Jon's Minnesota Cabin: Family Fun

Ah Sunday, the day to rest! In the morning many of the Burns clan went to church in Backus to hear an interesting sermon that analogized straying spiritually with being physically dehydrated. You ache, get disoriented, and the most ironic symptom is that the condition prevents you from being able to see the simple cure. Your thirst can lead to confusion that might blind you from realizing you simply need to drink some water. We read from the book of John, chapter four, where Jesus tells a Samaratin woman who has been married five times of water she can drink and never thirst again. It reminded me very much of a verse from my favorite Emmylou Harris song, All My Tears:

Gold and silver blind the eye
Temporary riches lie
Come and eat from heaven's store
Come and drink and thirst no more

For me, the highlight of the service came before the sermon as we sang a contemporary take on my all-time favorite church song, Amazing Grace. They added in a different chorus line and I liked it surprisingly well, as I would have thought this song needed no improvement. Here is a link to the version we sang (you'll probably need to cut and paste the address to your browser):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8KRyA5sAac

or an alternate version, this one by a male vocalist, the previous by a female.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbe7OruLk8I&feature=related

After church, we celebrated my cousin Malachi's 5th birthday. Almost everyone was there, including Aunt Lee, Uncle Ronnie, and I think all of their descendants. Grandma Henry had 19 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in attendance plus 4 of her grandkids' wives, me, Joe, his daughters, and Walter too. We had a lot of fun eating, visiting, playing games, and some of us even did some dancing toward the end!

Birthday boy gettin' some presents!

Cousin Kadie has impressive hula hoop skills. I find this runs in the family!

Cousin Rachel working on a routine

Cousin Arianna getting a lesson from Dad. I also have action (blackmail) shots of Nathan hula hooping, but I'm holding them ransom at this time.

Niece Ivy visiting from Arizona. When I asked her what she wanted to do in Minnesota, she answered, "Go back to Arizona." I think a few days later she is enjoying herself in spite of herself :-) Also, one of the kids told me as we watched a video this evening I look like Miley Cyrus's dad and added that he was cute. Ivy agreed, so I was like, "Aww, thanks!" Then Ivy blurted, "NOOOO, him, not you-oo!" Darn kids these days ;-)