Vacation!

We were so blessed with the time to take a week for vacation. First, we headed west to the farm to see my dad. We always love our time out there, even more as the kids get older. We rode the go-cart. . .. . .jumped on the trampoline. . .. . .cleaned house. Oh, wait. That is Raegan cleaning her "fort" she made. Yes, she made her own straw broom to sweep the dirt. For those of you who don't know, Raegan was born to be house wife. She LOVES to clean and "make house". Later in the week, when we got to our cabin, she exclaimed with eager anticipation, "Oh, we get to do lots of jobs in here!" This was the kitchen. Notice the salt and pepper!
. . .and we shot. I grew up with guns all around me; however, I never shot one until I married my city-boy husband! I really loved shooting this 22. Thanks, Pat! :) We were aiming at barn swallows. I never got one, but it was so fun!

. . . and had a birthday party for the girls with Papa. Then, it was off to Denver to see our cousins, Kevin and Brandi, and their kids, Dawson and Caleb. The kids had a great time playing together and celebrating birthdays again!On Thursday, we headed north to Estes Park. We were excited to get to the mountains! Here is the view from our cabin, looking at our first view of wildlife!That first night, we celebrated Sydney's birthday because it was finally her real birthday!

The next day, we got up early and headed out toward Loch Vale, a 3-mile hike! Yes, this was ambitious, but we figured we could turn back if we needed to do so. Here is how Isaiah "hiked" most of the way! Here is our entire group! Three families!Getting started!
One of the highlights was seeing Alberta Falls. They were beautiful!

Here, the falls are in the background.
We had just one breakdown where Raegan thought she couldn't make it any farther, but after some encouragement from Chris, she made it to the top.

Here, we are almost there!

The last major obstacle was climbing a snow-covered hill to get to the lake. It was slippery!
Eating lunch on a giant rock by the lake.
Here is a view of the lake. Stunning!
Then, we headed back down. Raegan told Chris, "I like going down-hill!"
One treat was seeing an elk nearby. It didn't seem phased by all of us gawking humans. Isaiah liked touching the trees.
That night (July 15), we celebrated Raegan's and Brent's birthdays. Melanie made it so special with decorations and ice cream cake!The next day, we were all a little pooped from our adventure from the previous day, so we slept in and had a good breakfast. Then, we ventured out to Bear Lake and took in a couple of easier hikes. It was fun because we saw two boys who we recognized as Ethiopians, so we introduced ourselves and Isaiah. It was fun to connect with them for just a bit. Once back to the cabins, the kids busied themselves with feeding the chipmunks. . .
. . .and training them to do tricks!
One of their favorite activities was playing on the rocks and building forts. Our last day there, we were able to sneak away to a lake and let the girls fish. Raegan was so glad to get to throw in her line! Isaiah was happy to play in the sand.
We didn't have much time, but Sydney even got a bite!Finally, it was time to say goodbye to the cool weather, the sweet smell of pine, and fun memories. We are so thankful to have been able to spend time together as well as with some special friends.

Happy Birthday, Sydney!

July 14 is Sydney's birthday, but we celebrated the week before because we were going to be in Colorado over that day. First, Chris and I took her out on her final Secret-Keeper Girl date. Boy, this date was so sweet. I am sad that SKG is finished, just because it has facilitated some sweet memories. This date was the one where Chris, the dad, got to affirm Sydney's beauty, inside and out. We had some sweet conversation, great food at Red Rock Canyon Grill, and a special time presenting her a new Bible. She also got to celebrate with her friends. We had a water-themed party, of course, because what else do you do in 100+ heat?! They had a great time, and she was blessed by these special friends!

Jackson's Baseball

Jackson's baseball season is coming to a close. This past week, he had his last regular-season game. He has improved tremendously, if I do say so myself. He had some spectacular catches at 1st base to get the runner out, and he hits most of the time. It has been so fun to watch!

It's a hit!

Jackson's fan club!

Fourth of July Weekend

The weekend was full of fun events. On Sunday, we got to go to an adoption ceremony for Duncan Baguma. It's so fun to see little African boys together! The baby birds are doing well and growing!
Sunday night, we went to a friend's house and watched their giant fireworks. This was Isaiah's first experience with fireworks, so it was fun to watch him get excited about the "lights that go "boom"!
On Monday, we reconnected with Great Grandma.
As the sun started to go down, the anticipation for fireworks grew and grew. Here are Gage (neighbor) and Jackson waiting for the word to start!
At first, Isaiah stayed close to me.
But it didn't take long for him to join in the fun.
Jackson was probably the most excited. Here, he is running from a loud one!
Chris helped Raegan learn to shoot Roman Candles.
This is not Sydney's favorite holiday. She did participate with the sparklers, though. Otherwise, she stayed away from the lights and noise. :)
Roman Candle Club!
Happy Fourth of July!

New Month Brings New Life

First, I have to admit that I am just not an animal person. Yes, I grew up on a farm. I had dogs, cats, chickens, cows, and sheep. But, now that I am a city-dwelling adult, I don't really like animals, and I really do not want any.

On the other hand, our kids really do like animals--like most kids I know. Raegan is the biggest animal-lover, so you can imagine her excitement when she discovered this in our playhouse:She diligently checked on them daily for a week or two. (I lost count.) She just had to make sure not to bother mama bird too much. Then, last week, she came screeching inside to tell us that the egg was hatching! She spent the rest of the afternoon checking. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. :)You can see the second egg starting to hatch.

So, I have to admit that the joy in this one's face has made me get over my animal thing just a bit. :)

June Activities

We have been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY with summertime activities. Here are a few! Well, o.k., here are a lot! While Chris has been busy teaching Driver's Ed, we have been experiencing the following:

Isaiah continues to improve his vocabulary. Here is a little taste:

Matching hair-dos!

Painting with water!
Basketball camp.
Hail Storms. (Actually, I think this was just a pretty cloud, but we did have one major storm with baseball-sized hail.)
Celebrated Grandma LeFevre's birthday.Celebrated Father's Day with a "Man's Feast"! I know, this deserves its own post. Maybe next year! Here are the cards the kids made for Chris. They love their Daddy VERY MUCH! (So do I!)Isaiah's first baseball game. He was happier than this shows, especially when we left to go to the playground!
We got to go with Grandpa Dave.Bubble Bath Mohawk!Sending Sydney to Camp! She met 5 of her friends there. Fountain Park Fun!
That just about sums up June!

Trying to Keep Up!

Well, summer is in full swing. With four kids home full-time, I am finding it tough to get the "regular" missions accomplished. But, we are getting into a good routine. I have to admit that the first couple of weeks were tough. Everyone seemed to be at each other's throats; I think that everyone was trying to find their places again. For example, Raegan was used to being top dog, but she found herself shoved to #3 all of a sudden, and I'm pretty sure she didn't like the fact that she wasn't in charge anymore. :)

One day, it all came to a head with the three older kids threatening to do things to each other that are definitely not o.k. I was so thankful that God came to the rescue. After some cool-down time, He gave me these verses as a renewed vision for the kids. (I do have to quickly admit that these verses challenged me just the same. You'll see what I mean!)

I grew up with this one: Ephesians 4:32. "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

Here was a new one: Philippians 2:3-4. "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." It seemed like there had been countless fights over who got the front seat in the van, who got the best piece of pizza, who got the best _______________. This verse challenged all of us to "Put Others First"! This is our new motto, and it has been transformational!

And finally: Philippians 2:14-15. "Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. . ." We want to be lights, look different than the messed up world, because we ARE different with Jesus in our lives. Too often, we just get in the way of His work in our hearts.

I really wanted to record these so that we don't forget this lesson. Really, any success of the summer is because of God's transforming work in our lives. I love that and am so thankful for it.

Here are a couple of fun scenes from the past couple of weeks. Our sweet friend, Elias, had his first birthday!

Can you tell that Isaiah LOVES Elias?

On May 31, we got to help welcome Duncan home from Uganda!
We are so excited for the Neill family!!!

First summer picnic! (You can see our smashed bushes in the back. We had baseball-sized hail the night before, and it stripped most of our plants/trees!)