Forest Park!

We had an adventure this past Friday. Mark spent the day golfing with some friends, so I decided to take all of the kids to the zoo. As soon as we turned off at the exit for the zoo, I realized that this was probably the busiest day of the entire summer for the zoo and Forest Park and how wrong I was at thinking that no one would be there! We parked all the way down by the history museum because all of the streets and lots were full by the zoo. We ended up going to the history museum- which only lasted about 45 minutes because the little ones were very bored. We then decided to walk to the zoo from there. It was the most beautiful day of the summer I think- only about 79 degrees with big puffy "Toy Story" like clouds in the sky. The fountains in the park were so pretty and made for a great photo-op!! Hannah did some impromptu praising while there at the fountains! So precious! Then we made it to the zoo and saw the much awaited new sea lion habitat. Everyone had a different part of the day that was their favorite- Nathan's of course was riding the train! I think mine was the walk and just taking in the beautiful day that the Lord had blessed us with, and seeing the kids take joy in the amazing day that He had created!!
By about 2:30 we were all getting tired, so we headed out on our walk back to the history museum. I don't usually go out on these types of trips without Mark to help me with all of the kids, but Olivia and Caroline were such a big help in keeping track of everyone at the zoo!! I feel pretty good about navigating through Forest Park now too! It turned out to be a great and perfect day!

More pics from North Carolina....

What an amazing time we had with our families on our annual trip to the beach. My parents got to come down the first week and stay for the first time ever.  They loved the beach and made some great memories with the kids. It was really fun to see my mom and dad playing in the waves for the first time. They were like kids themselves! The second week Mark's parents, brother and kids came down and we had some of the calmest days with the ocean that I can ever remember since we have been going there. We also got to see some awesome storms roll in over the water. Wow! God gave us a show with some powerful wind and lightening that blew through while we were down on the beach. We are so blessed to be able to go there with our families every year. It feels really good to be back home now and get back into a regular routine again with the kids. I love being away with family, but there's no place like home!!!

Dark skies, bright faces!

We have had an amazing two weeks with family here in North Carolina. For the most part the weather has been picture perfect. I had to post some of these awesome pictures of a storm that was rolling in one afternoon while we were at the beach. I will post many more pics later, but here's some cool ones of the storm as it was blowing in over the water.

Guess who's been playing with my phone......

I apologize now if you have been one of the lucky people to get a call from Nathan.... he loves to play games on my phone, but he also knows how to get into my contacts and push names and dial. I picked up my phone today and found about 50 of these pics that he took of himself...pretty funny!! There are many more just like these, but I won't post them all...... you get the idea!!!!

Loving these summer days!

Hot, Hot, Hot! Another day of 105 degrees! The crazy thing is that I'm actually getting used to it now! We have been having such a great summer with lots of swimming and movies and cookouts and playing!
 Olivia returned from her Costa Rica mission trip with some amazing stories of the people she met. She and the others were very active in sharing the Gospel to the people of the nearby villages.  She loved getting to know the families there, and she has such a heart for just loving on people. I think one of her favorite parts of being there was just being able to play soccer with the local kids in a nearby field. There aren't any language barriers in love and play, and they had so much fun just "being kids together" and playing soccer. She also had some great stories of monkeys in the trees over their heads, and of iguanas running everywhere! I am so proud of her- it was her first time on mission and being bold and sharing the gospel with people. She said at first it was hard, but the more she did it, the more comfortable she was with doing it. It also helped that they had great interpreters!
Elizabeth turned 8 (I can't believe she's that old already!) on July 2nd. I started a silly little tradition about 6 years ago with the kids.... I love to decorate the kitchen the night before their birthday with balloons and streamers and all. But one time I didn't have time to run to the store to get all of that, and so we went into the kid's playroom and brought up some of their toys and decorated the table with those.... we made little signs and cards that the toys were holding up with birthday wishes and all. (Like   Potato Heads and Barbies) Well, the kids loved it, and since then they really look forward to seeing what the "Table Theme" will be for their birthday. One year we did "Toy Story", one year we did all "Barbies", and this year, we did an "American Girl" theme with all of the dolls we have collected over the years with all of my girls. I think they look more forward to seeing what the table will look like than what gifts they will get. It's pretty silly really, but I love it!  Elizabeth picked out a cute little hamburger birthday cake from Walmart! Can't beat an $8 cake!  She had her best buddy Maddie Moeller over and we had a surprise trip to Macy's and the Origins Skincare counter where a sweet friend of mine who works there made them up with a little bit of glittery eye shadow and lip gloss. Then it was off to the American Girl Store to pick out a new doll! How fun! That store is so overwhelming. All Mark and I could do was laugh at the extravagance of it all... a hair salon for the dolls, a cafe for the girls and their dolls (which included doll high chairs in case your doll wanted to eat too) and even special little chairs for the dolls in the restroom! The girls had so much fun! We topped the evening off with dinner at Oishi's and a sleepover! My little Lizzie is such a sweetie! I love her so much! Thank you Lord for my sweet children!

We had a really fun but very low key Independence Day. For the last 6 years we have had a big 4th of July party here at our home with lots of friends, food and of course fireworks. (Mark is a hidden pyromaniac inside)! But this year, we went to the annual St. Albans bike/fire truck parade, then went swimming, and then cooked out some chicken on the grill and then watched fireworks on tv! What a nice day! (I really didn't miss all of the backyard fireworks one bit! In fact, I wish we could do this every year!) Here's some pics from the mission trip, 4th of July and Lizzie's birthday! Happy Summer!

Just a few funny pics!