Wycliffe Bible Translators

The Wycliffe Bible Translators have their headquarters in Orlando and we were able to join another family to take a tour of their WordSpring Discovery Center and hear from a couple missionaries. There is a wonderful interactive area where you can learn so much about bible translation, many languages and the different countries that do not have God's Word in their own language.

They had these two rolls of paper you could write on and the purpose is to share what having the bible in your language means to you.

The interactive area was very well done, great for all ages, not just children.

Each leaf on this tree (both sides) represents a different people group who do not have the bible in their language yet.

This picture was taken outside the Wycliffe headquarters. The grounds are very nice with a lake behind the buildings. People even hold weddings here and there are apartments to house visiting missionaries on furlough.

In the evening, my children played with many of the children from the other 7 families... basketball, tennis, and they sometimes sat around the jacuzzi just talking. The little ones went on the playground even though I didn't want them playing in the sand.
In this picture, the only child that is mine is the boy on the far left with the basketball.

Some of the moms by the pool, we have more than 50 children between us.

My three older girls on the left talking with two girls from other families around the jacuzzi.

I was so ready to leave. I was exhausted by this time at night. My boys took off their shoes and played in this wet sand. Ugh!

Mini golf and T-Rex

During our vacation, we played miniature golf. There are so many mini golf places in Orlando and not too many people were playing during the day so we got a good deal on the price. $4.00 per person and the younger 3 children were free. After golf, we went to a new restaurant that opened a month ago called T-Rex. The atmosphere inside is very pre-historic looking. They have animatronic dinosaurs everywhere. One area is an undersea coral reef and one area is a rain forest, another area is an ice cave. We were in a large booth with a terradactyl over our heads, well, it was over top of our "cave." Every once in a while, there would be meteor showers on the ceiling over the whole restaurant. That was interesting. The food was very good too, unlike some theme restaurants that pay more attention to the atmosphere and none to the food. After we ate, some of the children played in the dinosaur dig area, brushing off sand from bones like archeologists.

The wooly mammoth near animatron the ice cave.

My three oldest girls.

The dino dig.

My husband and I in the booth (cave).

The ice cave. I am so glad we weren't seated in this section. The lighting was awful, a very dimly lit blue, and it would change periodically to pink and orange.

This picture was taken from our booth, my purse is sitting on our table, but that's not our stroller. This was our view, see the wooly mammoth and the terradactyl? (This wasn't the one over our cave.)

The baby had the cutest little golf club, perfect size for her.

Putting takes a lot of concentration and a little body English.

Here is a nice picture of the family in front of the falls on the 18th hole.

Getting ready to tee off on another hole, well, without a tee.

Visiting a courtroom

We have a judge in the family, uncle to my children, so during our vacation, we visited his courtroom and got to observe the proceedings. It was interesting and sometimes humorous. He has a groundhog that sits at one of the podiums because he says court is like the movie Groundhog Day, the same thing over and over. Here are some pictures as well as some taken at their house playing with cousins.

Only the older 5 children went into the courtroom. The others stayed in chambers with his assistant. See the groundhog on the left side?


This is taken during the proceedings. The defendants are out of shot on the left side.

In chambers, my son with a solid brass gavel. Boy, was it heavy!

Cousin Kelsey did me a huge favor and kept the little ones entertained by watching a movie with them.

The older kids played some lively rounds of "Spoons" and "One to One Hundred."

We also got to play Wii for the very first time. Here we are bowling.

And, playing tennis.

And yet more pictures.

Having fun in the children's area, trying to ring the bell by wielding the mallet.


The concert at the temple plaza, a Southern gospel group called Fishers of Men.

The dancing fountains that spray in sync with the music.

This "lamb" asked me in sign language if the children were all mine. And then he/she asked me if that was it. Wow, and I thought only people were nosey, lol.

Here is the lamb hugging my 6 year old.

More pictures.

The grounds around the Holy Land Experience were lovely. It was easy to take good pictures because all the settings were so pretty. Here are some more, hope you're not tired of seeing these. I got a digital photo frame key chain for Christmas from my aunt and I have loaded it with 54 pictures from our trip.


My second son with a statue of Jesus walking on the water.

A funny one.

Cute picture taken by my budding photog, my second daughter.

In the prayer garden with the baby.

A nice lady was walking around handing out these bracelets to children.

This was taken in the children's area where the bible scenes are recreated.

Sitting atop a camel in the marketplace.

My husband and I at a table for two, a rarity.

Me with my daughters, sans one, who wasn't feeling well. I had to leave the park to buy her some medicine.

Here are my twins with my second oldest daughter just relaxing.

My third oldest daughter with one twin.

My oldest son with the baby. She really didn't like this statue. I guess it frightened her.

Doing what all little people do, walking along the curb or, in this case, the decorative stone border.

My oldest daughter, just sitting pretty.

Holy Land Experience again

This was taken at near the entrance to the park. There is an open air marketplace set up but it is stocked with fake food and flowers. Still, it looks pretty and makes for nice backgrounds.

Coming out of the marketplace is this arch so we took a family picture here. A kind employee offered to snap it.

This area is called the garden tomb. The stone was rolled away and you could enter it to see that it was empty. There was cloth inside and a sign that said, "He is not here. He is risen."

A statue of a centurion guard and my son.

More of us by the guards.