By Donna Horn
Monday, Aug. 7
Family vacations are coming to an end and school bells will soon be ringing. Before they do, I want to take you on a few vacations with some who have been away and enjoyed every minute.
First stop will be Alabama where Lee, TaRhonda, Kadance and Kaison Champagne and mother-in-law Milda Champagne of Marthaville visited Fort Morgan. They played on the beach, swam, built sand castles, buried Kadance and Kaison in the sand and rode the waves on the boogie board.
At night, they went sand crabbing. During the day, they went sight-seeing around Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. Kadance and Kaison got their first Henna tattoos that will wash off in a couple of weeks. The also visited family they haven’t seen in a while.
Upon leaving, they enjoyed a ride on the ferry from Fort Morgan to Dauphin Island. On their way home, the last stop was in Henderson, where they enjoyed the Prehistoric Park and the dinosaurs.
The second stop was Hot Springs, Ark., where the girls’ 11-13 undefeated softball team, “Aftershock” of Marthaville enjoyed their end-of-year party. Team members who went swimming in the lake, played putt-putt golf and went tubing were Makenna Hassan, Amelia Strahan, Gracie Ebert and Kaitlyn Settle. Members unable to attend were Anna Kate Arthur, Tinley Durr, Madeline Mitchell and Nevaeh McCarter. Parents and others attending were Phoebe Strahan, Carla Ebert, Lonna and Caitlin Hassan, Tony and Leslie Jordan, Brandon and Sherry Helms, Hayden and Holtz and Braden Woods.
Harlei and Jeremy Rains, owners of Rustic Flair Photography, love taking pictures and she is quite good at it too. When her son, Jayce, was younger around 4 years old, they were walking along Sandy Creek at Kistachie and she found a spot and decided to take his picture there. They returned the following summer and have taken it again and see how much he has changed. It is now a tradition.
Since that first photo was taken, Jayce now has a brother, Wes. Every year and at the same location, it is picture time. Jayce is now 9 years old and Wes is 4 years old. Harlei’s plans are to combine all the photos in a frame.
It was a girls’ trip of a lifetime to New York City for Shawn and Madison Pleasant, Keisha and Hannah Sattler, Sherry Williams, Rebecca Cook, Briley Richard and Grace Soileau. They visited the 9/11 Memorial Museum, cruised around the Statue of Liberty, saw Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges and took a walking tour of Midtown Manhattan and Broadway. All are now safe and sound at home but you can bet they will talk about this trip for a long time.
John Vercher is home from the hospital after spending a week and having two surgeries on his elbow. John got a bacterial infection in his elbow but they were able to get it all out. Please continue to remember John in your prayers. The wound is very painful.
School starts next week. There will be lots of changes at Marthaville school. I will let you know about it as soon as I know something.
Plus, I will have more vacation news for you.
Call me and let me know what is going on. If I do not report about it, it is because I did not know about it.
Students, enjoy your last week of freedom. Your sleeping late days are just about over.
