Charity's graduation~by Beth

It's official, we now have 8 home schooled graduates at the Blikstad casa.  The weeks before we spent sprucing up the house and yard.  The Lord was good to send a lot of rain during the week before graduation so that the grass got very green and full, and saved us from going out at 4 am to start and move the sprinkler two mornings that week.  The weekend before graduation we got some mistint paint from Sherwin Williams and painted the formerly pink accent wall to a bright blue.  I was hoping for a more teal color, but everyone loves the blue around here.  We also trimmed up Charity and Johanna's hair.  This was also Mother's day weekend, so I added a picture of the beautiful bouquet that Caleb sent me.  Love those!!  The rest of the pics are from rehearsal and graduation, followed by the open house we had here at home.

Charity's hair is ready for graduation.

Charity and her bff Emily

Pictures before heading to graduation

Selfie

Charity

Charity's table

We also celebrated Christiana's 20th birthday this past week.  The day before I took all the girls and Stephen shopping (thrift store, mall, and a few other places).  The last photo is of us taking a break from all that shopping to have a drink from Starbucks using a couple of my gift cards.

Caleb graduates from UF~by Beth

After driving through the night (thank you Jon for doing most of that) we arrived at Caleb's house around 10 am.  That gave us time to get some showers and breakfast and get ready for Caleb's graduation from the University of Florida.  It was a fun graduation, even though we had to wait in a line outside to get into the arena.  Wow, was it hot.  His graduation was a proud moment for us all.

Caleb is heading to his graduation from college

Waiting for it to begin

A proud moment

brothers

Beginning May 2018~by Beth

May began for us in Ohio with my family.  When we arrived it was so cold.  Winter would not let go of the north and few of the trees were even blooming.  But after a couple of days of warm weather the trees bloomed everywhere.  So beautiful.  On our way home we stopped by the Ark Encounter and met up with Jon's boss Brad and his wife and son, who are also friends of ours.  We spent the day there, grabbed a bite to eat and then drove through the night for the third time on this trip.  We ended our trip in Gainesville, FL for Caleb's graduation from college.

Charity turned 18 the day we left 

Mom and Dad Hofener

My sister Lisa and husband Woody

Beth and Brad on the way to the Ark

See the cross on the door?

Johanna loves animals

Stephen

Abigail

2018 Conference~by Beth

We ended up going to the Big Sandy, Texas conference because the one in Georgia was cancelled due to low turnout.  That was disappointing since it was a beautiful place and a better time of year for us.  But I did manage to get a few blurry pictures of the youngest three during their presentations.  Two highlights of the conference for our family was that Jon and I were on a panel during a lunch hour and then later that day Emma and Charity were recognized for journal completion.  They both finished their Faith journals and Charity also completed her Virtue journal.

 We drove through the night on the Friday the conference ended and met up with some friends at the Creation Museum.  They travel with their ministry Freedom Focus, and are thinking about expanding to a Freedom Museum.  It was so fun to spend a couple hours with them before we had to head up to Parma, Ohio to visit my family.

Pastor Darren and Tammy Myers with Beth and Jon

My birthday hike~by Beth

Because our conference was in Texas in April, we managed to squeeze in a visit to our adult children and granddaughters in Irving.  It just so happened that my birthday occurred while we were there, and Nathan planned a fun day of hiking in Grand Prarie.  We had an excellent time and took lots of great photos.  It began chilly for us that morning but then warmed up as the day went on.  Here are a few of the shots we took.

Audrey's personality shines here

Uncle Stephen, Lydia, and Aunt Abby

Grandpa and Isabelle

Audrey

Sophia

Beth on the bridge

Nathan

When we got home Jon and the granddaughters washed the cars.

Later that day we had a great meal that Hannah made, along with chocolate cheesecake.