Gardens

In my last post, I ran out of time to do the Creation Museum's gardens & petting zoo,
which we had explored the afternoon before we went to the museum itself. What a beautiful place!

“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.”
Revelation 4:11

The kids had great fun on the swinging bridges!

We miss this dear family!

Eliana & Bethany :)

Apart from us all being extremely HOT by this time (the temperature was over 40 degrees!), the petting zoo was also really neat, especially the zorse & the zedonk!

Click here if you'd like to see more pictures.

Creation Museum

Just some memories of our trip to the Creation Museum in July, since I never posted anything this summer... sorry about that... Anyways, we really loved it there! Amazing!  We especially loved watching The Created Cosmos at the planetarium. You can buy it on DVD, for a great Christmas gift.  What an awesome, wonderful Creator we serve!

As you can see from the following pictures, the museum is set up to teach visitors "The Seven Cs of History: Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, Consummation."

Bethany's comments here:
"Oh, I was scared of that dinosaur (the one above - it moved & made noises) - I thought it was real.
I loved Noah's Ark - I wanted to look at it for a long time... Oh, did you hear Noah talking to us?  I pushed the buttons a long time to hear Noah talking about Noah's Ark."

By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world  and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Hebrews 11:7

It is very sobering to see the depiction of the Flood, the tiny figures clinging to the rocks, to think of those who did not repent & believe, and perished, and to think of the coming Day of Judgment for those apart from Christ Jesus. He is our only Hope!

...By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
1 Peter 3:5-7

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned... much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many...  Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:8-12, 15, 18-21

Congratulations, Rudy & Louise!

We are so thankful to the Lord for bringing this sweet couple together on Friday, October 14!
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow!

He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Matthew 19:4-6

For more pictures of their special day, go here!

Big Bone Lick State Park

We left John & Betty's on Friday morning, drove most of the day, and set up camp in the evening at Big Bone Lick State Park, where we stayed for the next 4 nights.  One website says:

Big Bone Lick is significant for its combination of salt springs and late Pleistocene bone beds. Ancient creatures like the mammoth, mastodon, ground sloth and bison once roamed here through mineral springs and swamps, now grassy plains covered with trees and shrubs. (Actually, bison & sloth are not so ancient - they are alive & well today, of course!)
On Saturday morning, Ralph took the kids to the Outdoor Museum with its Discovery Trail.

On Saturday afternoon, we met Damian & Margarita and their two children, Raddoy & Elianna, at the Newport Aquarium.  We hadn't seen them since April, when they moved to Cleveland, and it was wonderful to get together again!  (They stayed at a hotel nearby for the weekend.)

The Aquarium was so amazing - our favourite things were the tunnels (where we had up-close views of sharks, rays, etc.), the jellyfish, and the friendly penguins!

So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:21

They also had birds which you could feed - if you paid extra, or found someone's discarded little cup. :)

The most interesting thing was seeing how these jellyfish get around.  What a wise & wonderful Designer the Lord is! And to be very truthful about things, in the picture above you can see Margarita & the kids all sitting there (behind a huge narrow aquarium) waiting around for me to finish taking pictures of these unbelievable jellyfish... so sorry, Margarita & kids, for taking so long, then and other times. I do get a little carried away sometimes, and forget to watch my own kids as I try to get the perfect picture... thankfully Ralph is generally very careful that way. Also he kept David on his shoulders the whole time, not an easy job! since strollers are not allowed in the aquarium during their busy times.

The penguin show was very interesting, though rather goofy... not the birds' fault though! These birds are so friendly & inquisitive, continually bobbing up against the glass to say hello.  Cher, they reminded me of that friendly baby beluga at Marineland, remember?