Last weekend was almost the perfect summer weekend for me. On the Fourth we headed to Tulare, CA for a birthday party with friends including a wonderful pool to swim in and delicious tri-tip to eat. Okay, if you're not from CA, you probably don't know what tri-tip is, so it's a specific cut of beef and there's only one on a cow, it's kind of like a steak and when we looked up a definition online, it said, "most cuts of tri-tip are sent to California" So we greedy Californians get to eat it all. Then we headed west to Hanford, CA to see our usual fireworks show. To hold to tradition, the kids ate snow cones, and shared them as you can see. I love to see Elizabeth being a little mother and sharing with Emma to make her happy. It was a gorgeous day, only about 92 degrees, so by the time it got dark, it actually felt cool! Emma screamed when the fireworks started, but I put my hands over her ears, and then she was okay. The kids loved the fireworks and so did I, as usual. 
Saturday I headed up to Shaver Lake, CA with a group of 15 women - some on W.I. staff and some from the community - for a one-night camping trip/mini-retreat. There is a retired couple who built a beautiful home and on their property also built a camp area for people from the inner city to experience camping. There are 3 tent cabins with cots and sleeping bags; an outdoor cook tent; and these amazing showers that are open to the sky. How fun it is to take a shower and be looking up at the incredibly blue sky and towering pine trees... Our host also has a large pontoon boat and took us all out on the lake for a few hours. He always takes us to a cove that it only accessible to boats so there are way less people. We hung out and swam, jumped off rocks, sat in the sun, etc. We also had awesome worship times and a "God date" on Sunday morning.
What else can you ask for on a summer weekend?
