Summer Happenings

So far our summer has been great! We have been extremely busy, which is the norm if you do youth ministry. Summer is our busiest time. Wes has been gone about 3 1/2 weeks since the beginning of the summer, and the girls and I have been gone 3 weeks.

We have been to Oklahoma Christian for both our high school camp (Zenith) and our middle school camp (Cornerstone). Both were wonderful! It was neat to go to the classes with our teens. Watching them get involved and being open to God's teaching brings me a lot of joy. Can you tell I am proud of them? At Zenith, Mitch Wilburn did an amazing job, as usual, speaking to us during the evening worship. There were about 20 students in all at the camp that got baptized or were getting baptized when they got home. Praise God! One of those baptisms was our own precious Jordan, so we were thrilled.

The girls love going to camp. As we were driving on to campus for the first week of camp Avery began chanting, "We all love camp! We all love camp!" They love to play with all the other youth minister's children and participate in many of the camp's activities. We stay in a suite in one of the newest dorms. Avery was really confused when our suite didn't look exactly like the suite last year. We were on a different hall and so the layout was a little different. She said, "Hey, they moved our rooms around!" I guess she thought they totally picked up the rooms to change them. Ha! We took Avery's bike with us and the umbrella stroller for Abby. Avery loved riding on all the sidewalks from building to building. Wes is one of the directors for Cornerstone so he gets a golf cart to drive that week. We always have a lot of fun riding on that together.

Wes and I also took our teens on Wilderness Trek up in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado while the girls went to Nana and Paw Paw's house. We had an awesome time on Trek! There is something about being in the mountains, being totally exhausted, and having to rely on each other that really helps the teens open up and unite with one another. You can really feel God's presence when all the distractions of this world are not around you. Wes and I saw our group share their struggles, offer encouragement, and be totally open to God in a way that we have not seen in quite some time. It was truly amazing! There is nothing like worshiping God around the campfire with snow capped mountains in the background.

This was a unique trip because Wes and I were the only ones who had ever gone before. We have tried to get a group to go every year since we have been here, but the last 3 years we haven't had enough interest. This was Wes' 9th year to go on Wilderness Trek. Wes went all through out high school. My first time to go was when I was interning with a youth group in college. The other two times were with the youth group here in Denison. This was my fourth Trek, and my first Trek since having kids. I was actually stronger this year than the other years. Working out has really paid off. Some of the boys reminded me that I am still in my prime. Ha! Anyways, it was special to introduce Trek to all the students as well as our other two adult sponsors. To see them do things for the first time and see things for the first time was priceless.

Here is a good description of Trek I found online:
Wilderness Trek is a rugged 6-day adventure in the majestic mountains of southern Colorado. Trek includes backpacking, hiking, rappelling, devotionals, solo times, and a climb to the summit of a 13,000 or 14,000-foot mountain. It is specifically designed to challenge young people to discover self-confidence, self-esteem, personal faith, and to learn their awesome potential for powerful Christian living. The goal of the week is to create an environment in which people can learn more about the everyday reality of God in their lives. By pursuing a selected spiritual theme, Wilderness Trek uses the events of a wilderness journey to teach spiritual applications. Trek uses the physical challenges of the Colorado Rocky Mountains to encourage spiritual growth. One of the biggest challenges is the actual physical activity of backpacking at high altitude. This means carrying a 40-60 pound pack up and down mountain trails at altitudes of 10,000 to 13,000 feet above sea level.

What Is A Typical Teen Trek Like?
Day One: The Beginning - Your group should arrive at the base campground at 2:00 p.m. The remainder of this first day is spent checking Registration Forms, dividing into crews, checking out equipment, packing packs, distributing food and other Trek preparation activities.
Day Two: Rappelling – You will rise early, eat a simple breakfast, load your pack and travel to a rappel site. Weather permitting; everyone in your group will get to experience the thrill of rappelling. After rappelling your group will travel to their first camp.
Day Three: Backpacking - This day is typically the longest hiking day. Camp is broken early and all the equipment and food is carried to high camp. It is a challenging day and you will be thankful to get to high camp.
Day Four: Solo - The fourth day is a special day on Trek. You will spend about three hours on "Solo". This is a time of prayer and meditation between you and God. The afternoon is spent relaxing, getting acclimatized to the altitude, bathing, and playing games with the group.
Day Five: The Climb - This day begins with an early wake up call and a quick breakfast. Your group will start on the summit trail before dawn. Only water, food, and warm clothes are carried in your day pack on the summit attempt.
Day Six: Back Down - Today you will break camp and leave the mountain. After a short drive you will arrive back at base camp. Showers, a banquet meal and a final devotional are the high points of this day.

We climbed Mt. Hope with an elevation of 13, 940 ft. Our low camp was a 2 mile hike and our high camp hike was a 10 mile hike, making it one of the top 3 hardest hikes that Trek does. In my past experience Trek is harder than having a baby. Keep in mind that I wasn't able to have an epidural while giving birth to Abby.

This is the 100 foot cliff we rappelled down. I chose to go down what they call "The Crack" which you can see just to the right of the tree on the ground.

Wes rappelling like a pro.


Can you tell I am nervous? Even though this was my 4th time I still got a little nervous. It is not normal to back off a cliff!


OK, I can do this. Watch out below!



Here we are ready to go, loaded up with all our gear. I carried our tent, fuel for the stove, one meal for our crew, my sleeping bag, a chair/bed mat, along with the rest of my necessities. Thanks again Jeff for letting me borrow your pack!

Here are our wonderful guides, Dustin and Melanie cooking the one meal they cook for us, pancakes and spam. You would be surprised how delicious this tastes!

Our tents set up at high camp. Thanks for posing, Jacob!


Here are my tent roomies for 5 nights. We were definitely squished, but we did stay warm.


A view of the summit of Mt. Hope from our high camp.


Taylor chose an awesome spot for his solo time. I don't think anyone else would have braved the ice cold water to get there.


We are almost to the summit. Our low camp was along the lake on the right.


We made it! I am so proud of you all!


Isn't the view amazing? (Of the mountains, not Wes - Ha!)
How could anyone see this and not believe there is a God?


Our teens comforting Josh, who lost his grandmother while we were on Trek. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this precious moment of them loving each other.


Jumping for joy! I taught these junior and senior girls when they were in the 4th grade. Yes, I am getting old!


On the left is my sweet friend Carrie who went as a sponsor with us. Our girls are great friends and I am glad I got to share this experience with her. In the middle is our wonderful female intern for the summer, Ny. Love you two!

I knew I had been talking about Trek too much around the girls when we were out and Abby needed to go to the bathroom. She asked me in a serious tone if she would have to go potty behind a tree like I did on Trek.

I also told them how a chipmunk came about 6 inches from my knee during my solo time. Abby asked if it said, "Bowchickawowwow". My girls crack me up!

Well, you can probably tell what my favorite thing this summer has been. If you ever get the chance to go on Trek, I would highly recommend it!

I did miss my girls so much while we were gone. We were apart for 10 days! After a lot of prayer I have decided not to leave them again for our mission trip to the orphanage in Mexico where our youth have been the last two summers. I figured it out and I would be gone for 20 out of 46 days from them. I just can't do it! I hope to take them both next year. I think they will be old enough then.

Galveston Family Vacation

A couple of weeks ago we headed to Galveston for a family vacation. We like to take a little family vacation every year before our busy summer with the youth starts. It was only a 6 hour trip which was not bad at all. The girls did great on the drive there and on the way back. They enjoyed watching DVD's and listening to music.

We stayed at Casa del Mar Beachfront Suites. It worked out great for us because it had a separate room with a queen size bed and another area had bunk beds. The living area including a studio kitchen, complete with a microwave, small oven with cook top, and a refrigerator. It had basic cookware, utensils, dinnerware and silverware so we were able to cook some of our meals there. We had lots of fun at the beach playing in the sand and playing at the pool back at the suites. One evening we rented a four seater bike and enjoyed a ride along the beach. We enjoyed some delicious meals on the island. I think Wes and my favorite was Tortuga's. Thanks Brock for telling us about that place. Wish we had one around here. The girls favorite was the Rainforest Cafe which also had a rainforest river ride.

One day we headed to Moody Gardens where we watched an awesome Grand Canyon Adventure in 3D at the IMAX theatre. Wes and I agreed that it was the best 3D IMAX presentation we had ever seen. We also visited the Rainforest Pyramid, Aquarium Pyramid, and went on a ride on the Colonel Paddlewheel Boat.

On our last day we headed to the Kemah boardwalk where we enjoyed lots of amazing rides, played at the playground, ate great food, and fed some sting rays.

PLAYING AT THE BEACH!

GOING FOR A RIDE!

A PYTHON EATING A POOR BUNNY RABBIT!

RAINFOREST PYRAMID
DANCING ON THE PADDLEWHEEL BOAT
THE RIDES AT KEMAH
BEST BUDS!

ENJOYING THE PLAYGROUND
FEEDING THE STING RAYS
WATCHING THE TURTLE GET A RIDE ON THE CROCODILE

This past Monday, Avery graduated from preschool and it was the end of the year preschool program. Sniff, sniff. I can't believe Avery is headed to kindergarten in the fall. She will go to the school where I taught 4th grade for 3 years. I am glad because I already know most of the teachers there as well as the principal, and I feel good about the atmosphere she will be in.

SINGING THEIR HEARTS OUT

YOU DID IT, AVERY!

GRANDPA LOVIN'!

This weekend Wes is officiating the wedding, (his 4th one to do) of one of our past youth group graduates, Justin. It is has been such a blessing to watch our teens grow up through the years into Godly adults, and it is especially sweet to witness them marry Christian spouses (even if it does make us feel old).

We are gearing up for our summer activities. We will be gone for 4 weeks! Two camps, one mission trip to Mexico, and Wilderness Trek.

Any Ideas?

We have decided to go to Galveston for a family vacation. Any ideas of neat things for us to do while we are there? Keep in mind Avery is 5, Abby is 3, and Wes and I would like to keep our sanity.

If you have been there before and know of some great things to do, please let us know.

Too Much of a Good Thing? ... and other Spring happenings...

OK, so Avery has been our big eater around here. She has been eating a ton of food! Don't ask me where the fat and calories go on her body. It is really not fair. She definitely gets her metabolism from Wes. She has especially been eating a lot of food at lunch time. Here is an example of what she ate the other day. I started her off with a piece of left-over pizza and a whole orange. She finished that and was still hungry so I gave her another piece of pizza. She was still hungry so she ate 5 baby carrots with Ranch dressing (more on that later). She wanted more carrots, so I gave her 5 more. Doesn't that sound like a lot of food for a girl who just turned 5? Several days before that I started her off with a large tortilla with melted cheese on it, half of a banana, and one and half clementines. She wanted more clementines and asked to peel them herself. One by one, I gave them to her. I kept asking her if her tummy was full, to which she kept asking for more, "Please, I am still hungry." I also told her that I would set some aside for her to eat later, thinking she just didn't want anyone else to eat them. She ended up eating a total of 8 whole clementines! She wanted more, but we didn't have any. I hesitated putting this story on the blog. Wes thought that it wasn't wise of me to give her that many. But, how could I say "no" to clementines? I mean really, we aren't talking candy or ice cream. We are talking healthy fruit here. She didn't have any stomach problems or anything. What do you think? Was that a bad thing?

After clementine number 5.

Back to the Ranch dressing, a couple of weeks ago I gave the girls some carrots to eat (which I have done many, many times). Avery asked if we had any white stuff with salt she could dip it in. I asked her if she was talking about Ranch dressing. She said, "Yes, that." Ha! She obviously got her salt and pepper mixed up and thought the dark dots in Ranch dressing was pepper. She went on to tell me that she had tried it at preschool when they had veggies and Ranch dressing during "V week", and she loved it. This is an example of positive peer pressure because Wes and I have offered her that several times before. In fact, she always used to eat her salad with no dressing (like me) until Wes finally talked her into using Italian dressing (like him). She was thrilled when I told her she could also eat Ranch dressing on her salad. It took her peers eating it to get her interested in trying it. Whatever!

Abby has been eating better too. Both girls were good eaters until around 2 and then they became picky eaters. I think it was definitely part of their terrible twos phase, because they both got much better around age 3. Abby has been our slow eater lately. She is always the last to finish. At preschool she is often the last of all the preschoolers at "Lunch Bunch" to finish eating. I don't make the girls eat everything on their plate. In fact, I will often ask her if she is full and wants to get down because she is taking so long. She usually tells me "no" and gets mad if I try to take her plate away. She does that, but then just sits there with food in her mouth, not even chewing it. Can you tell it drives me crazy?

Mmmm! Grapefruit!

Abby has cracked us up recently with the phrase, "in THREEEEEE days". It started when Avery and her where playing dress-up and Avery wanted to wear the boots Abby had on. She asked Abby when she could wear them. Abby replied, "In three days!" They laughed about that for a long time which means Abby kept repeating it and still uses that phrase to this day to answer any question regarding time. Do any of your kids do this? Once our girls realize they have said something funny, they become a broken record, constantly repeating the "funny" phrase. It usually is funny the first time, but, to Wes and I at least, it gets old pretty quick. Not so for Avery and Abby, they always get a kick out of it. Another phrase that Abby loves which cracks our teens up is "Bow-Chicka-Wow-Wow!" They saw this on an advertisement for the Chipmunks movie.

We are the proud owners of 2 lady bugs. We would have 3, but one passed away, or was murdered. It just depends on how you look at it. Yes, these lady bugs are our only pets. We do really want a dog someday soon, but with us being gone so much with all the youth trips, it is really hard to think about owning a dog. Avery and Abby found our first two lady bugs in our back yard and immediately put them in their bug catchers. We found another one today at church to take the place of Abby's that died. Who knows if it died of old age or of not being well nurtured. I looked online and found that you can feed them moistened raisins. Also, if you moisten a paper towel they will drink the water out of it. If anyone has any other advice about how to keep them alive, feel free to tell us. We have had one of the original ones for about 3 1/2 weeks.

On the first day that we the original lady bugs, Avery came to me and said, "I don't think there are any boy ladybugs." I told her that there were, in fact, boy ladybugs. She looked at me and with an attitude said, "But mom, did you know they are called LADYbugs?" OK, does she think I am stupid? "Yes," I said, "I know they are called ladybugs but, you have to have boy ladybugs and girl ladybugs to make baby ladybugs. Thankfully, she did not ask for any more details about that. She is simply replied sheepishly, "Oh, right," and giggled a silly little giggle.

We had a terrific Easter. Wes and I dyed eggs with the girls a couple of days before Easter. Abby mostly like coloring all over them with washable markers. Wes' parents, Granny, and Dad came over for an Easter meal on Sunday after church. We had a Easter egg hunt later in the afternoon at church. After that, we came home and hid eggs for the girls in the back yard.

I forgot to get a picture of them in their matching Easter dresses, but here they are before they open their Easter baskets from Nana and Granny.


Abby is serious about hunting for eggs. Look at that determined face.

Is it bright, honey?


Abby at her third egg hunt at her preschool. She looks a little more relaxed and less determined here.


Abby and all her preschool classmates.


Avery was nice enough to stop and pose while hunting for eggs.


Avery and all her preschool classmates.

This past weekend I had a fun "girl's weekend" with my good friends Lauren and Alexis. We usually try to get together every 4 months or so. This time we went to Lauren's house and had a good time, shopping, eating out, watching TV and hanging out. We always spend a lot of time just catching up on each other's lives. I cherish these times and feel so blessed to have such good friends. Lauren and I go all the way back to 7th grade and we got to know Alexis in high school. Amy, who I have been friends with since 6th grade, would join us on these "girl weekends" in years passed, but she is now a missionary in Paraguay.

I have found an enjoyable thing for the girls and I to do together. Bike riding! When I was younger I rode my bike all the time. We moved to Abilene when I was going into the 6th grade, I thought I was in heaven living next to ACU. Do you know how much fun it was riding on all those sidewalks on campus? It was amazing! I highly recommend this product to those of you who have little ones. Wes' Granny gave us this bike trailer and we have used it many times. Originally, I was thinking it would be great to carry just Abby around, since Avery has her own bike. I have actually pulled both of them more than just Abby. It is great exercise and the girls have a ball. Abby likes to yell things at me like, "Don't fall, mommy!" or "Pedal mommy, pedal mommy!" This usually comes at me while I am trying to take a short break and coast down a small hill. She also often yells, "Slow down, mommy!" Most of the time we just ride around our neighborhood, but on Saturday I wanted to take them to a park in Sherman that has many paved paths. The weather was perfect, I was ready, but there was one problem. I couldn't get the bike and trailer to fit in my car. Wes had his truck out of town. I ended up taking the front wheel off of my bike an unscrewing the trailer off the bike. I managed to do all that and pack Avery's bike in as well, with no help. I was pretty proud of myself. I won't tell you how long it took. We had a nice picnic at the park, played on the playground for a while, and then took off for a long ride. We started off with Avery on her own bike following Abby and I. I am sure we were a sight. I don't look so great with a bike helmet on. Ha! I was surprised how well Avery did. She only fell once and we rode all over the large park for quite a while. I kept thinking she would get tired, but she didn't. The only reason she stopped was because I kept asking her if she would ride with Abby. I didn't tell her it was because I wanted to go faster.


I know it has been a while since I have posted. Hopefully that gives you an idea of what has been going on around here.