June 2019

Even though school is out we always manage to pack a LOT into the month of June.  It is by far our busiest summer month.  Thankfully we had about a week off in between each of our big events.

Our first big activity was VBS.  Our overall theme this year was Search and Rescue.  The girls loved every minute and had so much fun.  I volunteered in the preschool music room again (I think this was year 6) and we had a blast too.  Here's just a few pictures from the week.

Our Sunday School class spent a Saturday morning volunteering at Feed My Starving Children.  We packed boxes of bagged food for children in various countries.  It was lots of fun and we loved that our kids could come help as well.  It's definitely something we'll do again.

We like to occasionally take the girls out for a fun breakfast.  Our favorite place to go is the little donut shop down the street.  They owners are super nice and they always decorate their donuts with the cutest designs.

Our next crazy busy week was music camp.  This week is packed full of non-stop action.  In 4 days the kids learn and perform an entire musical. They spend the mornings learning the songs and then get to do special interest classes in the afternoon.  The cast spends many extra hours learning all their lines.  Then the week ends with a performance for parents and friends.  We always have so much fun....but it is tiring.  In addition to helping as a leader, I also taught an interest class.  I did Black Light Rhythm, which was basically using various instruments and doing rhythm activities in dark....everything glowed.  Hannah has been waiting forever to be old enough to audition for a drama part.  It was a lot of extra time, but she loved it and can't wait to do it again.  Just a few pictures of all the fun.

It's been a few years since our church did a big patriotic program so they decided to do one last weekend. We combined orchestras with another local church and I think we had about 45 people total just playing instruments. We also had a good size choir and the small children't ensemble join us for one song too.  Both girls sang and Nathan and I played.  It was lots of fun and we played some pretty songs.

June 2018

Nathan and I decided that the girls were finally big enough to take a real vacation where we don't just go visit family.  We didn't want to go anywhere too far away or too expensive so we chose San Antonio (about 6 hours away).  It's HOT in Texas so we planned early June so we didn't completely melt.  We had a fabulous time and made so many great memories!!!

We left on a Monday morning and arrived that afternoon.  We made a potty stop at Bucee's and the girls wanted their picture taken with the beaver statue.  Once we checked into our hotel we headed downtown.  We walked along the Riverwalk and then went to the Alamo.

We spent ALL day at Sea World Tuesday.  I have always enjoyed the animal shows, but it was really fun to see the girls get so excited and listen to their squeals of joy!  We even got to see a baby sea lion that had been born early that morning.  SOOO cute!

 The girls have been saving their allowance money so they could buy a toy to remember our trip.  Abigail began talking about seeing orca whales weeks before we left.  Not surprised that's what she picked.

Wednesday we decided to take in easier and not spend all day outside.  We found a REALLY cool park to play at in the morning while it was still shady.  Then we had some lunch and watched a movie in our hotel.  My college roommate lives in San Antonio so we were excited to hook up with her and her kiddos that night.  They had tons going on that week and we were glad we were able to connect.  We met them at their neighborhood pool for swimming and pizza. 

 Hannah and Amelia are only a year apart so they became fast friends.  Abigail and Corrine had fun playing together in the shallow end despite their age difference.  Luke is 9 and he was happy playing with other boys in the pool instead of the girls.

Thursday we headed to the zoo.  I think this was the day the heat affected us the most.  Even though we were outside longer at Sea World the day was broken up by 30 minutes of sitting in the shade to watch shows.  The zoo was ALL walking.  However we had lots of fun and enjoyed seeing some different animals.  We bought tickets for the zoo experience which included a train ride and admission to the butterfly house.

The Japanese Tea Gardens were across the street from the zoo.  We went in for a few minutes but not long because we were really hot and tired from walking around the zoo all day.  They were amazing and I loved seeing all God's beauty!  But I think we would have enjoyed them more if we had visited on a different day.

The week after we got back was VBS at church.  Our theme this year was Amazed Beyond Belief (emoji's).  It was a super busy week but we had lots of fun.  And we learned that God can do anything!  The girls got to come help me decorate the room I was working in which they thought was super cool!  We also drove a friend back and forth.  Her mamma agreed to drive one more friend than she had seats in her car. The girls loved getting to play with Ellie while waiting for her mom to get back.

Abigail was so excited that she FINALLY gets to start piano lessons!  She is doing really well so far and already knows 4 different notes. So far she's pretty cooperative during practice too which is nice.  I'm sure we'll have plenty of arguments before long though.  HA!

I decided to take the girls to the Heard Museum one morning before it got too hot.  It's only about 15 minutes away.  We had a great time looking at the rescue animals and walking on one of the trails.