Visiting our Future Home (MTC MO)

We took a quick trip to New Tribe Mission's MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Roach, MO. We left thursday so that we could help these dear friends from the Bible School move on to the next phase of training (Downings and Cizdziels). 

We drove through rain the ENTIRE drive from Indiana to Missouri (the worst rain I've ever drove in too!), and we hit some frustrating construction as well. But we made it in one piece, and thankfully a lot of things stayed dry.

It was nice to help them move because it also gave us a chance to see our future home! Hopefully, this is where we will be moving to next August in order to finish our last phase of training. This is the older, smaller housing ... this is Jason's and Laken's apartment.

This is the newer, bigger housing for families...

And standing in the same spot as the previous picture, but looking down the hill instead of up, you can see the classroom and administration buildings. It's a little bit of a walk, but not bad.

Here are the administration buildings.

And that classroom building.

Here is the beautiful lake. It is really pretty! We love the location of the campus. It's on the Lake of the Ozarks.

One other nice thing about visiting was that we got to see quite a few Bible school friends! It was nice to see Brett and Kelli and baby Addie.

After a quick few days in Missouri, we drove home through the night last night (less traffic, no construction hold-ups, and no rain= much faster arrival time!!!). It was so nice to get home to see this little girl who stayed with my parents. It's the longest we've been away from her, and we sure missed her... but I think she had such a good time that she didn't really miss us much. She will love the MTC too- it is very kid-friendly with playgrounds and lots of other kids and lots of area to run.

Family Vacation with the Millers - Gull Lake

This past week we took a little vacation with Ben's family as we do every year. They go to a place called Gull Lake Family Camp every year. It's in Michigan, and Ben's family has gone for 24 years! That's some dedicated family vacationing, right there. I have gone with them ever since Ben and I got married- so this was my 4th summer. And it was Sophie's 2nd summer :)

Ben unfortunately still had to work- but his job is about half-way between our house in Warsaw and where we were in Michigan, so he didn't have to drive much further to work. He would go work every morning and then come hang out with us the rest of the day!

This is our cottage that we've stayed in every year since I have gone. It's a nice little cottage right on the lake. I sat in the back yard almost every day while Sophie took her nap- it was nice to soak up some sun while reading and watching people on the lake.

Sophie had SO much fun with her grandparents and aunts and uncles. They definitely spoiled her, and she knew it! Last year she was only 4 months, so it was fun to see her enjoying everything this year. They have playgrounds, a splash pad, a gym, and a fun nursery area for her. Here she is with Uncle Nate kicking her feet in the water. She was trying to splash Aunt Katie.

On the last night, they had a fun carnival-type thing set up for the kids, and Sophie loved the bouncy houses! This was a little bouncy house, perfect for Sophie...

It had a slide that she loved to go down. She did it over and over again.

Here Sophie and I are after we went through the splash pad some! She likes it as long as she's with an adult. Nate, Katie, and I all took her through in our clothes because we didn't have our swim suits on :)

(thanks Katie for a couple of the pictures... I am always bad about taking pictures at Gull Lake!)