Southern Missouri Vacation, Part 2

Our second day of vacation was even hotter - 109 on the bank sign in Lesterville, MO. At one point the heat index was 114! We stayed close to the water as much as possible.  Here the kids are having the crawdads they found fight.

Elijah finds rocks to throw in the river.  There are a lot of rocks in MO, and the river bottoms are completely rock-bottom - no muddy feet swimming like in Iowa, just sore feet if you don't have water shoes.

This picture is for Kurt.  A lot of people drive right on to the rivers, and we found some groups of people parked and swimming with families.

My brother Mike tested the water next.

Cody exits the scene to jump in his dad's truck and yells, "See you at Camp!"  Gideon's glass is full of their new friends - crawdads, who they also brought back to camp.

Elliot complained that his feet hurt.  This isn't because of the rocks, but but because of the heat of the cement.  I had to be careful to have shoes on the kids at all times, otherwise the cement burned their little feet.  Here he decided to borrow my sandals.

Ezra biked by the cabins (airconditioned, thankfully) a lot.  He is getting to an age that I can let him play away from me for longer periods of time and know that he is safe.  This is a nice stage to get to.

Somebody found a box turtle, who was super fun to check out.  I think the best part of being outdoors is discovering God's creation, and seeing children enjoy all it's creativity.  Zach has no fear, just all excitement.

John shows off his new buddy.

At the end of the second day Dad and I drove to this little shack, which looks to me to be a very old church - by the white cross on top.  There are two outhouses on the left of the photo (one behind the stove pipe coming out of the side of the building) and a horse stable on the right, where they would have parked their horses. 

I think the double opening front doors are unique.  It is also interesting that there is electricity running to it with the lighting below the cross on the top, and the light by the outhouses.  I am thankful for a church with airconditioning and running water, though I would love to have had the expierience of worship in this building.