Sunday, May 25, 2008 we attended church at our Delaware Ward. This was taken in the parking lot where there was a huge hedge of lilac bushes. It smelled wonderful. These bushes are all over and are just beautiful. Hope ours in Lakeside look this good.

May 24, 2008 We took a four mile hike along the lake at Alum Creek State Park right in the middle of town! It was a beautiful hike. The trees are all shades of green and so pretty. The terrain was a little rough and quite muddy in some places but we made it. Kelly now has a pair of hiking shoes that can't be worn for much else. They are pretty bad. The lake is huge and there were sailboats, ski boats and fishing boats out there. It sure looked fun to us.

This is out of order but, oh well!! That's how we do things!! Yesterday, May 10th, we spent the morning at the Hopewell Cultural Center where we learned about the Mound builders that were in this area from 800 BC to about 500 AD. Could they have been the Jeredites!!!! It was really interesting. And this tree was beautiful and only one of many! Grandad looks pretty small beside it!

May 11, 2008 Mother's Day!! How blessed we are to have such a wonderful family! Thank you Arizona grandkids for the cute signs and the neat picture of all of you! It made Grandma cry!! We've had such a nice weekend and this topped it off! The flowers on the right are from Grandad (isn't he a sweetheart!!) and the ones on the left were given to Grandma from Bea and her kids! They were so nice to think of that! It's been a day to remember how many blessings we have and we are so grateful for such a wonderful family who love and support us. We love all of you and miss you so much but we are glad to be able to serve a mission here in Ohio and have the neat experiences we are having to be able to do this together. It is something we talked about for years and now it is happening for us. Thank you for your support. We do miss you and especially at times like this. We hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Yesterday, May 10th, we went down South to Chilicothe to visit Bea Zufelt and her family. What a great afternoon we had with them and the couple that have taken them in and given them a place to live and Bea a job. Larry and Ann are wonderful Christian people with hearts of gold and have been a real blessing to Bea and her kids. We had a nice visit and a wondeful dinner that Bea made for us. She is an excellent cook! We plan on spending more time with them. They live out of town and up on a hill with forest all around them and it is beautiful and peaceful there. And in the fall the colors will be out of this world and we can't wait to see them! What a great Saturday we had!

May 11, 2008 Our first tornado alert!! We were getting home from church and heard the sirens going off! So we came into the apartment and instead of taking cover like they were telling us over the news station, we went out on the patio and took pictures!! It was quite exciting for a few minutes! It passed over us and all we got was a lot of rain! But we experienced our first tornado. If the air had been warmer we might have really had some action. Maybe later in the summer it will happen!

Here we are again and the state of Ohio is getting prettier every day!! The blossoming trees just keep blossoming and a drive down a road is beautiful! The work goes on here in Ohio and the Elders and Sisters are enjoying the fruits of their labors with baptisms every weekend. They are great missionaries! And here it is May and we have been here 4 months already! The time has flown by. We start on Monday with an entire week ahead of us and before we know it Friday is here and we are saying, "Where did that week go?" We love our Delaware Ward. Sister Owens taught the Relief Society lesson last Sunday and then helped in the kitchen with the Zone Conference Luncheon on Wednesday so it was a great week for her, doing the things she loved doing in Arizona. Elder Owens really enjoyed the Zone Conference, watching the Elders teach each other, listening to them enthusiastically sing "Called To Serve", and then listening to their great testimonies of the missionary work they are doing. It was a wonderful week! We have Stake Conference this weekend with Elder Richard Hinckley as our General Authority visitor. We are looking forward to those meetings. We love our mission here in Ohio!