Where The Orange Blossoms Grow....

Hello! Welcome to the Stricklen's blog. We hope to keep our family and friends up to date with what is going on with our family. You will find a variety of experiences posted here -- you may find pictures of the never ending project of building our house, Callie helping William with his first steps, Mary studying a rare insect species, or perhaps you may be terribly bored with Molly's numerous fruit trees, berries, vegetables and rare plant pictures! Who knows what we may find Chris and CJ doing -- probably something having to do with a tractor or machine of sorts. Abby and Margaret will keep us entertained with costumes from other lands or a fairy story. Whatever we post, we trust it will lift your spirits and bring honor and glory to our Lord!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Defending Your Faith Conference in MO

Last week we attended the Answers in Genesis/Vision Forum "Defending Your Faith" Conference in Branson, Missouri. We left for the trip a little later than planned -- many obstacles stood in our way, but the Lord took care of each one. Things were beginning to look as if we were not going to be able to go, but we had been praying about going to this conference for months and asking the Lord to allow all things to work out and go smoothly in order to be able to attend. Well, the Lord worked a miracle for our family and provided the funds the business needed to operate while we were gone and we just want to give testimony to His faithfulness to us! He answered our prayers and it was so exciting for our entire family to witness. We made sure to share the miracle with our children as God instructed the Isrealites in Joshua 4:22 "Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land." Just as God answered the Israelites prayers when crossing the Red Sea, God answered our prayers and provided a miracle for us to attend the conference. What a testimony to God's faithfulness. Molly
Our original plan was for Grandmother and Granddaddy to drive their old motorhome, "The Beaver-saurus", (as it became known) and for us to follow in case of some unexpected emergency (there definitely WOULD have been one considering the transmission went out and Mama and Daddy had to tow it to G & G's with Mama's Excursion on the way to trade it in at Dusty's Camper World!!) So after about two days of Daddy and G'Daddy working on it, and the "transmission blowing up in Alturas" incident they finally gave up and G & G bought the "Sunseeker" from Dusty's!!!! Mary Noelle
Waiting patiently for the arrival of the NEW motorhome!!! Here she comes! WOW-- This is getting EXCITING!
Well, we finally left!!! And made it to Cracker Barrel!!!!
Mmmmm! Cool, Clear Water!
OK, He knows he's cute!
Hmmm--Where are we?????
Boring scenery
YAY!
"I wish I was upon old rockytop, up in the Tennessee Hills!!!!"
For some reason this thing was labeled "ART"
Welcome to ARKANSAS!!! "The Natural State" :):):):):)This is how I occupy myself while we travel:):):)..............And this tooWe stopped and had a pleasant roadside picnic in Arkansas!Something was obviously very funny :D :D More scenery :) We finally made it to the Millers!!!!The sissies reunite! Many tears were shed :)Andrew and CJ had many serious discussions on their favorite subjects such as......BEARS.........BULLS........Cowboys......Elk, or reindeer, or whatever this is........ and many other things!:):):)



Are you serious, Uncle Chris??? The Stricklens, Millers, Frodges, and Amanda (Uncle Robert had not arrived yet) Sweet pals:) Daniel very enthusiastically grilling chicken:):)CJ enthusiastically rolling down the hill:):)Aunt Katie enthusiastically cooking!:):):)Callie and Amanda slightly enthusiastically smiling for the camera:):)Mama and Daddy:):):) 5 little monkeys hangin from the loft, one fell off, and.......uumm.....well, actually no one fell off:):):)Picking greens for the salad:)The next day, we finally made it to the Conference!Our Family A few of the boys trying to do the "RG pinkie thing" but there's nothing like the original:):):)

I think this is all of the girls except Rachel and Savannah:):)

I hope I'm not forgetting anyone:)

Posted by Mary Noelle








7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Mary, Can I put in an order for one of those pretty pink dresses??
Love,
Mrs. Tanner

The Miller Family said...

Oh, the pictures of your mama and me seeing each other for the first time in three loooong months were so sweet! Almost as sweet as the real thing! Thanks for posting them!
Love,
Aunt Katie

The Dischers said...

Mary--your comments about the pics always have me laughing so hard!! THanks for being diligent and ACTUALLY GETTING YALLS TRIP PICS UP!!! :) :) :)

~Kitty~

Anonymous said...

Hey--Thank y'all for commenting, but I actually added alot more pics to the end of this post. I only posted it before I was done cause I didn't want Blogger to mess up and loose all of my work, as it has done numerous times:):)

:):):)~Mary~:):):)

Bonnie said...

Molly, thank you for sharing the Lord's faithfulness with us. It was truly a special moment! After Danny said, "wouldn't it be neat if there was a big check in the mail?" and Chris coming out of the post office and showing us the check that just came in the mail!!

And Mary, you are always so creative in getting comments to match the pictures! How DO you get all those pictures to upload?? And what is with that snazzy red car???

Unknown said...

Yea, Mary-I know EXACTLY what you mean! Blogger is a wonderful tool, but sometimes isnt the most reliable! (And yea, I'm speaking from experience... :-o)

~Kitty~

Anonymous said...

Hello all,
Thank you so much for sharing the pictures with us. I love your blog and check it often. I just am awful at posting comments. Please give everyone our love.

The Lain family