Messy Games!

We have some awesome interns working with us this summer. Cody and Karissa are doing an amazing job! I am thankful that they are here to mentor, lead, and be examples to our teens. I can already see God using them.

Last Thursday they put together an activity called Messy Games. They came up with some really gross, yet fun games for the teens to play. Of course, Avery and Abby got to join in too. (The perks of being youth minister's children.)

Ready for the fun to begin?

I know you have all heard of an egg toss, but have you heard of a mayonnaise covered egg toss?

Shampoo hairstyling contest.


Twister with condiments.



These middle schoolers are flexible!



Slip-n-slide.



The aftermath of a shaving cream fight.



That is a good look for you, Wes.


A stinky, hot, and wet time was had by all! Good times!

Happy Birthday to Wes and Grace!

June 15th will hold an even more special place in our hearts. It marks Wes's birthday, my brother and his wife's anniversary and now Grace's birth as well. We are super excited to have a new family member! We went to see her the day she was born. She is a cutie! The girls are especially excited to have another girl cousin.

We celebrated Wes's birthday the weekend before since we knew we would be busy welcoming Grace into this world.

God, thanks for this truly special gift! Thank you for watching over Katy and
Grace.

Blowing out all his candles.


Sweet Grace and her proud father.



Proud uncle and goofy cousins.


Brothers and cousins.

Six Flags ROCKS!

After Work Camp ended we took the teens to Six Flags. We had a blast! Abby had been once before with the Slechta family, but this was a first for Avery. Abby loved being our tour guide and telling us about everything she had done before. Since she is the youngest, this doesn't happen much. The weather was really not too extremely hot, and the lines were fantastic! We never had to wait very long at all. In fact, most times there was just one group ahead of us before we could get on the ride.

Wes started off the morning going on rides with Avery and Abby, while I went on some rides with the teens. Of course, they wanted to ride Batman, Mr. Freeze, and Super Man right away. After riding Batman twice in a row my stomach was pretty queasy, so I sat out for two rides. I think my stomach has gotten weaker since having children. Super Man was my favorite "scary" ride.

After meeting up with our whole group for some lunch I went on all kinds of rides with the girls. We rode the Mini Mine Train as well as the Big Mine Train, the Log Ride, the Roaring Rapids, and much more. Abby did not want to ride on the Parachute Ride with Avery and I, so she patiently waited for us at the bottom. I found out that if you really talk up the rides as being "fun" they will usually go for it. I have to admit I purposely did not tell the girls about the big drop at the end of the Log Ride, and I told them that they might get a "little" wet on the Roaring Rapids. They were the two that got soaked the most, and they LOVED it!

Tickets in hand and ready to go!



Ready for a boat ride?



Abby helped drive. Surprisingly, Avery did not want to drive.



Avery rode this ride over and over again with our teens and interns. Thanks for looking out for her, Karissa!


I think I would have been scared of this guy at age 5.



Sweet intern Cody was nice enough to let Abby ride on his shoulders part of the way to lunch and back. When you decide to eat lunch out of the park, it can be quite a trek!


Jordan came along too, to help us out. She is great with the middle schoolers!


The girls made some friends.



This little boy liked Avery's hair, I guess.



Abby, the backseat driver.



The swing rides! My stomach can definitely not take going around in circles. Thankfully, the girls had no problem going by themselves.



Getting ready for the Log Ride!

A good time was had by all!

Arlington Work Camp

We started the first week of the summer with a bang and headed down to Arlington for Work Camp. Wes, our interns, and the middle schoolers left on Sunday and the girls and I joined them on Tuesday.

The girls and I stayed at Granny's house. They had a wonderful time with Granny, and I was able to help out some with the youth group fixing up a house for an elderly lady who was a shut-in.

We had a group of really hard workers who transformed a house by scraping away old paint and putting on a fresh coat of paint. The group also trimmed lots of trees and bushes. When we were finished the elderly lady was extremely grateful and thanked the group with some really kind words. She talked about what a blessing the kids were to her and how beautiful her place looked now. Her daughter was also there who was crying as she also thanked the group. It was very sweet. It is always rewarding to watch our teens be God's hands and feet to others. I am proud of them! The gave up the first part of their summer to get hot, sweaty, dirty, and pretty worn out. Thanks for for letting God use you, gang!

The whole crew!


Working hard in 100 degree weather! True service!


Working hard and having fun!

Way to Go Avery! Way to Go!

Way to accomplish your goal, girlie!

At Avery's end of the school year awards ceremony she received the First Grade Top AR Reader Award. Ever since she got this award last year in Kindergarten it has been her goal to get it again. She earned 133.9 AR points. That is a lot of books, folks! We were so proud of her love of reading and her eagerness to learn.

On a side note, I received an award that day too, that I was not expecting. Frankly, I did not even know the award existed. My co-vice president and I won the award for the PTO Volunteer of the Year. We each got a rose and our name goes on a plaque at the school.

Camping for the Second Time

On Memorial Day weekend we went camping with some friends from our small group at church. We even took Avery out of school on Friday so we could begin the fun on Thursday evening. (I know, we are such rebels. Not really, it was the Friday before the last week of school. We knew she would not be missing much.)

This time our good friends, Barry and Jennifer found us a great spot at Eisenhower State Park on Lake Texoma which was just about a 15 minute drive from our house.

We had a great time swimming, cooking, laughing, playing washers again, (of course), and just hanging out. It was pretty toasty during the day, but the water felt amazing. It was the perfect temperature. I was afraid it would be cold, but it was wonderful and clearer than normal. On Friday, just our family headed to a beachy area. The others went back in town to go to work. We had the whole place to ourselves for the first two hours and then a couple other groups showed up. When our whole group headed there on Saturday it was absolutely packed but we still found a spot where we could all float around and play a mean game of keep away.

There was another dock right below where we camped that we swam at too. It had a rocky shallow area and the dock. Both times we went there it was just our group there, so that was nice.

The girls enjoyed catching these little fish. At one time they had 10 in a bucket. Ha!

Notice how clear the water is. The next day it was all stirred up from all the people.

We had some great quality family time with this area all to ourselves.


These were some very cool caves we walked/swam to.


Abby and Wes peering at me through a tunnel.


Abby wanted to climb up this big rock by herself. Future Trekker?


At the top! Wes jumped off this into the water but could not convince the girls to do the same.



A view of the beach area from the cliffs and caves. We had this beautiful area to ourselves on Friday.


Abby hugging/choking Barry.



The girls walking with Jennifer down to the dock. The girls sure do love Jennifer!



Jennifer and her dog Sam.


Abby getting her Nikki lovin' in.


Looking off the end of the dock.


Hi cuties!



Blessed to have this gal in my life!

I wish I would have taken more pictures when a lot of the group came up on Saturday. We were too busy having a good time, I guess.

We love camping and plan to do the some more in the fall.

Abby Lost Her First Tooth!

Back in the middle of May (Can you tell I am way behind in blogging?) Abby lost her first tooth. It had been loose for a while, and she finally agreed one evening to let Wes pull it. She was so proud! She has been watching Avery loose 8 teeth and wondering when it would be her lucky turn to have a visit from the Tooth Fairy.