Wish

Looking Back

The 10 month anniversary of William’s death took place during our trip. I really can’t believe that it’s been so long since he went home. There were times I thought “He should be here” or “He would’ve loved this.” Different things throughout the trip reminded me of him – the dinosaurs (which he loved), the Ark (he loved hearing Bible stories over and over), the goats at the petting zoo (we used to have goats and he always wanted to go see them), the shows we saw at the Creation Museum (William liked movies but someone always sat next to him to tell him what was happening) and of course the people (some of the people at the conference had met William previously and of course William loved everyone he met). All of these memories made me think back to last year when we were on his wish trip, so I thought I would post some pictures of our family vacation this year and some from last year…..when he was here.

Family 2015                                               Family 2016

Kids 2015                                                   Kids 2016

Boys 2015                                                          Boys 2016

Girls 2015                                                    Girls 2016

posted by Sarah

Vacation Day 8

Day 8  - Traveling. Traveling can be quite the adventure in the Ocker household, as we learned. We traveled through 6 states and saw some neat sites along the way.

My traveling buddy

The kids in the car

A little lighthouse in the middle of the Mississippi River

Three Rivers Stadium where the Cincinnati Reds play

This is apparently quite a fascination in Kentucky as we saw quite a few

We saw a lot of neat bridges

A neat steamboat

A cute little town

Now for the adventurous part…we ended up with two flat tires in our trailer on the way home! The first one was, as it was getting dark in Indiana in the middle of nowhere. When the tire blew, it was so powerful, it even pulled the fender right off the trailer! Providentially we were able to get it changed quickly with the spare.

The second one was in Missouri. This time we were near a truck stop and we were able to park the trailer while we went to Walmart to get new tires. 

The boys and Sherrod enjoyed helping Daddy change the tire. He took the time to make it a learning opportunity for everyone!

We all enjoyed a much needed leg stretch

All in all in was a wonderful and much needed trip that we won't forget!

posted by Sarah

Vacation Day 7

Day 7 – We actually spent 2 days at the Creation Museum. The second was spent outside in the beautiful gardens, petting zoo, zip lining and on the ropes course.

Us kids in the garden

Beautiful gardens call for a photo shoot of Mommy & Daddy

Mommy thought since I am usually behind the camera I needed a picture taken

Daddy & I having fun in the garden

The group gearing up for the ropes course

Abby, Sydnee & Sherrod did the adult course. The highest point is 40’ off the ground!

Daddy & Mommy took Elly, Selah, Wallace, Calvin and Knox on the child course. The highest point is 10’ off the ground.

I stayed on the ground with Adelina, Titus and Andrew. We went to the petting zoo and turtle tank.

They had a Zonkey (zebra/donkey cross) & Zorse (zebra/horse cross) 

Zip lining

Mommy & I sat with the younger children in the gazebo while they were zip lining

After they finished zip lining we all went to the petting zoo. We all enjoyed petting Skippy, the wallaby.

The boys and Sydnee also enjoyed petting the bearded dragon

Feeding the animals

Everyone enjoyed petting the camel

I was trying to get a picture with CJ and I ended up getting goosed by him instead! Mommy did an excellent job capturing my reaction.

We did manage to get a good picture

Sydnee enjoyed giving CJ kisses

This is the plan for expanding the Ark Encounter. We’re definitely going to have to go back!

posted by Sarah