A couple weeks ago we scored some free tickets for both the African Safari Wildlife Park and Cedar Point, so we decided to take a little 2-day road trip as a fam. We left early Sunday morning for the Safari Park, stayed in a hotel that night, and spent Monday at Cedar Point.

When we told friends we were planning on doing the Safari Park, we heard things like, “Only go if you’re already in the area. It’s not really worth the 5-hour round trip.” And from my friend Megan–”That place is hilarious.”

Now, we’ve been to a lot of zoos and seen tons of animals and even been on several “safaris,” but no one has ever told us “that place is hilarious.”

We mentally psyched ourselves up for an adventure. And hoo boy, the drive-your-car-through-the-hungry-animals “Safari” did not disappoint. We were cracking up the entire time and had so much fun we went through again.

The first time we got a free cup of food that didn’t last us very long. The second time we paid $10 for 2 big cups of food and 2lbs of carrots. So worth it.

The animals ranged in size and aggressiveness from itsy-bitsy spankin’ new fawns to great big bison, elk, and a 2200-lb Scottish Highlander (think big, shaggy cow with horns bigger than my thighs).

Nina liked the little deer. Aren’t they just as sweet as can be?

There were way too many deer to count. I’m glad we didn’t bring Gabe’s dad. I fear that one of the older males might have ended up on the wall of his cabin.

Nina might have liked the deer and the llamas and alpacas and even the baby bison, but the mama elk got a little too close for her personal comfort.

Gabe (and the rest of us) got the biggest kick out of the car in front of us. They had all four windows down the entire time, and these animals know no strangers (and have no boundaries). It’s a miracle that they made it through unscathed (well, except for the obligatory animal snot and slobber all over the place.

Our van only has two windows, so the girls had plenty of room to “hide” if they needed to. And Gabe made me close the windows anytime something too huge came along (I did feed a big ol’ elk bull and a couple bison).

But we went out of our way to avoid this guy (who was surprisingly adept at putting his head in a car window without his horns making any contact).

The zebras were adorable. And so funny when they chomped their carrots.

The pictures suggest that we followed the rules and put the carrots in the cup. But it was way more fun to feed them to the animals by hand. And we all escaped with all 10 of our digits.

And then… And then… be still my heart. GIRAFFES. The giraffes and zebras were the only animals actually behind fences. Someday I will see them in the wild roaming free. I can’t wait.

Other highlights of our trip included a $3 car wash, celebrating 5 years in our house with dinner at a Japanese steakhouse, Frosties at Wendy’s, swimming at the hotel, watching a marathon of Swamp Monsters on Animal Planet, and beautiful weather/awesome rides at Cedar Point.

Gabe rode this crazy thing. (Zero to 120 mph in 4 seconds, then straight up and straight down 420 feet.) INSANITY. It hurt just watching.

We also made a quick trip to Lake Erie (so much prettier than I remember) after buying Livi some Zanfel for her awful, awful, awful poison ivy (she’s on the road to recovery now–thank you, Jesus!). Gabe took this sweet HDR shot (which is actually 3 shots put together with all different lighting–I have no idea how he does it).

And a great time was had by all (that’s our story, and we’re sticking to it). Cambodia is our big deal this year (just like last year), so no vacations or anything, but we don’t mind. Who says you can’t have fun on a two-day road trip to the top of Ohio? Rock on, Ohio!!

Have you taken a fun mini-trip this summer? I’d love to hear about it.

My favorite thing about July is the Annual Yoder Family Get-Together (“Get-Together” is country hick for “Reunion”). I won’t write much, because 1.) the pictures speak for themselves and 2.) I wrote a ton last year, and things are pretty much the same, except all the kids grew another foot.

Note to my fam: see last year’s posts, Great-grandchildren of the Corn and More Yoder Family Fun to see how much bigger everyone got (well, not everyone).

This is my cousin Brian’s (and his wife Christy’s) son, Preston (gorgeous, no?). I love this picture. And Gabe told me three times how good it was, so that made me happy, because I know nothing about photography. Sadly, the corn that was head-high to adults last year was only head-high to 2-year-olds this year (flooding made for late planting).

This is me with my beautiful grandma and mama. Grandma and Mom are the best of friends, which is awesome because they’re not mom and daughter, but mom-in-law & daughter-in-law. When you have six boys and one girl, it’s important to learn how to get along with your daughters-in-law, and Grandma (as far as I can tell) has always done a stellar job.

This day is probably the highlight of Grandma’s year. Aunt Jeannie flies in from Arizona with her fam for three weeks and brings Grandma to Aunt Susie’s from her nursing home for a few hours during the reunion. She never quits smiling the whole time she’s there.

Here’s Ava (or Ay-Vay, as my 2yo niece, Isabelle, calls her) with my nephew Jack. She and Livi and Nina fight over Jack and Isabelle (my sister Bethany’s kiddos) like nuts. Bethany really needs to have some more kids. And quick.

This is my cousin Camy, kissing Grandma before she heads back “home.” It’s always tough to see her go, because I can’t help but wonder if it’ll be the last get-together she comes to. Here’s praying she makes it to 10 more.

Was it my imagination, or did I say I wasn’t going to write much on this post? Hmm. I can’t seem to help myself.

A handful of us brave adults took a slew of kids down the hill to my Grandma and Grandpa’s farm (Grandpa passed away in 2005, and my Uncle Tim runs the farm and rents out the house) for some country fun.

They ran across huge hay bales, carried around some poor kittens, stepped in calf manure and splattered it all over their sweet pink clothes (that would be Nina), and fed a couple calves. Totally took me back to my childhood, and I love seeing it all through my kiddos’ eyes.

This is my cousin Sara’s daughter, Beth, and Nina feeding a little guy (with my cousin Michael’s friend Tony holding the bucket–he was such a good sport). I love baby animals.

Tony also graciously took this big ol’ family picture for us. This isn’t even half of my grandma’s descendants. She has 7 kids, 26 grandkids, and who knows how many great-grandkids (like 400 or something).

And, last but not least, this sweet shot Gabe took of my grandparents’ farm. It’s such a special place to me, and I have a million memories of it stored up and treasured in my heart.

Thanks for letting me share my family with you. I’d love to hear one of your most favorite childhood memories of visiting your grandparents.

I had a great day with God yesterday–talking, listening, reading lots of words he wrote a long time ago that are still really fresh right this minute. Thanks for praying for me and for sharing your requests. Please don’t feel like you have to wait for a prayer post before you can ask me to pray for you. It’s an honor.

And thanks for the great response on Wednesday’s post! You bought out everything I had. But no worries! There’s more!

You can catch up here, but in a nutshell, two of my friends brought back some goodies for me from Cambodia, and I’m selling them here, because some beautiful women made them. Beautiful women who either voluntarily left the sex trade or who were being trafficked and have been rescued.

They do beautiful work, and I love that we have a chance to support them in this way, to say, “you are so valuable” (and also super talented and have really good taste).

Each of the following sets is $10 (that includes shipping to a U.S. address):

Set #7: dark khaki zippy w/coin purse.

Set #8: 4″ x 6″ pink flowered zippy w/coconut heart keychain. SOLD

Set #9: pale yellow embroidered cell phone holder w/coconut butterfly keychain. SOLD

Set #10 burnt orange zippy w/coin purse. SOLD

Set #11: coconut heart keychain, khaki coin purse keychain, stuffed yellow heart keychain.

Set #12: khaki coin purse keychain, striped stuffed heart keychain, Cambodia + cross keychain.

Set #13: awesome adjustable leather beaded bracelet, coconut butterfly keychain. SOLD

Set #14: very cool leather adjustable bracelet w/pink beads, wooden chopsticks. SOLD

If you’d like one of these sets, shoot me an e-mail, and I’ll hook you up. They went fast last time, so don’t hesitate!

In other news, these are the cuties I’ve been hanging out with this week. Katie and Julia are actually my first cousins (and this gal’s sisters), but they’re my daughters’ ages. They’re here from Arizona for their weekly summer visit, so I kidnapped them for a couple days and they’ve been hanging out with my girlies. And having a blast. Swimming, bike riding, soccer, nail-painting, cookie baking, Punky Brewster and Full House…

Aren’t they a hoot? I could get used to being a mama of five.

Stay tuned next week for some cool book reviews, more stuff I’m selling, a homeschooling update, and all manner of additional excitement. Have a great weekend!

Last Saturday night, after browsing the exhibits at a local Art Fair (we try to act cultured when we can)…

the five of us headed to a Metro Park to see some waterfowl and take a little hike. Well, the walk to the lake was nice, but the ducks and geese had other plans (we did see some dragonflies), so we changed our plans as well.

This is my new favorite picture of my daughters with their daddy. LOVE these four.

Armed with a loaf of bread from ALDI, we drove to a cute little town (close to Gabe’s office is) on the Big Walnut River and fed ducks, geese, and one gigantic swan.

It was one of those times when you just feel like all is right with the world, and 99 cents just bought you a boatload of happy family memories. It all made me want to hit the road on another Zoo Trip.

When our bread was gone, we hit the trails and happened upon a hidden treasure–the Big Walnut Bog, home to SNAPPING TURTLES. We had no idea they lived back there. The whole bog is covered in duckweed (a type of algae, I think). The signed warned us to keep our distance from the dangerous turtles (we were on a boardwalk over the bog) but to look carefully for their big ol’ heads coming up out of the duckweed so they could take a breath.

We watched for a long time and then spotted one moving under the water. He’d peek his eyes and nose out for a minute or so at a time, but he was covered in green goo and you could barely see him. Finally, we convinced the girls to keep walking, but when we reached the end of the boardwalk, we turned around and headed back. Nina begged to stay and watch for turtles again, so we did.

And hoo baby, good choice. Because a couple minutes later, this guy started making big boggy waves under the water, and then he must’ve slid up on some log or something, because this is what we saw:

You can’t see his alligator-like tail here, but this dude was at least three feet long from tail to head. And his head was bigger than a softball. NUTS. God’s creation is so stinking amazing.

We came home, popped some popcorn, and watched a Netflix documentary called Microcosmos, all about bugs super-duper up-close and personal (everything was awesome except for the mating snails–ewwww!!). It was a banner night all the way around.

What’s something simple and fun you’ve done as a family so far this summer?

Was it really three whole months ago when I first read Organized Simplicity and went absolutely bonk-o with giddiness over it?? Here’s what I said on March 21 after I read the book:

Why I Love This Book In Two Short Sentences: You make a family purpose statement and then run all your junk/clutter/stuff/schedule, etc. through the filter of your family’s purpose. If it’s not helping you fulfill your purpose, say bye-bye.

I loved reading your comments on that post, because so many of you share my pitter-pat passion for de-cluttering. A couple people wanted to know about my family purpose statement (and wondered how active a role Gabe played in the process of creating it). I promised a post about that “soon.”

Is one-fourth of a year later “soon?”

On March 22, I wrote about our weekend of de-cluttering. The girls and I went on a rampage through our house, cleaning and purging like madwomen. We hadn’t really nailed down our purpose statement at that point, but we talked about what we want to spend the next 8-10 years doing and decided that a lot of our stuff was superfluous and would, in no way, help us achieve our dreams.

I don’t know that I blogged about it a ton after our garage sale in late April, but my journal over the next few weeks has lots and lots of stuff about living out our family’s purpose.

3.21.11–No thanks, Dave Ramsey. I cannot justify saving thousands and thousands of dollars when millions of children around the globe need rice and clean water TODAY. My God will supply my every need, my daily bread. I am so glad Gabe and I are of one mind on this one.

4.10.11–I have big dreams, Lord. And I so want to align them with yours. I want to see the world with our girls. I don’t want to live a normal American life in suburbia. My heart beats for Cambodia. (oooh–I have a t-shirt idea!)

4.20.11–Deuteronomy 15:10-11: Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God’s, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.

5.02.11–It’s time. This is it. It is time to get out of debt, organized, and ready to roll for the kingdom. Help me, Lord. I want to follow you.

5.03.11–Gabe and I chatted about our family purpose statement last night (bless his heart). Then the girls and I sang it.

On page 39 of Organized Simplicity, Tsh writes, “In the end, the goal is to have a clear, concise workable purpose statement that accurately reflects your priorities, your personality, and your vision for your family. You want it to be a timeless, easy-to-read, holistic statement that applies to everyone in the family. It will help you make decisions, feel confident about saying “no,” and be a bit better at focusing on the important instead of the urgent.”

So, after a few weeks of scribbling down ideas and adding/subtracting phrases, we came up with something we really like.

The Taviano Family Purpose Statement:

Love the world.

See the world.

Tell the world.

Together.

Fun, huh? It will take another whole post (maybe three) to explain all the things we’re thinking/dreaming/doing to line up our lives with that purpose. But here’s a smattering to get you thinking:

Daily reminding ourselves of these precious kiddos–how joyful they are with how little they have.

Redecorating the girls’ “office” with globe-turquoise walls and a globe/world map theme (all their idea, but goodness, their mama’s in heaven).

Writing an e-book to add to our Cambodia Fund.

Supporting ministries in Africa and Haiti and wherever else we can.

Planting our first “garden” and getting serious about recycling, talking about free trade and how our buying/living choices affect others around the globe.

Neighborhood outreach with our church (including meeting new friends at World Refugee Day last Saturday).

More about our Family Purpose Statement to come. And yes, because I tend to turn normal, everyday statements into song around the house, we put it to “music.” (If enough of you request it, I may post a little music video in the next few days)

Question(s) for you:

1. Do you have a family purpose statement? If so, I’d love to hear it.

2. If not, do you think it’s something you might consider? What kinds of things might it include?