One busy week

If you read this during the week and have a few moments, please pray for us! Or me, anyway. It is a super-busy week, and I am not a super high-energy person who thrives on that sort of thing. So please pray for me to make it through with some sort of grace and patience for my children!

Caleb and Elizabeth are going to VBS every morning this week from 9-12, which is mostly good, it's just a rush getting out of the house - then we pick them up and speed to swimming lessons at 12:20. We have meetings/events every evening this week. This morning I had another appointment at 9:45 plus staff fellowship at our house at noon. Tomorrow Emma and I will head out early to Tulare, CA with a few other women to check out a thrift store there and get ideas for ours here. Then we head back to Fresno and I'll maybe meet up with Luke at the swimming lessons and take the kids swimming at a pool to meet our summer college interns!

And next Monday we leave town for our 3-week east coast tour!

Whoever said summers were lazy???

Babysitting Co-Op Fun!

Last week was our last turn babysitting all the kids for the wonderful co-op - at least till fall anyway. So we had a water fun time! We even broke out the slip 'n slide. Luke is such a big kid himself, he enjoyed it too! So enjoy the pictures!

And the music is in honor of Caleb, our own pirate boy.

Friends and family

We've enjoyed more visits with friends and family. This is the year when everyone is visiting us, and it's such a huge blessing for us. Last weekend Luke's sister Hannah and her husband Steve were on a cross-country driving vacation and they stopped with us for a few days. We took them to Avila beach one day. It was 55 degrees there when we arrived - and only about 58 when we left. Such is the nature of CA beaches. But of course our kids went swimming. Caleb loved the frigid water. Emma ate lots of sand and crawled around chasing birds. Oh - and Elizabeth lost her first tooth last Saturday! She is growing up...

Today my friend Kerry (from middle school, high school, etc.)and her husband and kids came to see us for just a little while. They live near San Jose now, so we've been able to see them a couple times a year, but they are moving to Washington, D.C. in the fall! We will miss seeing them so often. sigh...

Our kids love to have visitors and count the minutes until more arrive. I think now it is our turn to be the visitors - only 4 weeks until our big trip.

Recent fun kid quote:
Caleb: God is in Pennsylvania. We better go there.
Mommy: God is everywhere, Caleb.
Elizabeth (very thoughtfully): Except Canada.

Sorry to any Canadians out there!!! We know He's there too!!