We go WAYYYYYY back!

I guess I'm not really covering our trip in order but I will cover it. We got to spend two days with my old high school "BFF" (to steal my daughter's term). We enjoyed lots of crazy laughs ("many much moosen" has been quoted repeatedly Jen), some yummy food, a beautiful hike to Bridal Veil Falls and our typical BFF talks. Her kids are a bit older than mine but they got along great and had lots of fun. You can see all 8 of them here the night before we left.


Jen and I have been there together through thick and thin through the years. Shared our dreams as teenagers, lived together for a time, had wonderful adventures together and have kept up from a distance as God brought husbands and children and moved us in different directions. Even over the distance, we always pick right back up where we left off. She's a "perennial" friend, the kind that blooms again, year after year. I just love ya Jen!

For fun I had to pull this out of an old album. Anyone guess the date of this photo by the big hair and acid wash jeans? This is 1989 - twenty years ago. Here is to the next 20 as we add empty nests and Grandkids to our lives. Ooh, that's scarey!

Our Road Trip

We made it, we enjoyed it and we returned home alive to tell about it! Our first family road trip to Utah and it was filled with some wonderful memories. In the past we made this trip via airplane but with 6 of us (and all our stuff), we are relegated to getting there via the mini-van. Here you see the kids happy faces when we made it to Utah, and you can tell they were still getting along after 20 hours on the road together (we did stop and camp out for the night at what can only be described at a railroad campground. Between the trains, the rain and the flat air mattress, our sleep was scarce.)


Half way through day one we stopped to visit some AGCI friends. They recently brought home their little sweetie from Hannah's Hope and we just had to meet each other's Ethiopian jewels. Precious huh?

Even better was uniting these two girls who once shared a crib together at HH Guatemala. Though we have kept up with each other over the years, it's not the same as an in person reunion. By the way Stacey, the boys still consider playing Legos with Noah a highlight of our vacation. :)

Here was the theme of the 11 days we were gone - DRIVING! In all we covered 7 states and 3,150 miles. We only had to take the van to the mechanic once (God worked that out beautifully) and only one deer tried to hit us (it was close but God protected us on that one for sure). The best part was that the kids did so much better than we dared hope for. They got along so well and enjoyed each other -- 99% of the time. HUGE answer to prayer!

More details to come.....

Reunions

Last week we had so much fun visiting friends in our old stomping grounds. It had been five years (way too long) since we went back to Bethany but this impromptu reunion was a good reminder not to make it another 5. We actually spent the whole afternoon at the park and the kids had a blast playing in the rain and the dirt while we Momma's stayed under the shelter. The kids were filthy for the long ride home.


Amazing how there are now 23 kids between us all and those are just the kids that came. I love to see how our blessings have grown up and multiplied over the years.

Here are the Momma's, only one of them was a new face for me. I miss our old Bible study group and the years we shared while our kids were so little. What a blessing to get back together. Thanks ladies. Til next time!!

Camping

We enjoyed a long planned out camping trip this past weekend and had a wonderful time. Icing on the cake was going with 3 other families from church. Between the four families we had probably 4 times too much food! The Eastin's were such pros though we all learned a thing or two. They were "ultra-prepared"!


Here is a shot of breakfast. My man made us all egg and sausage burritoes. No small feat when you are feeding 19 people. Lisa made monkey bread in her dutch oven and the monkeys ate that very quickly! There was much motivation to walk all around the lake.

Camping with friends is extra fun (the 9 girls loved sleeping together in their own tent while the 3 boys bunked with us). We also had such a good time as a family with plenty of sweet moments like this one. (No surprise this chair didn't hold up the weekend!) Now we are motivated to bring the tent on our trip out West next month for sure.

There was time for a little fishing and plenty of swimming. God gave us GORGEOUS weather for July. Low 80's and low humidity. Very important when you are sleeping in a tent!

Me & my Boo hanging out.

Happy Birthday America!

I'm finally putting some photos from the 4th on here. Aunt Susie sent out a box of patriotic stuff to get everyone in the mood, we made a yummy cookie flag and even Frisbee got in on the action.

Here are my goofy girls hamming it up for the camera.

As is our tradition, we spent the evening at a friends home eating yummy BBQ, talking and laughing the night away, and setting off some fireworks. The kids favorite is always chasing the little parachute guys floating down to the ground. Also, our friend Matt always builds his own major firework for the finale. Way to go Matt! When all is done, we get to see the city fireworks on our way home. We hope you had a great 4th as well.

Happy Birthday America!

Lessons from my yard

This feels like a departure from me from the typical "what we're up to" post. I have truly been enjoying my summer mornings, taking a walk down our country road, enjoying the sounds of nature (and lack of my little ones sounds for a bit), praying and thinking. When I get home, I peruse my yard for some glimpses of color for the day. I'm not a gardener and have been known to kill plants BUT these ones seem to thrive with God's help rather than mine. :)

I love this rose called "Love & Peace". It was a Mother's Day gift from two years ago and while it's still pretty dinky, if I'm patient I get to see these beautiful gifts grow right in my front yard. They start out creamy yellow and gradually turn pink from the edges out. The rose below is the same rose, only earlier. I think they are stunning and I'm waiting for the next bloom to appear.

I guess these roses make me think of my children. Some days I wonder how I haven't killed them yet (ha!) and that they continue to thrive (with God's help) despite my often inadequate attempts at mothering. As much as I love to look at them as "buds" in their youthful stages, I am seeing those "pink edges" more and more and getting a glimpse of the maturing that is taking place. More and more I sense that someone is feeding them "miracle grow" behind my back and my babies have been replaced by children (and at times, young men and women). I don't want to stunt their development but I do want to savor those slight changes each day before they reach their "full bloom". Time is marching on and while I am thoroughly enjoying the journey with my kids, I know they will one day be men and women branching out on the various paths God is preparing for them. I suspect those will be bittersweet days.....


This yellow flower below is just a "unidentified flowering bush" we've always had by our porch. I love the bright bursts of yellow scattered over it all summer long. If I need a lesson from this picture it is about the little bug you can barely see perched upon it. I have so many blessings to be thankful for and I marvel at why God has given me so many. Still I have to choose to to focus on the beauty in my life and not on the bugs that won't seem to go away. Some bugs are there for my benefit (or that of others) but others can come around to destroy. While I don't have the power to keep the bugs away, God does and those that He allows in my life, He will use them for my own good. I just have to trust God and focus on the beauty around me instead of those pesky little bugs.

Are you still with me? Only one more :) I THINK this below is a peony (does that show how little I know?) and last year it was dug up from a friend's yard and transplanted to mine. Quite honestly, it looked like an old dead stick when I planted it and I never thought it would do anything and I quickly forgot about it. Well, I was pleasantly surprised when this little beauty appeared this summer. I only got the one bloom but I have confidence I will be rewarded with more than that next year, if I wait. Do you want to draw your own lesson from this one? Mine is that even when something looks worthless and dead, it may deserve my attention after all. Sometimes God brings people into our lives who don't seem to fit or have much value in our eyes. If we give them a chance, we can truly see down the road that there was a beautiful flower hiding inside that relationship all along. God uses things and relationships in our lives even when we don't see it. We have to give them a chance and wait for His time.

The days of summer

We still feel busier than ever this summer but we took the time this past week to sign up for the local library's summer reading program. We have participated in this for years and the kids love it because their reading is rewarded with prizes. Here they are in a candid moment getting their hours in. While Boo doesn't really read, her hours are spent listening to the rest of us. The kids completed their first 3 hours in 2 days and were thrilled to get coupons to Pizza Hut for personal pizzas as a result. I think next time the prize is a book.


Amazingly, Spiderman (who usually only reads if it's required for school) has really stepped it up and it's been great for his reading confidence. Jaybird ALWAYS has his nose buried in a book so this is nothing new for him but Goose has also improved the past couple months and has read all the way through the American Girl series of books on Felicity. I'm just thrilled that they love to read or listen to me read. I credit our homeschool curriculum for much of that (shameless plug for Sonlight).

Another recent favorite is our new fire pit in the backyard. I'm not sure why we've never done this before but now we can roast hotdogs or marshmellows anytime we want. The kids would have that be nightly but they may have to settle for weekly. :) With 3 fires behind us already (OK, 2 in one week), fireflys and hide & seek have been part of the special nights.