New friends

Beth regularly goes to Michaels (the art & crafts superstore in Gravois Bluffs) on a Saturday morning to take part in the Kids Club, where she gets to do all sorts of arts & crafts. The lady who runs it is called Mary F, & she is really good at arts & crafts. We have become regulars on a Saturday morning (Beth also did the summer camp during her school holidays) & it wasn't long before Mary kindly invited us over to her house for dinner & to meet the rest of her family still living there.

Mary, Tony, Tanya, & Bubby live about 35 miles west of Fenton & their house is really out in the sticks compared to ours. The main road to get to their house looks like a wide gravel track (with a 40 mph speed limit!), but they have loads of land & a really huge house that they had built - cool.

The homecooked food was really good & we really enjoyed ourselves. Tanya & Bubby looked after & played with Beth, whilst we had a look at Mary's eggs. These are empty eggs that have been decorated (both inside & out) by Mary. Cheryl the spent the rest of the evening chatting & looking at photos with Mary, whilst I had a look at the guns & rifles that Tony restores (some of these were quite modern whilst others had been used in wars 100+ years ago, but the finish on all of them was superb). After playing some games of pool & watching a few episodes of the first 'new' series of Doctor Who it was dark enough to go outside.

One of the advantages of being this far out in the state is that you get to see cool wildlife (we saw some Hummingbirds earlier on), & that light polution is sufficiently reduced to see the night sky in a whole new way. Although it wasn't the best night (apparently) the stars took on a whole new dimension out here. It was possible to see the Milky Way, Cheryl saw a shooting star, I watched a sattelite pass overhead, & then we had a look at the moon & also a planet with a moon through Bubby's telescope.

We had a really good time & have since gone over there again to do some arts & craft. Mary's Dad was there this time, who is also a good artist. I spent the evening painiting on canvas with guidance from Mary & her Dad, & Cheryl painted a tray for Beth with help from Mary. We had a really good time & appreciated the hospitality extended towards us.