Liberty Day 2008

So, our blog was quiet for just over a week. And a very full week it certainly was. As usual, it was full and wonderful. The Lautenschlager family arrived at our home on the day of the last post on this blog - Tuesday, March 25... Oh, yeah. That was also Jonathan's 20th birthday! Hmmm. Missed that one on here somehow. Need to catch up there too, I guess!

Anyway, the Lautenschlager family arrived Tuesday evening and we so enjoyed our time visiting with them. They were very gracious guests, too, as they cooked for us, and washed our dishes, and amused themselves while we ran around like the crazy people we are - trying to recover from (or ward off) a flu bug, host guests, and take care of all the last minute details for a conference that had nearly 500 preregistered attendees. There were more "last minute" details this year, too, as Josh's wedding bumped some of the planning a little later...

Speaking of Josh & Abbey's wedding, we did receive the official wedding pictures from the photographer last week and are SO very pleased with Peter's work and have no hesitation in recommending him to anyone looking for a photographer! As we have time, we'll share a few of those pictures here, too, as well.

But, to get back to this past week's adventures, here are a few photos that came home from Liberty Day 2008 on our camera. We hope to share some more with you later as these provide only an extremely sketchy overview of the day.

Well, God was gracious to us once again and it was wonderful day in every way. We had fun, we learned much, and we were inspired. Thankfully, from the feedback we've received it sounds like the attendees had fun, learned much, and were inspired, as well. We are so grateful for the many hands that joined in the effort of pulling off Liberty Day '08. The Fiech family came in from out of state to attend the conference, but also volunteered to help us out and ran our registration table for us! Thanks so very much, Fieches!

This is a picture of Dad at the lectern (and he did MC the conference) but Dr. Marshall Foster was the keynote speaker and he was incredibly inspiring and passionate in his discussion of... well, history A.D. - and all in four one hour sessions. I didn't get to hear much of it, but what I did personally hear was excellent and what I heard from others was good, too. As usual, you can order recordings from Resounding Voice.

Ahhh, the Fiddler's Three! What a delightful addition to Liberty Day 2008! Here they are providing entertainment during the mid-afternoon break. Even their sound check produced appreciative applause! Their main performance wasn't until the evening celebration, but they did share a little teaser to open the last session of the conference. The Caswell family also provide pre-session entertainment during the day, as did Sara's brother, Noah.

Along with a couple other resource providers, Faith & Family Books was represented in the lobby. If you didn't get around to visiting their table, you may want to check out their website!

The main attraction out in the lobby was all the fun WWII stuff that the Lautenschlager's brought with them! Here Shonny, decked out in his frontier garb, explains something fascinating to a few of the young lads in attendance.

They also had a really cool authentic 'field phone' where you could convey all sorts of military commands across the lobby to the other set. This young boy's face was glowing when he realized he was talking to Dan across the lobby... I just wish I had gotten the camera up quicker to capture his expression earlier!

Here a few of the young people from our church visit with Dan L, and learn about all his gear and gizmos.

Our next pictures aren't until after the evening was coming to a close!! Like I said, we'll be sharing more in the coming days as we acquire more photos from other photographers! The closing statements to our Liberty Day Celebration were "interrupted" by an urgent message from the president announcing the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Having just been roused by a stirring message from Dr. Foster (as well as various other presentations through the evening) the men and boys were all very quick to respond to the call for volunteers, and before too many minutes were up, they had been marched to the gym....

...and were being drilled by a very capable team of officers led by Dan L. In short order, they had those men and boys marching and drilling like seasoned veterans. Of course, they then came up to the dance hall to display their newly acquired prowess to the ladies.

Those who didn't volunteer immediately, were likely distracted by the tempting array of cookies and refreshing punch laid out graciously by the Carlson & VonHolten families. Many, many thanks, friends, for all your work with the refreshments, and feeding us throughout the day!! And thanks to Kristine, as well, for pitching in and helping to serve the evening goodies!

Ahhh, and then there was the dance hall... the church's old sanctuary provided the perfect atmosphere for dancing the Virginia Reel and a couple of other dances. Chandeliers and sconces blazed brightly in the room as dancers lined up with their partners, the fiddles tuned to key, and the caller cried out "Greet your partner!"

The ladies were all charming in their lovely gowns from various eras, as the gents bowed dashingly in their coats, tails, and frilly collars...

Corrine was very excited to wear the dress that her mama had made for her! The evening did finally come to a close and shortly after 10:00pm, we were loaded up and pulling out of the parking lot headed for home.

Ahhh, but the evening wasn't over yet. You see, we had the L families and Dr. Foster staying at our home that night. And many of us had been too busy to eat dinner during the time alloted for that meal. So, after arriving home, out came a variety of snacks and the conversation lasted.... welllllll, should I be honest?? Let's just say that the mature people went to bed "early" and were greeting their pillows by 1:30am. The less mature ones... :-)

... well, let's just say that they managed to be awake during the church service on Sunday morning, and even pulled out their instruments for some Sunday afternoon fun! Oh, and yes that is a lefty and a righty banjo in the picture above - incidentally both musicians are lefties.

And that's all we've got for now, folks! We'll try to get some more of the fun pics up when we get the CD of pics from Katie. We actually forgot to ask someone to be our official photographer, so at the last minute Katie L volunteered to take pictures for us. But she did have some other responsibilities, so she and Joanna shared her camera. We look forward to seeing what they captured and to sharing them with you all.