{"id":1740,"date":"2012-08-04T20:22:19","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T01:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/?p=1740"},"modified":"2012-08-06T11:49:38","modified_gmt":"2012-08-06T16:49:38","slug":"friends-in-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/04\/friends-in-oklahoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends in Oklahoma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My series last year on our family vacation seemed to be appreciated, so I am going to try it again this year. Because of time limitations while traveling, the series is delayed by three weeks, but I will write as if I am describing events that occurred today. <\/p>\n<p>Our plans this year are for a three-week trip to about a dozen states in the Midwest. The &#8220;centerpiece&#8221; of our trip is a week with Kelli&#8217;s parents in Illinois, including a celebration of their 50th anniversary. We are going to take the long way to Illinois and we &#8216;ll take our time returning home. We plan to see family, friends, historic sites, and scenic landscapes.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike last year when we started out with a 14-hour drive, we began this trip with a four-hour hop to two sets of friends in Oklahoma. Of all the places in Oklahoma where they could live, these (unrelated) friends turned out to be only 2 miles apart.<\/p>\n<p>The first was a special treat for Kelli and Bethany who lost close friends to a job transfer earlier this summer. We were able to enjoy many hours plus an overnight stay with Gina&#8217;s family.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/120714315kb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"120714315kb\" border=\"0\" alt=\"120714315kb\" src=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/120714315kb_thumb.jpg\" width=\"404\" height=\"304\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><em>Bethany enjoys a special tea with her friend Ashleigh (and sister Katie)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/20\/help-wanted\/\">post on this blog<\/a> last year was partly to blame for a fun reunion with IBEXers from the famous Fall 99. Andrea Heck responded to my need for a proofreader and that re-connection may have helped convince her to host us and the Nate Madden family for dinner. We had a delightful time with Andrea, her husband Charles (IBEX Spring 97 but permitted at the reunion nonetheless :-)), Nate and his wife Rachel, and a host of children. We love being with those who are serving the Lord faithfully, especially those who have studied at IBEX.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/120714331kb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"120714331kb\" border=\"0\" alt=\"120714331kb\" src=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/120714331kb_thumb.jpg\" width=\"404\" height=\"304\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><em>Charles and Andrea Heck with children<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/120714332kb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"120714332kb\" border=\"0\" alt=\"120714332kb\" src=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/120714332kb_thumb.jpg\" width=\"404\" height=\"304\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><em>Nate and Rachel Madden with children<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My series last year on our family vacation seemed to be appreciated, so I am going to try it again this year. Because of time limitations while traveling, the series is delayed by three weeks, but I will write as if I am describing events that occurred today. Our plans this year are for a\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/04\/friends-in-oklahoma\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}