The Krohn Family

On a beautiful Saturday morning this past week we loaded up the car with kids and bikes. It was Joshua’s big day to learn to ride his bike without his training wheels. Joshua was known as “Jumpin Josh” in his toddler years. This day he was Smiling Josh.It took a few rides down the gentle grass slops of Conner Prairie. But in the end, he was riding his bike and loving the independence.He even had a pair of matching encouragers.More photos are available by clicking on one of the thumbnails or by going to our SmugMug account.

After years of talking about a trip to the Grand Canyon, the Krohn men finally did it. Led by Grandpa Krohn, we had a wonderful 4 days in the Southwest. Grandpa Krohn, Kelly, Tom, Adam Young (Nancy and Dave’s son) and Alan Olson (Grandpa’s riding partner from Harvey) met in Las Vegas and drove over to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon for a ride. And what a ride!Our ride down and up the Canyon was guided by Doug, an experienced rider and Canyon guide. In fact, Doug had made the trip down and up the canyon 2170 times! He knew all the nuances, the folklore and the names of the ravine, mountains and plant life. There was not only beauty in the ride but much to learn from Doug and the Park Rangers at Phantom Ranch. Besides our own pictures available in online slideshow or by clicking any of these thumbnails, additional Canyon photos are available at the Grand Canyon National Park photo gallery.We took the Bright Angel Trail down to the Colorado River and Phantom Ranch, and the South Kaibab back up to the South Rim. It is hard to put words to the grandeur and beauty we saw as we rode our mules on the narrow trails. Highlights included the initial escarpment, the narrows beyond Bright Angel Camp, the decent into the Inner Gorge (where God lives because everyone calls out to Jesus as they round the corner!), the tunnel through the mountain that opens on a bridge over the Colorado, and the simple pleasure of a bunk bed at Phantom Ranch after a great steak dinner.I have posted many photos of the trip, combining pictures from all participants. The photos are available in full original resolution if you want to grab one for printing. There are many favorites and the thumbnails here are only to give you a taste. Clearly one of the favorites is of Grandpa being sworn in as a temporary US Postman so he could carry the US Mail out of the Canyon on his mule.For those of you who have talked about doing that special trip for years, don’t just talk. Commit to the plans, schedule the logistics and go enjoy a trip of a lifetime. I know we did and each one of us will remember this trip for a lifetime.Tom

A beautiful summer July evening brought our kids out and into chalk fun. Our neighbor daughters joined our kids for decorating our driveway and flower bed stones. It was a good thing it was bath night!  To see all photos, see the chalk fun gallery on Smugmug.

Emily and Dad went to a Christian Father Daughter weekend in Bedford, Indiana this weekend. We had a great time at the camp. We slept in a real camp cabin, met lots of new friends, made plaster masks on each other’s face, enjoyed the starlit nights and had s’mores by the campfire. The camp also had 2 new litters of kittens making for a great (positive) distraction for the girls. I’ve uploaded some photos on Smugmug.Emily and Dad grew closer together in this special time. Dad got to meet lots of other fathers who are at similar life stages. We can’t wait to do it again next year.

It was Superhero week at our church vacation bible school. Shane and Mia Krohn came for a visit and joined us for the week of adventure, singing and learning. Our church brought in SpringHill camps for a day camp setting and they did a great job of providing a kid friendly, exciting learning environment. We also added a few sleep overs, time on the trampoline and a pizza and ice cream run.Kelly, Shane and Mia drove to ND to see Grandma and Grandpa Krohn. Cara flew in to join them. On there way back to Pittsburgh, we got a special visit by the whole gang. Monsters Inc. was showing on TV and it caught the interest of the kids – well maybe not Matthew so much. He was more interested in wrestling.

More photos can be seen online at our Smugmug gallery.

We just returned from 4 great days of vacation. We were blessed with great weather along the way and enjoyed 2 full days at Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN. Holiday World is an amusement park and water park that is renowned for family friendliness. We found it to be a supper way to spend a couple of days in the warm weather of southern Indiana. Emily rode her first real roller coaster, and the we all enjoyed some adventurous family rides including the Watubee water slide in the Spashlin’ Safari park.We continued on to central Kentucky for a full day in Mammoth Cave. We explored a small but dramatic portion of the massive cave. Matthew did great, even walking the many steps of the New Entrance Tour.For a complete set of pictures, check out our vacation photo gallery here.

Emily had a fun soccer season and is really coming into her own. Her defense is particularly strong with good anticipation of where the offense is going and a strong foot to kick the ball out of her area. In fact, her foot proved to be so strong that her teammates started calling her “Big Foot”. You can see some photos here.

It was our great pleasure to join Kevin and Debbie Mohr this past weekend to celebrate Kevin’s 25th Anniversary of his ordination. Kevin and Debbie are dear friends from Madagascar and are the God Parents of Emily. It was a weekend of visiting, a special Sunday service and a celebration with the faithful in Bluffton, Ohio.  A few photos are available here.

Matthew is now a big 3 years old. He is growing fast and it won’t be long and we will say goodbye to diapers in our house. Yeah! Matthew is excited to be a big boy like his brother and is showing is independence and determination more everyday. We don’t have many photos of his birthday as we chose to make it a low key day. A couple of shots can be seen here.

We had a great time on Joshua’s birthday. He is very excited to be 5 years old. He had a few friends over for his birthday party and Melissa did a great job of organizing activities. The boys loved hitting the piñata in our back yard and going on a treasure hunt. I’ve uploaded photos to SmugMug and you can see them here.Tom