15th Anniversary Trip

This summer Scott and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary! So hard to believe that it has been that long since we said "I Do."  We went again this year to the Southwest Perio meeting in San Antonio at La Cantera.  But this time my Mom took Monday off work so we could stay an extra night and truly enjoy ourselves once the meeting was over.  I had mentioned to Scott that this might be a possibility, but guess I never told him that we were for sure going to do it, so we ended up having to find a different hotel for that final night.  But it turned out great because we were able to get a room at the Embassy Suites on the Riverwalk, and we had never stayed directly on the Riverwalk before.  Scott wasn't too interested in the topic at the meeting, so we actually spent quite a bit of time together relaxing at the pool on Saturday and again on Sunday.  I also took the shuttle over and did a little shopping on Saturday, and we even went back and did some more together on Sunday.  We went out Saturday night for our anniversary dinner to a place that was recommended to us called Silo Elevated Cuisine.  The hostess desk was on the bottom floor and then you rode an elevator up to be seated in the dining room.  The food was amazing (probably some of the best shrimp I've ever had), but unfortunately our moods were not quite on par for celebrating our anniversary.  On the way to the restaurant we received news from a friend that Kent Brantly had contracted Ebola.  It was such a tough blow and we were beyond concerned for our friend and his family.  After discussing it for a little while at the restaurant we tried our best to move on and enjoy the evening.  Needless to say, it was an anniversary we will never forget!  After dinner we decided to forgo dessert at Silo and head over to BJ's for one of our favorite tasty treats- a pizookie.  The pizookie was delicious and it was kind of fun to go to another restaurant for dessert just because we could.  We decided to fast for breakfast and lunch on Sunday in honor of Kent and we spent the first half of the day relaxing by the pool and shopping.  Late afternoon we headed downtown and checked into our hotel on the Riverwalk.  Our room keys didn't work and they had to get a maintenance man to come fix the lock, so they gave us a free pay-per-view movie for the inconvenience- sweet!  After checking out our cozy little room that felt like an upscale downtown apartment, we headed out to the Riverwalk for some Mexican food.  After dinner we walked around until we were hungry for ice cream and then went back to our room after that so we could watch our movie.  We finished up the trip with a stop at Canyon Cafe on our way out of town Monday to pick up 2 orders of their delicious chips and salsa- one for us and one for our hardworking babysitters.  Despite the horrible news about our friend and brother in Christ, it was a great trip with the two things that we wanted most- quality time together and relaxation!

Family Mission Trip- Camp Contact Tulsa, OK

the van crew- ready for the trip to Tulsa

Rather than take a big family vacation, we decided again this year to go on a Family Mission trip with a group from our church.  The destination this year- Tulsa, OK- was not quite as exciting as New Jersey/New York last year, but it sure was easy travel-wise and it was a wonderful opportunity for a group like ours to serve the Lord.  While there we were able to mentor and teach lots of underprivileged kids about Jesus and show them God's love.  Our family and the Williams family drove up together on Saturday in one of the church vans.  We worshiped at Contact C of C on Sunday morning and attended an orientation that afternoon.  Near the end of orientation the rest of our group- comprised of some college students, young professionals and Joe Bullock- arrived and helped us put up all the decorations some of the girls had made for the VBS camp.  We finished off the night with some tasty Hideaway pizza.  The camp ran Monday through Thursday with a field trip to finish it off on Friday morning.  Everyone in our group was assigned a buddy (camper) to stick with and get to know during the week.  Avery and a girl from a nearby neighborhood were my buddies.  Kendall had a buddy from a small town in Oklahoma and Juson was one of Scott's buddies.  We spent the week singing, praying, hearing Bible stories, watching skits, doing crafts, playing games, reading, and eating with our buddies.  One day of the camp our group was responsible for teaching the morning and afternoon Bible lessons, leading the craft and games, and performing a skit.  Speaking of the skit, Emmelie Pickett came up with a hilarious skit for us to perform that was a modern-day, American Idol-style take on the story of Esther.  Since one of the usual reading teachers had recently gotten a full time job, I was also asked to lead the kindergarten and 1st grade reading lesson/time for the first few days of camp.  Another activity that our group did was to organize and host a cookout in one of the neighborhoods where a lot of the campers live.  We had watermelon and Spencer Thompson grilled chicken and vegetables for everyone.  He is a great cook and handled the pressure of feeding so many very well.  One of the fun things we got to do in Tulsa that was unrelated to the camp was to go have dinner at Mitch and Shannon Wilburn's house - Scott's youth minister.  We had a great time catching up with them and hearing Mitch's funny stories.  We ended the week with a field trip to the Bowling Alley on Friday morning, which was fun for everyone.  After driving across town for some Taco Tico only to discover that it had changed to a burger joint, we headed back home with full hearts and some great memories.

the king's guards or "bouncers" (Scott and Robert) escorting one of the "contestants" off the stage during our skit

Mordecai (with crazy hair) and the bouncers

Avery and Judson watching a skit

Kendall with her big buddy

two of the camp staff members performed a skit for the kids every day

my two "queens"

Avery doing one of her crafts

craft time!

Avery, Kendall and Katherine

Spencer entertaining Avery, Kendall and Caroline

"Going to the Lodge. . . Great Wolf Lodge"

waiting for the clock tower show to begin

Over 4th of July weekend we did one of our funnest activities of the summer: Great Wolf Lodge.  We checked in early on the afternoon of the 4th and spent the rest of the afternoon at the water aprk.  Scott and I took turns swimming with Judson in the shallow pool, wave pool and lazy river while the other one got to go on slides with the girls.  There were some really fun rides and we all had a lot of fun!  After dinner there at the resort, we watched the nightly clock tower show, took the kids to the ice cream parlor downstairs, and let them pick out their MagiQuest wands.  The kids were so excited about our room, which had a little log cabin inside of it with bunk beds for the kids.  They had a good time playing on those beds and peeking their heads out of the little windows and things.  Since we watched fireworks in Roanoke the night before, we opted to hit the sack early so we could be rested for more water park fun the following day.  After taking the kids to get donuts for breakfast in Coppell, we went around the hotel for awhile playing MagiQuest, which was really neat.  Then we headed out to the water park and spent most of the day there.  We had so much fun and the kids are already asking when we can go back!

Ice cream!  Besides an ice cream parlor, they also had a kids' spa, a take-out pizza place, an arcade, gift shop and starbucks, and the MagiQuest game.

the clock tower show

One of the Lodge mascots

Judson sat with Poppi while he finished his ice cream and watched the clock tower show

Avery and Kendall getting into the show

The MagiQuest store had several different colors of wands, lots of different wand toppers, plus belts and other accessories

Avery chose a red wand with a dragon topper, Judson chose blue with a wolf topper, and Kendall chose red with a unicorn horn topper. They activate them at the store so they will light up and work during the game. 

Avery got the top bunk.  Nice photo bomb Daddy!

Kendall had the bottom bunk with this fun little window.

Peek-a-boo!

Silly girl

Judson's bed was just a single across from the girl's bunk bed, but he had a fun window as well.

Kendall all ready for bed in the Log cabin.  There were lots of cute animals like this moose painted on the wall

Sweet boy all cuddled down

Kendall found a clue! After picking a quest and receiving directions from the starting point, you went through the hotel finding things and following clues to complete the quest.  The kids really loved this game and it really captured their imaginations.

Once we found each thing, all the kids had to hold their wand up to it in order to activate it and move on to the next part of the quest.

Searching for more clues

some of the items to find were on pictures hanging in the hallways or stairwells

some of the clues came from videos on these little kiosks

some were "enchanted" objects like this

Happy Birthday USA!

Mommy, Kendall, Scott, and Avery (who knows where Jud was?)

Last year we began a new tradition of going to Roanoke's Independence Day celebration, which is held on July 3rd.  Amy and Mike were still in town visiting from California, so we met up with them and Tom and Jan to catch the fireworks show that night.  Eva, Judson, and Mason were all a little scared of the loud noise and watched some of the fireworks from inside the car, but they still enjoyed it.  As usual, it was a good fireworks show and we enjoyed having some extra company along this year to watch with us.

Mommy, Kendall and Daddy

Scott and I

The girls- Eva, Avery, and Kendall

Who's this cool dude?

All the kids in the back of Scott's truck:  Avery, Mason, Kendall, Judson and Eva