Museum and got to meet and talk with Mr. Ham a couple of times!  The guys camped out at the museum Friday night and got to hear Buddy Davis tell them about his Alaskan adventure.  Mommy and I caught a showing of "The Runner from Ravenshead" in the Special Effects Theater (It's a very cute movie!), looked for new exhibits in the museum and shopped!!!  We then went back to the hotel and enjoyed the whole room to ourselves!  We picked up the guys the next morning, attended some workshops at the convention, did some last minute Exhibit Hall shopping and attended the Grand Finale with the Duggars.  We left that a little early to get ahead of the sea of people that would have been flooding from the near by parking garages. 

    

Us kids with Ken Ham!

Our guys were in the green tent in the middle

A new interactive Noah!

Yay! We can actually touch it!

Before we picked them up in the morning, the guys got a behind the scenes look at the

Petting Zoo!

A Zonkey!

Gomer the Camel

A Zorse!

A very packed auditorium of people waiting for the Duggars to appear onstage!

      We were able to attend one of Ken Ham's talks at the museum on Sunday before we left and enjoyed a nice, uneventful trip home!  I must say that Answers in Genesis bent over backwards for convention attendees that weekend!  All attendees who visited the museum got a MP3 disc of five of Ken Ham's talks, special discounts, curriculum demos, and a free subscription to Homeschool Enrichment magazine who had withdrawn from the convention.  Over all it was a very good vacation, but that was our first and last time attending a GHC convention. 

In Christ,
Tiffany

Finally Home!!!!!!

Hello Everyone!

We arrived home on Monday; glad to be home, glad to have the memories, and still laughing over our "Comedy of Errors" trip!!! Last we posted we had just gotten the truck back and were preparing to hit the road again. We moved the trailer up to a campground in Black Hawk so we would be closer to the action. Upon getting out and setting up we discovered three things: a vent cover was missing, the air conditioning wouldn't work, and some keys were missing!!! Fortunately, we were able to get the last cover in the area for our size vent, and Daddy fixed the air conditioning, but if you see a key ring with a large red tag on it, please let us know!

The rest of the trip we spent looking at Needles Highway, the Wildlife Loop, Mammoth Site, Devil's Tower, and Ft. Laramie (which was very informative and one of my favorite visits)! We also saw Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff from a distance! Our biggest adventure was in Nebraska!

We were trying to make it to a campground near Lake McConaughy late at night and in a storm when we got stuck in between two hills on a gravel road. Now, a gravel road is usually no problem, but with all the rain, sand and dirt had turned it into a muck pit. We couldn't get enough traction to make it up the one hill, and the trailer would try to land in the ditch if we attempted to back up the other hill! We called for help and were told that the wrecker was in Big Springs trying to get a semi out of a ditch, and to expect an hour or so wait! The emergency brake does not engage the trailer brakes, and so would not keep us out of the ditch! Therefore, poor Daddy had to keep his foot on the truck brake for, what would turn out to be, a SEVEN HOUR wait! It was pitch black out that night, with no civilization in sight. A few cars stopped, two of which were drunk (one man even claimed he could pull us out with his little SUV!!!), and (just before dawn) one really nice lady who felt bad for us and brought back her husband an hour later. By that time the sun was up, the ground was dryer, and we were ready to try one more time. And... We made it!!! And just as we turned a bend in the road, we looked back to see the tow truck arriving!

We got back on the main road and pulled off at the nearest truck stop and slept! After that we got through with out a hitch (though we did have to drive for as long as we could), and got home two days behind schedule. It really was a wonderful trip and we have a whole bundle full of memories!!

In Christ,

For the family,

~ Tiffany

P.S. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures soon!!

Places we've been

Hi Everyone!

Daddy just got done bringing you up to the present, so I thought I would post a few more details and pictures of the places he mentioned. After leaving Wisconsin, our first stop was in:

1. Burr Oak, Iowa

Here we saw the Seed Savers Farm, a place that collects and preserves from extinction all the original, non-genetically altered plants they can. So far they have preserved some where around 2,500 different varieties, from broom corn to the almost extinct moon and stars melon.

We also saw the hotel that Laura Ingalls and her family worked in at Burr Oak. This place was not mentioned in any of the "Little House" books that she wrote in later life, but occurred between their time in Walnut Grove and their move to De Smet.

The Entry to the Visitor's Center (where the tour starts)!

At the Hotel, $0.25 would guarantee you that you wouldn't share the bed with more than two other people!!!!!

The room where Laura and her family stayed!

2. Walnut Grove, Minnesota

We ended up arriving here late at night, long after everything had closed. We did however, manage to take a few shots of the Visitor's Center!

3. De Smet, South Dakota
This is where "On the Shores of Silver Lake" "Little Town on the Prairie" "The Long Winter" "These Happy Golden Years" and "The First Four Years" took place! We visited the area where Pa staked his claim and built the claim shanty! Because of time constraints (which have turned out to be a large factor on this trip!) we did not have time to take the tour, but did climb to the top of a viewing platform to take pictures!

That dark area at the very top of the picture is the currently dry, "Big Slough" that Laura and Carrie got lost in and Pa harvested hay from!

4. Mitchell, South Dakota

We didn't take any pictures here (all cameras where back in the trailer) but the Corn Palace did look very interesting as we were driving by. I was sort of expecting the pictures to be made of so many corn kernels poured between two sheets of glass. Instead, everything was open air; glued to the side of the building and made up of corn cobs, different grasses, and multiple other grains!

5. Badlands National Park
This area is so gorgeous, I'll have to let the pictures speak for themselves! (After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!)

6. Mount Rushmore National Park

I think that should be enough for now, I'll post pictures of the other places later! Hope you all have a great day and week!

In Christ,
For the Family,
~ Tiffany

In Wisconsin

Hi Everyone! We ended up starting a little later than planned the first day, but made up time by driving late. We decided to make it around Chicago that night so we would miss the morning traffic. The skyline was beautiful all lit up, especially the Sears Tower. We pulled over at a Wal-mart just below Wisconsin for the night and spent all day yesterday driving through that state.

There were many geological formations along the road!

Reading... a favorite Cadle Kid pass time!

We are now ready getting ready to leave the Pettibone Resort campground where we spent the night. That is, as soon as the boys get done fishing in the channel of the Mississippi we're camped in front of.....

Today we will be seeing a bunch of Little House / Laura Ingalls Wilder sites. Because of time constraints, we will not be able to see Pepin (Where Little House in the Big Woods took place) but will be able to see the others! Daddy's hitching up the trailer now, so I've got to go!

for the family~ Tiffany

Almost on the road again!

This will likely be our last post before hitting the road! Everyone is scrambling to get everything ready. Most of the food is packed, the clothes are in transit between the washer and the trailer, and the fishing gear is being packed as we speak! This will be our first big camping trip after a few years of hoteling it, so this is bound to be an adventure! Hope everyone on the other side of this blog is well (or getting better, i.e. Mrs. Weather Lady!) ! I've got to go now and do my fair share of the running around!
~ Tiffany

Count Down 3,2,1...

One more day and we hit the road for a couple of weeks. It is so exciting to be going on an adventure to the Bad lands. Lisa and I will be celebrating our 20th on the road this year. We will be camping the whole 2 weeks. We are still in the process of getting ready. The kidos are helping with the planning and preparing. They are really stepping up and helping with everything. I am such a blessed Man to have the wife and children that I do. Thank you Lord for your blessings.

Tim