VBS

The girls attend Vacation Bible School at our church this week.  

Each day was a different theme.  

Can you guess what today's was?  

No the color on your computer or the picture is not off!

It was crazy hair day!  Taylor wanted pink hair and Kendall wanted purple, surprise surprise.

That evening they had a family night.  They had worship, singing, hot dogs, snow cones, and water slides!

Taylor, Miss K, Kendall, and Miss E

Arizona Part 2

Thursday morning the girls and I went to The Children's Museum of Phoenix.  We went there last summer and the girls loved it so they asked to go back.

Of course they loved the Climber and I had to pry them off of it.

They are at the very top

They're trapped!

Taylor did a little painting

I asked one of the workers what they do with the rocket when they are done with it and she said that it will eventually brake from all the paint and they throw them away.  She said it ends up with about 200 layers of paint and they rotate colors everyday.

Did some desert art

This section was new and it was super cool.  The whole wall was covered the a velcro like material and they had a huge bucket full of words so the kids could make funny sentences with them.

Kendall's sentence

A fabric tree house

 A wall of rubber feeling shoes

The girls wanted to play in the market, which I was surprised at, but the way they play now is much different.  I watched both of them shopping with their carts and it was really interesting to see what they would pick.  

This is Taylor's cart- chocolate milk, mac and cheese, Girl Scout cookies, and LOTS of fruits and veggies.  Pretty much her in a nut shell.

We had races in the Noodle Forest

After we had our fill of the children's museum we went to B.A. and Amy's house for some more fun.

I mentioned earlier that Amy is extremely knowledgeable about art and she offered to do some arts and crafts with the girls (their favorite) so we took her up on that.

First project was to learn about Dale Chihuly (if you been to the Bellagio in the lobby you have seen his work) who is known for his blown glass artwork.  They took Shrinky Dink paper and acrylic paint  to design it and then stuck it in the oven for about 10 seconds and the paper shrinks and curls up to look similar to his work.  I didn't get an after picture but we will be doing this project again.

Gavin, Kendall, and Taylor busy painting

Next up was a lesson about clay sculpting.  I was not real good at this.

Kendall with her snake

After we baked them and let the sculptures cool they painted them.

And of course some swimming

Silly children

Friday was our last day to have some fun and the kids wanted to go to an indoor trampoline place.

Taylor getting a lesson in ping pong from Shane

After lunch Amy dropped us off at the movie theatre to meet Mama Edson to go watch Brave

Mama Edson, Kendall, Gavin, Shane, and Taylor

Later that evening we went to the boys baseball practice to watch and say good-bye.  It was really hot in Phoenix (like 111 hot) so thank goodness their practice was in the evening.

Papa with the girls

One last picture before we left.

The girls and I had the best time visiting and exploring this week.  We decided that it would become an annual summer trip!  Thanks Mama Edson, Papa, B.A., Amy, Gavin and Shane for making our week super fun.

Arizona Trip Part 1

The girls and I flew out to Phoenix on Sunday to spend the week with my grandparents and Aunt Amy, Uncle BA, and their two boys (Gavin and Shane).

They picked us up from the airport (after an almost 2 hour delayed) and we all met and had dinner.  

Monday,  Mama Edson, all the kids, and I loaded up and headed to Cerreta Candy Company.  We actually missed the official tour they give but everything is right there so you can see it all.

This is a 500 pound solid Santa!

A popcorn Easter Bunny (over 6 feet tall)

and a football and cactus made from chocolate.

Part of the factory.

Mama Edson let the kids load up on goodies!

Gavin and Shane got a massive bag of popcorn for $3!

Later that night Papa got in on the fun by having noodle war with the kids in the pool.

Taylor, Kendall, and Shane

Papa and the kids

Tuesday the girls swam and we hung out at the house.  Then Amy and the boys came over to visit for a bit and we took an impromptu to trip to the Basha Gallery of Western American & Native American Art.  It is super close to where they live and not real big so the kids wouldn't get bored.  Amy is extremely knowledgeable about art so it was awesome to go with her.  The kids got a great lesson about color, line, shape, and texture and about the art that we saw.  

Shane had baseball practice so Gavin came back to Papa's house to swim with the girls.

Wednesday we went to a Diamondback Games at Chase Field!

B.A. and Amy have great season tickets that are just to the left of home plate and about 10 rows up.  The girls have never been to a professional baseball game before so they had a bunch of questions and thought is was pretty cool.  They loved being able to order food and drinks right from our seats!

Kendall said she didn't want to get a DBacks shirt because it wasn't Baylor, I tried explaining the difference to her but no matter what I said it didn't make a difference.

Shane (10), Taylor (6), Kendall (7), and Gavin (10)

After a few innings we went up to the third deck and met some of the "heros" and had pictures taken.  I can't remember who this is :( Oops!

The players looked like ants from up here

It was super fun afternoon.  Thanks B.A. and Amy!

PIne Cove

Monday while Ryan and I were on our way back from vacation Kendall and Taylor where headed to their first day of Pine Cove.

Pine Cove Base Camp is a Christian based day camp that was held at our church here in Austin.  I was a little nervous about sending them because it was all day (from 9-4) but they had been "advertising" it in Sunday school and the girls had been asking to go.  So when Ryan and I got to Charlotte I called the girls to hear about how their first day went.  I asked Kendall if it was good and her reply was "no it wasn't good it was awesome"!  That is exactly how they felt after camp everyday.

So on Tuesday I was excited to take the girls to see what all the hype was about.  Well it didn't take long because as soon as we pulled into the parking lot there were about 20 people cheering and dancing around welcoming you to camp.  The energy was ecstatic!

Here is Kendall, Miss E (a school friend), and Taylor 

Everyday the girls came home going on and on about all the things they learned about Jesus and all the amazing fun activities that they did.  Some of activities they did were: bungee trampoline, obstacle course, bounce houses, fashion show, laser tag, water slides, spider web, tie dying shirts and so on.

The last day their invited parents to come an hour early to show off all the cheers, dances, and songs that they had learned.  I just sat there and smiled the whole time because everyone was having so much fun.

Taylor's counselor was "Pickle Sickle" and she loved her.  Thursday when I picked her up Pickle Sickle told me that Taylor had something to tell me and Ta had a huge smile on her face and she told me "I asked Jesus into my heart" and my heart melted.  It was such a special day for her and me.  Later that night we talked in depth about it and she just told me "she loved him and wanted to live for him".  Love that girl!

Pickle Sickle and Taylor

The last day after showing off they split off into their small groups.  Their leader had prepared a certificate of recognition for each kid.

This is Taylor's and she pretty much summed her up.

This is Kendall and "Waddles"

Kendall's certificate and Waddles did a great job of describing of her!

This was a super special week for the girls and they are already asking to go to the overnight camp!  The camp did an incredible job of recruiting college counselors to guide the kids throughout the week.  The girls are still walking around singing and do the fun little chants that they learned.  We will definitely be attending Pine Cove again.

Paradise Day 5 & 6

Sunday was our last full day there so we decided to not do anything (I know we didn't do much the other days as well) except enjoy the beautiful scenery and each other. 

Ryan spent a ton of time swimming and floating in the water, I think he is half fish.  You can see he head floating out there.

These lizards were running around everywhere at the resort and they are super fast!

Having a drink before dinner

Having dinner on the roof top

Yet another breath taking sunset

When we got back to our room we had some yummy chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us from the resort.

Monday we slept in, packed up, and had one last lunch before we said good-bye to Turks & Caicos.

I will miss that place, it was the most beautiful place that I have ever been and Ryan and I had a wonderful week together. 

I will close this series of post with one last picture of the water, that I can't stop talking about.