Destiny is 15!

   After all the hype of the big city, we had to go back to our country roots......AMISH COUNTRY!

  Did you know both Dale and I come from Amish roots?  My grandmother's family left the Amish church when she was 8.  Dale's grandma was Amish mennonite, he doesn't remember when they left the full Amish side of things, but they always have lived very conservatively.

​  We always feel right at home when we are in Pennsylvania and Ohio!

  First stop was Lancaster!  3 years ago, we ate at this little teeny hole in the wall chinese place, and went crazy over it.  WELLLL, being the foodies we are, we let Destiny pick where she wanted to eat for her birthday, and she mentioned this place. 

  Haha, it helped us decide where to go after NYC to relax a bit! We stayed at an RV park run by the nicest couple.  He would sit out every night with his talking parrot and entertain everyone.  So cool!

  We drove 6 hours and headed into Holmes County, Ohio we planned to see some friends the  next day, that recently joined our oil team!

  But first, it was time to eat! It had been a long travel day and the fridge was BARE since we didn't grocery shop in NYC at all.

  We found a darling little amish diner to eat at, Mrs. Yoder's.  

  How you can tell you are in an Amish town, look how polite! No hats during dinner.  :)

  And what do you order when its PEACH SEASON?!  Homemade peach cream pie!

  Over dinner, we were chatting about how close we were to our friends and business partners, the Vissers. They full time RV too now, and we knew they were staying somewhere in this area.  We went on their FB pages and studied until we figured out where they were staying and went to SURPRISE THEM!  Haha, we should be DETECTIVES! :)

  They saw us pull in and recognized the car, darn it, but it was still a fun surprise!  We spent the evening catching up and the kids had fun with the 9 other children running around!

  The next morning, was Destiny's 15th birthday!!!  Dale got her up to drive 45 minutes to a nearby town to wait in line to try to get her iPhone fixed, whoever replaced her battery did a horrible job and caused some issues.

​  While they were gone, Avery comes running back with this idea to set up a queen throne for our queen of the day AND to decorate the living room and yell surprise when they got home.  So sweet!  It turned out cute!

  The siblings all used their quarters to use the claw and "catch" her a birthday stuffed animal.  Awww, so sweet!

Slideshow:

  We went grocery shopping for some local fresh fruits and veggies, and then drove around and enjoyed the farm land and sites.  OH, and we splurged and had ice cream.  We have talked about this pace for the past 2 years, wanting to come back and eat their REAL cream Black Raspberry ice cream.  Not too sweet at all, just creamy deliciousness.

  Destiny had asked me if I would do a birthday photo shoot with her like we used to back in our house days.  OF COURSE!  I had to dust off the ol' girl after all these years of just cell phone use, but we had a ball.  

How is she so GROWN UP now?!

Birthday Shoot Slideshow:

Which is your fav?  I am having trouble choosing but am loving the white shirt ones for sure.

  And here she is, age 9 and age 15, getting to be SO grown up. 

​  A sophomore in HS this year!!!! SNIFF SNIFF :(

  We met our friends, Tim and Nataly for dinner that night.  Got to met their baby boy, Emanuel for the first time, and opened gifts!  We made plans to see them again the next day to chat oils, raising kids, Jesus and have some fun together too.  

  Dale and Tim traveled together when Dale was on the ministry team back in the day, and we had him play piano at our wedding 16 years ago.  He and Nataly came to visit us at our Kansas house many years ago, when Pax was a baby and it has been SO fun to catch up again.

  I used a local address to ship some of the things Destiny had on her wish list and surprised her with them at dinner.  We usually do experiences not stuff, but in this case, the things she was wanting were small and totally doable for RV life!  She was thrilled!

   We also got to see some doTERRA friends we met in Florida a few years back, when Dale saw a man whose shirt fell off the back of his golf cart.   They got to talking, and doTERRA came up since they had a sticker on their car. 

​  His wife comes out, and she hears Dale chatting about our life on the road and selling our property in KS, and she is like, Wait, are you the RV OILERS?!  Your photo from the doTERRA magazine is on my vision board.  Can I meet your wife?

  Haha, needless to say, we have been hanging out ever since and we love their family!

We had a GREAT time and our day together FLEW BY!

​Slideshow:

  As you can see by the slideshow, we had a ball! Boys got to 4 wheel with Lane, girls got to horse ride with Logan.  The adults got to shoot the breeze and get all caught up before we had to go again.

 Such an awesome family! SO thankful the Lord brought them into our lives.....

Next up, we headed to Plain City, OH for some oil classes!  It was a cool and rainy day when we pulled in, so we laid low and played around the RV.

  The kids came up with a couples yoga challenge, CRACK ME UP!  Check out this slideshow: What do you think of Paxton and Ty's final pose?!  LOL! :)

  The next morning we arose to a parade outside our door!  YUP!

  Our RV Park just so happened to be part of the location of part of a local Bicentennial festival, and the parade lined up right up front so we saw the whole thing go by!!  SO COOL!

  Later, they set up all sorts of bouncy houses and carnival games, free to the public and had the coolest banjo pickin band out in the gazebo!

  We jumped, we rode horses, we slid, Pax made a bullseye shots on the giant dart board and most of us, got the dinger to ding on the giant hammer game.  Whoop Whoop!

  Slideshow:

  Such a fun day! So grateful to be able to walk from our home sweet rolling home and enjoy this as a family before oil class.

  Speaking of an oil class, we have one coming up July 27 in Bowling Green, Ohio! I would love for you to join me...just message me via contact form for details.

Hugs, T