Established Goings - In which the Jost Family comes to visit

Jun. 21, 2009

In which the Jost Family comes to visit

The Jost Family was able to come to our house on their way back to Alberta! We got to spend a wonderful weekend together, filled with long talks, much laughter, bonding of friends, telling of jokes and stories, an awesome concert, even more awesome friends, dancing, whiffle ball and Capture the Flag, food, late nights, a bonfire, the creation of a language, the counting of Cheerios, more laughter, good natured teasing, non-stop conversation, much good wit, even more laughter… :sigh:

And I’m really sorry if this post seems vague and non-descriptive, because many of the little vignettes, inside jokes, conversations, etc., only make sense and are funny and meaningful to those that were there, and would probably sound really stupid to those who weren't. :P

It started out with about two weeks of planning, emailing and anticipation (cleaning, shopping, baking, excitement…). Finally, Saturday came! The Peters family stopped by on the way to their hotel, since they came down for the concert too. They arrived at about 9pm, and about fifteen minutes later, Jesse and Heidi pulled in, followed a minute later by the Josts. The fun began immediately.

Most of us “kids” stayed up till about 1am talking and laughing. Gordie and Joel stayed up till 2:30am, however!

The next morning began with breakfast, a few of us getting showers, visiting and RAIN!!! Yep, it started to rain! This wasn’t good, seeing as we wanted to have the concert outdoors. The Josts decided that if the rain didn’t stop by one o’clock, we would set up everything in the house. So while we waited, Mr. Jost gathered his family for devotions, which he graciously allowed my family and the Peters family to sit in on. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and worship that I personally will cherish forever. We sang Great is Thy Faithfulness together and spent a good deal of time in prayer as we went around the room and each person that wanted to said their own prayer. Most of us prayed that, if it was God’s will, we’d like the rain to stop. And, lo and behold…the rain stopped literally by the time we were done praying!!! That was a huge praise!

So with the rain stopped, we began the set up. The Ferrars arrived during that time! It was SO great to see Michaela, Anna and Mrs. Ferrar again and get to meet their three precious little sisters and Mr. Ferrar.

The Josts did an excellent job of getting their things set up on our back porch. The guys set up a big umbrella over Joel’s soundboard in case the water dripped off the trees. Joel and Emily taught me how to set up microphones. Everything went entirely well!

People arrived for the concert, and we had a pretty good turnout. We got chairs set up and people sitting and everything done hunky-dory!

My dad introduced the Josties, and they began their concert. As usual, they did an AWESOME job! I laughed, I felt like crying several times, and totally enjoyed every bit of it!! Except for the part about half way through when my chair broke and refused to stay back together, so I ended up sitting on the ground. :) Mrs. Jost got hilariously into the end of their song “Don’t Go Moping Around”, which she said was especially for Pennsylvania. It was super! I completely love that lady.

After the concert, we ate snacks, visited, danced, played whiffle ball and Capture the Flag, sat in a circle, talked a lot, and did other homeschooler-ish stuff. :) We helped the Josts pack up their equipment. Emily taught me how to put away microphone stands, and I passed Joel’s cable wrapping test! :D

The Peters family had to leave that night, so we bid them goodbye with lots of hugs and farewells. It was so great to have them down here!

The Ferrars left too, about ten o’clock, after one last round of Mairi’s Wedding and listening to/singing “The Parting Glass” together. There were many hugs and much fast talking in the last few minutes of our visit.

After that, the boys built a fire and we toted our chairs out and sat in a circle around that. We like circles. :) We swapped stories, and jokes, Emily told a “scary story”, Emily and Joel came up with a “rap” song about our visit, and so much more! Finally about midnight, the younger people needed to go to bed, so we all tromped inside. Josiah, Joel, Emily, Gordie, Charlie and I stayed up till about 1:00 in the dining room talking, until Heidi “the ghost” came out and said we were being a little loud, so we moved into the kitchen for about another half hour. :) Such good times!

The next morning, the Josts packed up their things (minus the things they accidentally honored us by leaving behind! ;) ), and ate breakfast. The culmination of our incredible visit consisted of Joel and Gordie counting Cheerios. Yes, folks…this is what homeschoolers do. The question came up: How many Cheerios are in an average box? So Joel and Gordie split one cup of Cheerios and simultaneously counted them on foam plates. Joel then did the math on his iPod, and found out that there is approximately 6,660 Cheerios per box. They also found out that there are approximately 3 Cheerios per one calorie. Take a bow guys. :)

We all gathered for prayer before the Josts left. Jesse and Heidi were heading to a different area than the rest, so there were special goodbyes and prayers for them. After much hugging and handshaking, and with many Josties hands waving from the van windows, we said farewell to our dear friends.

My family is now trying to figure out a way to get up to Alberta sometime. :)

Pictures to follow soon!!!

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