Missouri Fun in the Sun

After a week of CIY and a week of VBS we were really tired! Jeremy headed to camp High Hill for the week with his Jr. High Studets. We went to visit him on Monday. It was fun to let Grace play at the "park" and go swimming. She was really brave-she went down the water slide into the deep end all by herself. We have it on video so maybe I can figure out how to post it. We also got to visit with our family friends the Chesnuts. Above is a picture of Faith with the flower girl from our wedding she is getting so grown up-doesn't that make us feel old! Jeremy had a great week and survived the summer heat.

After visiting him we went to the Ozarks to meet my parents and my sister & her boyfriend, Mark, for a mini vacation. We also saw my brother and his girlfriend, Jess. It was a lot of fun. Grace loved every minute of staying up late, swimming, and going to Minor Mike's (an ardade). One of my favorite moments was watching the girls ride in a car together. (Like the kind you put a quarter in and get a short ride) They both were giggling and having a blast. I really missed having Jeremy with us. It just didn't seem like vacation without him there. We enjoyed spending time with "my" family but I missed "our" family being able to experience the fun together. So check out our vacation album & see how much fun the girls had yourself.

Outrigger Island-Vacation Bible School

The week after CIY was VBS. (Like I said it has been crazy!) I taught a Bible class for 4 year olds-1st Grade and Jeremy was in charge of games for the older kids. Every year I get stressed out with all the preparations of planning the lessons and decorating my room. The age I teach is challenging since two classes haven't been to school and two have. I have to really adjust my lesson for each age group. This year's theme was a fun island one so I had a pool full of colored sand they got to dig in and find objects for the story. This was very popular with the littlest ones. It is priceless when you are telling the story about the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and the kids say, "Wow," when you tell them the ground was dry! Or when they gasped as I tore up the scroll that Jeremiah had written God's words on. That is why I keep teaching Bible each year.

I was very nervous going into the week about Faith going to the nursery because in general on Sunday morning she is not a fan. Pretty much 80% of the time I have had to go pick her up after five minutes. But she did great!! She stayed in the nursery the entire time each day from 8:30-11:45. I was very excited. I was also excited for Grace because this was the first year she got to attend the Preschool VBS program. She loved making crafts, playing games, and singing songs. This was also the first time she was in the closing program on Friday nights. It was so much fun going to her first program. She didn't sing but did the actions with enthusiasm. She had quite the audience as her Grammy, Papa, Aunt Jo Jo, Mark (Josie's boyfriend), and Great Grandma Holst all came to see her performance.

Grace's Big Adventure

While we were at CIY Grace stayed with Grammy & Papa (my parents). This was very difficult for me! It was the longest I have ever left her. The night before we left I was laying in bed still thinking about just packing her bag for Papa's house into my van and taking her along. But I knew this wouldn't work and I was just going to have to get through it. One of the things I did was wrap a little surprise for her along with a note for her to open each day we were gone. Little did I know just how hard it would be. Our phones were on roam in Carbondale so I had to borrow a phone from another youth sponsor to call, giving me one chancea day to talk to her. Two of the days she was sleeping and I didn't get to talk to her. Mom put her down for a nap at 3:00 p.m. and she slept till the next morning at 5:30 am!! She must of been REALLY worn out from all the fun she was having.

She got to ride a horse (My brother & his girlfriend have horses). Grammy said she was VERY brave and even wanted to lead it around. She also helped make my dad's birthday cake and made cookie bars a "surprise" for us. Grace loves to cook. She opened her gifts inlcuding a play camera, bracelets, a coloring book and crayons, a gluestick (she really love to glue!), & princess book with cd. Her Nana came to visit and brought her "num nums." (a happy meal) But her favorite thing might have been the playhouse my parents bought her and surprised her with. She loved "her" house. It was over 90 degrees but she still played in it a lot. Check out all her adventures in picture format above. (My mom is the talented person who does all of the fun collages)