Jumping around

With this post I should finally be caught up with all we have been doing this summer. We haven't gone anywhere on a family vacation but we have enjoyed the pool, our new trampoline, the movies, the circus, VBS, other church activities, and keeping up with gymnastics. A couple of weeks ago, Caleb was invited up to "Team Cypress" which is the competition level of gymnastics. He now goes 3 nights a week for 3 hours each night! He is still enjoying it a lot and now we are carpooling with another mom so we don't have to be up there every night. This fall will be spent fundraising to offset the cost of competitions which start in January.

So we have been adjusting to the new schedule but still enjoying a relaxing summer. The other day I took the kids to the pool and realized I hadn't taken any pictures of them swimming so I brought my camera and caught some pictures of them having fun. Elizabeth began the summer readjusting to the water but now she is a fish again. Caleb as usual is a strong swimmer and loves every minute of it.

The kids have wanted a trampoline for awhile and we had set aside some money for it. We finally decided to get it as we had noticed some of the boys in gymnastics with trampolines at home are improving a lot in their flips. This gives Caleb a place to practice at home. The day we bought it, the rain finally arrived and we had to wait, so Caleb put in a request for us to put it up one night while he was at gymnastics. Elizabeth was a big helper and got to enjoy it for a little while by herself since Caleb was at gymnastics. It was hot so she enjoyed a popsicle while she rested. When Caleb got home that night, he and Daddy jumped a little.

It has been a good summer and I can't believe school starts in just 3 weeks! I will be glad to get back into a good routine though!

Power Up Vacation Bible School

I struggled this year with whether we would do VBS with our church. Since our campus meets in a temporary facility, VBS would be held at 3 of the other campuses. For awhile I debated on which campus I would go to because they are a bit of a drive, one more difficult than the other because it would be through morning rush hour traffic. It turns out that the more difficult one was the one that everyone I knew and my children knew would be going to. I asked Caleb whether he wanted to go and he didn't so I figured my decision was made. The Sunday before it began, a friend stopped me in church and asked me whether I was going. I started to explain to him that Caleb wasn't interested when Caleb stopped me and said he had changed his mind. What? It starts tomorrow! So needless to say, everything changed in that moment and we were headed to VBS. I was a little frazzled that suddenly I was consumed with volunteering at VBS, but also glad because I knew the kids would have fun and it would all be worth it in the end.

I was very right! The kids had an absolute blast and I did too. I volunteered at the CD/t-shirt sales table and got to meet lots of great people and also see some people that I hadn't seen since Heath and I were first married when we last attended Second Baptist. It brought back a ton of memories being back at the main campus because that was where we went when we dated, where I had my first job in Texas, where I did my student teaching, where we got married, I could go on and on. What spoke volumes to me about our church is the number of people still on staff at this church even after 10 years. Often times you see a lot of turnover but not at Second. So many of the same pastors and staff are still there going back all the way to when Heath first started going.

Anyway, back to VBS. Each day the kids went to their respective classes and learned bible stories and did crafts and made new friends. The highlight was the "Big Show" everyday. Second's Children's ministry has a group of Superheroes that were in the "Big Show" last year and appear occasionally through the year. Well this year in the show they were invaded by pirates who were trying to steal their power (not knowing until the last day that God was the source of their power). Each day the story continued until Friday when the pirates became Super Heroes as well. The music and the show was great and by the end of the week we knew all the songs and owned the CD. Thursday and Friday the Super Heroes and pirates came out for pictures and our shy little Elizabeth was all about getting photos with them.

This picture is with Zoink and he is actually the Children's pastor at our campus, so Caleb and Elizabeth have a special place in their heart for him.

This is Zip and Elizabeth wants us to do her hair like her. She might need to grow it a little longer!

Elizabeth and Zap

These were two of the pirates: Tongue-tied Taylor was hilarious as you could never understand him and Two-patch Tyler wore two patches to be more scary but ran into everything because he couldn't see.

This was Mean Marge. The funny story behind this picture is that after I picked Elizabeth up that day she told me that she didn't like Marge because she was mean. No sooner had she said that and we walked into the atrium of the church and there were all the characters. She immediately went to all of them but kept avoiding Marge. Marge was standing by herself and Elizabeth cut her eyes over at her and walked as far away as possible. I went up to Marge and told her that Elizabeth wouldn't come near her because she thought she was mean. It took us a few minutes but we convinced her she wasn't really mean and she took her picture with her.

This was Captain Zirk and by this time we had picked Caleb up from class and he joined in.

This picture was taken with the Commissioner over the Super Heroes on the last day of VBS.

Another one with Captain Zirk on the last day of VBS.

She has the biggest smile in this picture. She really enjoyed every minute of VBS!

This was Mean Marge after she became a Super Hero.

The pirates after they became Super Heroes.

It was a great week and even though our days started at 7:45 with a 45 minute drive down to the main campus (an hour and a half one day when there was a wreck!) and not getting home until after 2 everyday, we had a lot of fun and will definitely do it next year. The following week, VBS was at another campus and the kids asked to do it again, but I just couldn't! One week was enough! We look forward to next year!

Church Picnic

This summer our church has had Summer Family Nights each Sunday for about 4 weeks. It started with family bowling where Caleb bowled a 132 and led his 4 year old teammates to win the Kids division! The next week was country dancing at a local VFW and then on July 5th our church had a picnic at a local YMCA. We all brought our own food and there were games, bounce houses, watermelon, and ice cream. In good southern picnic style, we decided to pick up Kentucky Fried Chicken!

We love doing things with our church and this was no exception. It has been fun getting to know more church members in different venues and hopefully activities like this will continue beyond the summer.
One of the activities was tug of war. They also had relay races and balloon tosses.

After the tug of war, the kids found some water guns and decided to heck with their clothes, it was too hot not to get in the water. This is Caleb and our friend Emma.

Elizabeth didn't get in the pool but got squirted a few times!

Elizabeth enjoyed the slide while Caleb was getting soaked in the nasty, muddy, pool!

This is the final result of Caleb shortly before we left!

Another fun, hot summer night! The following week we had a movie night. The church set up "Bolt" in one room and "Fireproof" in another. They sold popcorn and candy and we brought our lawn chairs and got to watch a movie drive-in style without bugs and the hot, humid temperature.

Friends and fireworks

Yes it is almost the end of July and I am finally updating on all that we have been up to. For the 4th we had some friends from church over for a cookout and then we headed out to Waller (a nearby town going out towards the country) for a concert and fireworks. They had a christian band playing, the Robbie Seah band, so we sat in the stadium and enjoyed that for awhile.

Towards the end of the concert we headed out to the parking lot and set up our chairs around our cars for the fireworks. We were right under where they were setting them off so it was perfect. We enjoyed fellowshipping some more.

In the picture below, from the left after our family, are Stephen and Tiffani and their three boys, Riley, Wesley, and Andrew. Stephen is the campus pastor at our Cypress campus. Next beside them in the back is Lisa, then Paul and Megan, and then Cody and Corby. All of us went together on beach retreat and work with the youth at our church.

We had a great time hanging out and the fireworks were great. We had a neat experience when a small group next to us asked us where we went to church. They said they could tell by the way we were acting and treating each other and no drinking was involved that we were from a church. What a reminder that people are always watching and even the way you interact with other people can speak volumes!