a mini vacation

 The girls earned a trip to Pottery Bayou to create some Christmas ornaments.

 Anna chose an owl.

 Maria picked a snowman.

 I did help Anna bit.

 Posing with their creations.

 We headed to Indy on Saturday and stopped at Fort Harrison State Park to play, eat a picnic lunch and attempt to hike.  The girls didn't last long.

 But they did have fun playing.

 They had a really cool slide in the side of the hill.

 Daddy even tried it out.

 Our next destination was to Elisabeth's 6th birthday party.  The girls were friends back in Culver, but we haven't seen them since we moved.  It was a surprise for both girls!

 The four girls!

 My good friend Kim.

 The were so excited to stay in a hotel, especially to go swimming.

 We spent Sat. night visiting with friends and swam in the morning and then we went to visit some other friends.  We ate lunch with them and then hit the road.

We had to stop along the way for a short treat diversion.  Can anyone figure out where this is?  Maria is only slightly covering the town's name, but it's the specific place we stopped that had us driving a bit out of the way to stop.
We have plenty to praise God for; a chance to get away as a family and see some friends. 

Royle visit

We went to visit our friends last weekend that we hadn't seen in 4 years, ironically when their youngest was a brand new baby.  Now their 3rd and youngest turned 1, so we thought it about time to head that way.  It was a three hour trip, but the girls handled it relatively well.  We enjoyed visiting and seeing the kids play together like they were old friends.  I stayed up till 1am chatting with my friend Rachel.  It reminded me of times in Ecuador(we lived with the same family while we were both there) when we would sit in the kitchen and talk way too late while eating a snack.  We hope that it doesn't take another 4 years till we see them again!

 The Birthday girl

 He was picking flowers for Larry and I.

 so serious

 playing "sleep-over"

 getting his order for restaurant

 busy at play

 I made this outfit for her big sister 3 years ago!

 precious

Too bad we didn't line them up in age order, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

We have plenty to praise; friends we enjoy visiting even after 4 years apart.

summer

 The girls have enjoyed swim lessons for the past two weeks.  Maria has gotten more confident, although she still doesn't care for jumping in, especially in the deep end.  Anna can't move herself around the pool as well as Maria can, but she's got a couple years to catch up to big sis!

We were excited to have our friends come to visit today, even though it was sweltering today.  The thermometer was reading 103, and that is on the shady side of our house!  Yikes, we'll stay inside.

The kids had fun in the pool, Zane expecially enjoyed helping Anna to be a water fountain.

We have plenty to praise God for; fun with friends.