The Ark Encounter

Today's post will wrap up the shortest ever vacation recap in the history of Shafferland! But don't count on a short post. :)

In preparation for our visit to the Ark Encounter, I read several blogs I found on Pinterest. I wanted to know what to expect!  So as I get started today, I'll give you my two cents on the outing as a whole, and then I'll let you peek into our day!

* While I have no official stats on this, my gut tells me that going early in the week during the school year definitely helped on crowd control. I would guess school field trips happen later in the week. We didn't see any school buses, anyway. And most of the families we saw either had children younger than school age or were homeschooling families, I'd guess. There were a good number of cars in the parking lot, but it really did feel like we had the place to ourselves.

* I had read some advice to be there when the place opened, so we did that. It also helped us have more space to ourselves! There was already a line waiting for entrance when we arrived about 8:45, but it all went very quickly. We had pre-purchased our tickets online, but just so you know, there are separate lines for those needing to buy tickets and those who already have them. 

* You do have to pay for parking. It's $15 for cars and $20 for RVs - and there isn't any way around that unless you Uber there or stay in a hotel close enough to walk. (There aren't too many of those yet.) You park a fairly good distance from the Ark and then they shuttle you in buses up to the Ark itself. We never had to wait for a bus. We got right through line (once it opened) and immediately onto a bus and up to the Ark. When we were ready to leave at the end of the day, we only waited about two minutes on the bus outside the gift shop before it went back tot he parking lot. 

* The pro to being there in the "off" season came with a con, too. There were some things that weren't open. Some of the food places that only had outdoor picnic table seating were closed, the ziplines were closed (that was okay!!!) and maybe more than that, too. It was too cold for most of that anyway, but we did hear some families with small children complaining about the food places being closed. Most of them were forced to eat at the buffet, and while it was delicious, I'm sure it's a pain to pay that much for a child's lunch!

* One thing I would have done differently if I had it to do over would have been to take a warmer jacket! I wore a sweater, but it was a thin one because I dressed with the inside in mind. I didn't think about waiting outside in the morning in line - or walking between buildings once I got to the Ark, or making my way through their little zoo. Ryan offered to buy me a sweatshirt in the gift shop, but I hated to drop $50 for a few cold minutes. So I would advise taking appropriate outerwear if you go in the colder months. 

SO! With those things said, here's a peek at our day!

This is the gate from the gift shop/drop-off area into the Ark area.

It was pretty overcast when we arrived, but my goodness. The size of that Ark is incredible! I was overwhelmed, and I live in a time when big structures are normal. Can you imagine seeing the original ark in its day when such massive buildings did not exist?

Here was a weird thing. I anticipated this photo opp area to be FULL of people. It was not. Not at all. So much so, in fact, that we had to do a selfie, because there wasn't even anyone to ask to take a picture for us! I have no idea if, in busier months, a staff member hangs out there to take pictures or not, but this one caught me off guard! Fortunately when we left, there was a family also doing a selfie, so I traded picture-taking favors with them! I'll show you that picture later. 

The closer we got, the larger that thing loomed. I don't think I expected to be as moved and overwhelmed by its size as I was. 

I'll pick just a sampling of the photos from our trip through the inside. Parts of the Ark are set up with an idea of how life might have looked. Obviously much of this is simply speculation. Anything and everything that could be taken from Scripture was, but there are a lot of details about daily life that aren't explained in full in the Bible. What I learned most from our trip was that Noah and his family (and all who lived in that day) were probably much smarter than I have ever imagined. I think I always envisioned the animals and people just sliding around on the decks of the Ark in a giant free-for-all. It never occurred to me that even that early in history, they could have had a lot of skills and ideas for engineering systems to make that year in the ark work systematically. From living quarters for the people to feeding systems for the animals, it was impressive to me to think about how sophisticated it could have been compared to what I've always envisioned.

A very pivotal moment on the Ark (which we were able to get a picture of, even though the lady I asked wasn't super sure about it) was standing by the door to the Ark. They make a point of reminding visitors that there was ONE door into the ark, and there is ONE way to Heaven. Powerful correlation!

Part of the Ark is the "real life" part and some of it is more about reading through exhibits. We enjoyed that part! (I didn't take pictures of that part, but it was still interesting.)

Then we made our way to the gift shop for coffee and an ornament for our family story tree!

After we ate lunch (at the buffet, since that's what they had open!) we walked through the little zoo. It was a cute zoo - and you could pet the goats!

(After you've been bitten by a dog, you are wary of putting your hands near the mouths of animals you have not established a relationship with.)

We went back toward the main gift shop buildings, and by this point in the day, it was SO much prettier! I wanted to redo my pictures. The photo opp area was still almost entirely empty. A thousand thanks to the nice lady who let me take a picture of her family and then returned the favor for us!

I just finished studying the flood/ark accounts in Genesis, so this trip came at a perfect time for me, and I am grateful to have been able to see this in person. It was a good trip! The bonus of living so close to this was being able to come straight home and be back by about dinnertime! 

Our Tenth Birthday Trip

I do have one more room to show you, but I want to put one more finishing touch on it before I do pictures, so I'm going to pause that series and come back to it. :) 

Meanwhile...

During our first year of marriage, we decided to make a tradition of taking an annual birthday trip! This year marked our TENTH trip! All these decade milestones are so fun for me to look back on! 

That first year, we decided to go to the Creation Museum, which I thought was in Cincinnati, but it's actually not even in Ohio. It's in Kentucky. Good grief! We loved that trip so much, and it seemed fitting that on this tenth year bookend, we would travel back to that area to see the Ark Encounter. (They were still planning/building the Ark when we went the first time.) We didn't want to be gone a very long time this year, since we just moved, but we did want to honor our tradition and get away for at least overnight. So that is what we did! Today I'll tell you about the day before we visited the Ark. 

As per usual for this spring, it was a rainy day, so we had to hide on the porch for our annual photo. 

Speaking of annual photo...you know my undying love for photo collages. Here is our picture from each trip over the past ten years!

So much fun. I am thankful we've been able to keep up this tradition and that we recreate (to a degree) this photo each year.

Our destinations have been as follows:

 

Year 1: The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (NOT Cincinnati)
Year 2: The Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Michigan
Year 3: Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in Tennessee

Year 4: Chilton, Wisconsin (we visited friends and I spoke at a women's conference)

Year 5: Saugatuck, Michigan

Year 6: Madison, Indiana

Year 7: Caribbean Cruise (Aruba, Curacao, Dominican Republic) for Ryan's 40th

Year 8: Hocking Hills in Ohio

Year 9: Our first big road trip in Abby the RV, taking us out west to Kansas and Colorado

Year 10: The Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky

I take this same picture of Ryan driving each year. The only variations have been his shirts and sunglasses. LOL!!

It rained the entire time we were on the road. Our first stop was West Chester, Ohio, so we could see IKEA!

We hadn't been to an IKEA since before we moved to Grabill, so this was really fun for us. A bonus? It turns out that a rainy weekday means the store is mostly empty! We enjoyed shopping and our cake and coffee date in the cafe.

Maybe Ryan's coffee was secretly decaf. He fell asleep. :)

We had a great trip. We brought home a new plant for our house, a shelf for our office (which you already saw) and a couple kitchen items for Abby. 

Then we made our way across the river into Kentucky and on to our Airbnb for the night. It was a pretty cute little spot. We were next to an event center, and they had constructed this little community of basically freestanding hotel rooms. They were little cottage-looking buildings from the outside, but on the inside, the layout and size was very much like a hotel room. 

It was too cold to sit on the porch, but we liked knowing we could have! :) 

This was our cottage name.

Also amusing to me was the exit plan for the single-room dwelling.

(I know they are required to post those plans, but it still made me smile. It was posted on the door, so I was fairly sure how to get out.)

Want a tour of our little room?

It really was cute and all the space we needed for an overnight stay. It was also very close to the Ark Encounter, so our commute the next morning was blissfully short!

After we settled in, we went down the road to a pizza place for dinner. We enjoyed the food, and the people at the next table kept us entertained!

We each got a calzone, since we didn't have the need for pizza leftovers. I haven't had a calzone forever, and it was tasty!

After dinner, we went back to our room to rest up, since we'd had a couple of long and busy days, and we needed sleep! 

Also...happy 113th monthiversary, Ryan! I love you and every single adventure we have. 

Sunday Sentiments

 

Welcome, May! I'm not quite sure how you arrived here so quickly, but welcome. I hope you plan to bring warmer weather with you! (And possibly a little less rain.)

This week, we arrived at the month mark since our departure from WillowBridge. Our main goal for the month following our exit was to rest, and I feel like we did a pretty good job of that. I may have planned to have a few more of those days spent in jammies, but I'm still happy with the rest we've enjoyed.

Here are some of my favorite things about this last month:

* Sleep. It's not just about the rest in general. I feel like I have had a lot of quality sleep since we've been here. I never went through any kind of transition period where this felt like a strange place to be and I couldn't rest. From day one, I slept and slept well. I think Ryan would say the same for himself! We hadn't had much time for sleep in the past couple of years, and the sleep/rest we did have was never complete. This feels like a gift. 

* Making a home. I always love the creativity that goes into making a home. I have pictures from way-back-when in Marion, when my roommate moved out and I made the house all my own. I remember loving it so much, and I've continued to love that about every move I've made since. To share that with Ryan (all day, every day) this past month was a gift, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think one of us comments daily on how much we love the homey feel in this place!

* Time to pray, study, and seek the Lord. Though we have had a surprising number of specific appointments and meetings since moving, we have also had a generous number of hours that weren't earmarked for anything in particular, and we've both had time to pray at length, study our Bibles, and seek the Lord's guidance for our future. I won't speak for Ryan on this one, but I know for me, it feels like these open-ended times are allowing me to understand more about our passions, dreams, and what the Lord desires of us in the immediate future.

* Time to read, write, and scrapbook. Ryan and I had a meeting this past week that really was more for him than it was for me. I was just a travel companion. So I took along a book and read most of the way through the meeting. It was the grandest feeling to have time to sit with a book! I've also had time to do some writing since we moved. Some of that writing has been for speaking engagements, but some of it has been for fun, and I've adored it. I've also been working hard at catching up on scrapbooking projects. My creativity seems to flow very well here, and I love that.

* Sharing our home. Yesterday we had our first guests for a meal, and it was completely soul filling for both of us. It felt like forever since I planned a meal for guests, but I was so happy to exercise those skills again! Our friends prayed a blessing over our home before they left, and I was so thankful we had the opportunity to share our space with them.

I hope so much that May is warm enough to allow us to enjoy our porch (lanai!) space more than once, which is the grand total of times were able to use it in April! And we're excited to see what else God may have for us to experience in this place in this month to come.

Happy May, my friends! Enjoy this beautiful (I hope!) first day!

The Saturday Six

 

This week's Saturday Six is inspired by the wildly diverse hodge-podge of things that made up my searches this week. Absolutely NO rhyme or reason to be found here today. (Or in my brain on most days!)

One.

I have started official planning for our TENTH anniversary trip. Whaaaaaat???? How is it ten years, my friends? Many details remain a mystery in this planning session, but I may or may not have been derailed by this amazing blog post covering a Pacific Coast Highway trip. I shouldn't let myself get sidetracked like this. It makes me want to drive over to our friends' house to get Abby and head out west. I also may or may not have sub-researched most of the places suggested in this post!

Two.

Last summer, one of our tenants at WillowBridge had a rummage sale in our parking lot. It was a fun part of our job to get to teach her things about pricing, presentation, and not giving up when the sun came out! :) It was also fun to shop her sale! I purchased an adorable chalkboard (because of course!) calendar that she bought new and used once. I have it hanging up in our kitchen, and I decided it needed MUCH more effort in May than it had in April. I searched Pinterest for chalkboard fonts and found this one that you can purchase as an actual font from Etsy. I used it as my inspiration for simple lettering, but I wanted to share it in case you're a font fanatic and want to check it out!

Three.

Our small group met last Saturday night, and I pulled out an ollllllllllld classic that I'm not sure I've made since we've been married. Super easy and quite yummy. Oh! And I made my own ranch seasoning mix. That was fun!! Here is the recipe for the whole dish, and here is the recipe for the ranch seasoning mix. 

Four.

Somehow, from an account that recommended an account that recommended an account, I happened upon the Instagram account of Selina Bergey. I found her a few weeks ago and learned this week that we are the same age. She and her husband are missionaries in Africa, and they have several children. About six weeks ago, I think, her 17-year-old son was diagnosed with an incredibly aggressive form of cancer. Selina and her so returned to the US so he could receive treatment, and I have been following their story every single day. My. Goodness If you want to read some encouragement, give her a follow. (She often shares the posts of her son, when he's well enough to post, and her 20-year-old daughter, who has been holding down the fort back in Africa.) I know they are overwhelmed, scared at times, and sad to be apart, but their unwavering faith in the Lord has blessed my heart SO much!

Five.

Ryan and I were at IKEA earlier this week, and I fell in absolute love with this wall art. Unfortunately, it only comes in one size, and it's bigger than any space I have left. I was hoping they had it in an 8x10 version, but...no. I still love it, though. If any of you buy it, send me a picture and let me live vicariously through you! :) 

Six.

Another acquisition for us this week was an old picnic basket from Ryan's mom and Allen's house. (More on this another day.) Ryan asked why I chose it, since we aren't really picnic people. Oh, but we should be! I mean, to be fair, our very first date included a picnic, and that led to a beautiful decade! I think we should bring back the picnic life. (Plus, we can take Lexi!) To get us started, here are a few ideas! 

Meet Our New Office!!

 

I love the room I'm about to show you. Who am I kidding? I love all the rooms! But I really really love this one extra. 

When we first toured the house, which is a three-bedroom, as I'm sure you probably assumed, we didn't hesitate in figuring out which room would be the office and which would be the guest room. We chose the bedroom closest to the extra bathroom to be the guest bedroom. That gives our guests a cozy little corner when they come to stay!

Besides, the office space layout worked better with that massive bookshelf we keep moving from place to place! :) 

There are two things I particularly love about the office. One, it's much bigger than the room we used for our personal office at WillowBridge. That room was so very tiny. Secondly, this room has a beautiful window that lets in all the natural light, and that makes my creative soul SO HAPPY. 

Here was the room from the day we closed on the house:

We were able to visit the house regularly from the very moment our offer was accepted. The builder gave us the codes to enter, and we came over about once a week (if not more) to check on it. We measured all sorts of things, and for some reason, both of us had it in our heads that the bookshelves were going to have to be split between two walls, as they have been in our last two homes. But in fact, they do fit on one shelf, and I love how it looks. It has such presence!!

And here they are, filled with the books that bring me SUCH JOY!

As you can see, we have some room to grow with the books, and that makes my heart happy, too! I also very carefully chose the non-book pieces that go on the shelves. Each one of those items has a story. Every photo, every sign, every little decoration. They all mean something! 

I should add that at this point, Ryan and I still do not know how much work for our jobs we'll be doing from home. (The job story is a whole post for another day. We're still awaiting final decisions and going through much prayer about the next steps we should take.) I mention it simply to say there is a possibility one or both of us will do some, if not all, of our work from this room. It was very important to us that we create a space where we could both work freely and comfortably. All my books sit right behind my work station so I can easily reference them as I create, study, write, and whatever else I may be doing!

Meanwhile, this is my view across the room and what sits behind Ryan at his work station. You might recognize the cherry blossom tree. We bought it when we lived in Kokomo, and it was part of our sun porch collection. We thought it added some nice ambience to this room here, so this is where it's living! I might do some more rearranging of things on that white shelf, but for now, it works. And I love how the little gallery wall came together! 

The two silver pieces are magnet boards. The art with the black frame was my gift from the Financial Aid crew at IWU when I left there. (They all signed the back.) Directly underneath it in the small frame is the art print below, which was a gift from one of the Gateway couples we knew from our very first day of work! (They went through training with us.) The cream-colored print with all the words was my gift from Ryan on my last day at WBCL, and I attached to the back of it all the notes my coworkers there wrote to me. I love it that this wall represents all three of my jobs and what God has taught me as I left to pursue His next plan for me! There's also Ryan's tan message board, which I gifted him for Christmas one year. And the white board, because I have to make notes somewhere! And finally - the picture on the bottom right is the really cool rainbow/bird/waterfall photo Ryan took at Niagara Falls a few years ago when we visited. I love that picture!

(That was the gift from the Gateway couple.)

Here is Ryan's side of the desk looking over to mine, and then underneath that is my side of the desk looking over to his. We did get this desk new to fit this space, and we really love it. The size is perfect. (We will eventually get better chairs. For now, the stools work.) We each decorated our own sides of the work station!

And here is the last part of the office, which we just completed this week! The desk doesn't have any storage drawers, so we needed a stand or shelf of some kind to hang onto the pieces and parts of office supplies. We found this one at IKEA, and it was perfect. 

We also have storage in the closet, which is really helpful. 

We have both already enjoyed working in here and can't wait to see what is next for us with the work God has for us to do in this room! 

Meet Our New Master Bedroom and Bathroom

Hope you're enjoying the house tour this week. If house tours aren't your thing...hold on! Regular programming resuming soon! :) 

Today I thought I'd show you our master bedroom. I think it's the perfect size. When we lived in Kokomo, we had an ENORMOUS master bedroom. I didn't dislike it in any way, but I always thought it could have been a little smaller to allow that square footage to go into another room. Then at WillowBridge, the master was so very small. It fit our bed and side tables and that was it. No room for a dresser or anything else at all. It was completely adequate, because really all we needed to do was sleep, so I wasn't upset about it, but it was definitely a small room!

I feel like the master here is the perfect middle ground between the two. It's big enough to very comfortably hold all our bedroom furniture - plus a couple of extra things we needed to put somewhere, but we weren't sure where. 

Here are a couple of pictures of the room on the day we closed. It was a beautiful blank slate.

We are very excited to have carpet under our toes again in our bedroom. It's just extra warm and cozy in cooler weather, right?

Here's the view from the door. I don't think we purchased a single new thing for this room (except the bedside lamps) but the layout of using this collection of furniture together is new. This bed was new to us when we moved to WillowBridge. (We always had a king bed, but we couldn't fit that in the bedroom at WillowBridge, so we downsized to a queen there, and this was the bed we got for that space. We still love it. Kept all the same bedding and everything!

Here's a closer view of the bed. We try to keep all our wedding decor in this space. It seems sacred to us to be reminded of that beautiful day and the promises we made.

We love those beautiful bedside lamps! Ryan chose them, and he did so well. They're actually touch lamps with three levels of brightness, which makes them perfect for a bedroom. (In the evenings, we usually turn them on low to give some ambience to the room and they're perfect.) Prior to this, we had some blue and white striped lamps beside our bed, but on this move, I decided those were a better fit for our living room, so we moved them out there. 

Here is the space across from our bed. (It's one of Braeya's main two napping spaces, so you'll notice she's deep in sleep in this photo. Our bedroom is her bedroom. She loves it in there. You can almost always find her on our bed, under our bed, or on this chair.)

Let me tell you about this space! You might notice the chair is actually the extra section of our couch! I mentioned during the living room tour that in order to fit the couch in our living room without making it seem crowded, we needed to take out a piece of the sectional. So we put it right here, and I love it. My aloe plant is there beside it, and I also have a basket with my Bible study books/colored pencils/other supplies on the other side. In part, it masks the fact that the chair doesn't have regular sides. 

The table is the sofa table we used as our desk at WillowBridge. This is what the stools match - but we're using those at the breakfast bar. This keeps the TV up high enough to be seen from bed, and we love how it matches the bed, too! 

The white canvas on the wall was a wedding gift from my friend Kari (hi, Kari!!) and the wooden picture beside it was my gift from Ryan on our 5th wedding anniversary. The monogram above the TV was a gift from Lynne Ford shortly after we got married, and the other photo of us was one we purchased from a church directory photo shoot. It has the verse from Micah reminding us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Down on the floor is our foot washing pitcher that we used on our wedding day. It has deep, long-standing significance to our relationship! And you might see my empty cloche on the table. I am hunting the perfect thing to put inside.

This is the other wall in our room. I only have one thing hanging on it so far, but I love this little corner and all the heritage represented in the pieces shown here!

Our master bathroom is fairly simple, but I'll show you! :) This is absolutely the biggest master bathroom we've ever had (either of us!) and we love it. Plenty of space to get ready, a walk-in shower, and a walk-in closet, too!

The shower is fairly standard, but we did put this little barrel next to it. It stores extra toilet paper within reach, but it also gives us a place to put clothes or extra towels when needed!

There is only one sink, but we actually prefer that! So we each have ample counter space to get ready at the same time if we need to! The only change I would have made to this room would have been adding an extra plug to the left of the mirror. The only outlet is on the far right, so when I have to plug in a hairdryer or anything - it drags across Ryan's space. It's so rare that we get ready at the same time, though, that it's not a big deal. 

A photo from the closet - to show a little bit of decor. 

And then from the door...to show the other end!

It's a perfectly sized little suite for us, and we feel so thankful to have it just the way it is.