The Ozarks in Pictures

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.