Summer number four

The week after we came home from Boston, Chad and I were off to Blue Haven for the summer. The kids stayed back in Lubbock with some friends while we got things settled at camp. It was great to have the time to get lots of work done, but we were very ready to get the kids back...it had been almost two weeks that we had been away, with a couple days in between our trip to Boston and when we left for Blue Haven. The following pictures are some that we have taken during the past month. I'm glad it's part of our job at camp to take pictures, because otherwise I'm afraid we wouldn't have any at the end of the summer. 

Ivy on Bling Day

 Ivy found the wipes while she was supposed to be napping

 Uncle Joey cut Ezra's hair

 Chad and Ezra on Twins Day

 On a particularly hot half day hike day, while the campers were gone, we thought it'd be fun to turn the sprinklers on in Michael and Jan's yard. Ivy didn't think it was so fun.

 Ezra did, but the water was COLD!

 Reckless abandon

 Pretty nieces--we are so glad we get to spend summers with Chad's sister and her family. Most of our immediate family comes up at some point during the summer too, and for two weeks, all three of Chad's siblings and our families are together. It's great!

 Ezra and Norah LOVE each other. We decided last year that June and Ezra butt heads because they are a lot alike. These two are TROUBLE. Usually when I can't find Ezra, I know he's with Norah, and vice versa. Norah has the sweetest, tiniest little voice and says his name "Ess-wuh" and it is so cute.

 Ivy with her Bling on Bling Day

 Getting creative with olives

 Seriously creepy. I am married to one of these people. Hard to tell which here. That is Chad's older sister Emily on the left. They really do look a lot alike in real life, but this is just crazy.

 Pretty sure Ezra has had a beard for all three twins days

 Riley and Ivy as twins

 Ezra before pre-camper talent show skit--they said Psalm 23

 Nerd day!

 I am so glad we found each other.

 How BLUE are you? day

 Chad has the nickname "Taco Chad" that the campers shout during the talent show. I think it's cause he wore a taco costume at some point last year. Anyway, it stuck, and here's the costume again. First session calls him Turtle Chad because he wore a black turtleneck when he emceed the talent show. Funny how things become "tradition."

 Crazy hat and hair day. Funny enough, I got lots of compliments on this 'do. I think I will wear my hair like this when I start my new job. The English teacher is supposed to be weird.

 We love the cooks! And they love Ezra. They made him a special cookie and he felt very loved.

 See? Trouble.

 We are having a great time this summer. It finally started raining which means much cooler weather, and we hope, campfires and opening up the National Forest for hiking at some point. We are enjoying time with family and friends and just being a part of this ministry. Ezra is really having a blast this year and gets a bit more independence than he has had in the past. He loves playing with his cousins and friends who come to visit. Ivy is growing up. She toddles everywhere now, and in true toddler fashion, shrieks "NO!" when you are not doing her bidding. She is mostly very sweet, adorable, and laid back, but she has her moments. She still doesn't talk much, but can understand pretty much everything we say, and responds with a subtle shake or nod of the head. She has learned "If you're happy and you know it" and can point to her cheeks and smile big, as in, she's happy and she knows it and her face surely shows it. She has started combining this with the sign for "please" when she wants something, so she signs "please" and then puts her pointer fingers to her cheeks and smiles really big. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Ezra is so fun these days, except when he doesn't want to listen or do what we say, but MOST of the time he is sweet and pretty obedient and polite too. Like I mentioned in the earlier blog post, he enjoys Star Wars, especially "Return 'to' the Jedi," and still has fun wearing capes and dressing up.

That's about it for now. Thanks for reading.

May the force be with you

Ezra loves both Angry Birds and Star Wars these days. The blanket is a long story, but let's just say he found an early Christmas present hiding in the closet at one of his grandparents' house. He was so enamored with the blanket that he immediately attached himself to it, forsaking his beloved "fuzzy blanket" (which the same grandparents gave him when he was born). Sad day. Anyway, I caught some photos of him playing Angry Birds Star Wars (did you know that existed? Ezra did...when he found it in the app store.) and wearing Yoda Blanket, which he can't sleep without these days. 

Take that, rewind it back

Kind of hard to update what all has been going on in our lives in just a few blog posts, but I had a little extra time while I'm working on the 3rd session slideshow, so here it is. A rewind of the past few months.

In May Chad's work sent him to a national nursing conference in Boston. I tagged along. It was so fun to visit a part of the country we had never been to before! I did some sightseeing on my own, and I can't remember what some of these pictures are, but here you go. This was in Boston Commons. It was a memorial to the Boston Massacre victims, but the site was elsewhere (and I took pictures on my phone, which I have not uploaded, so just google "Boston Massacre Site" and you can see it).

 The Boston Public Garden was BEAUTIFUL. Just FYI though, there might be a lady from Turkey wanting to borrow your phone to call her family back home.

 The sculpture honoring the book "Make Way for Ducklings." I should read that to my kids. We have it at home.

 The only picture Chad and I took together, even though we were with friends the whole time. Not the best, but oh well. Here we are at the Granary Burial Ground. One of my favorite sights.

 Lots of dead folks. FAMOUS dead folks, though!

 This guy's name was Ezra. See, we didn't make it up after all! And it's not just from the Bible!

 Peter Faneuil--the guy whose family Faneuil Hall was named after

 Look at all the people in this one spot! They just dug up the dirt and put another body in there every time someone died. The information said that at one point, it was a pretty gross place, and bodies were resurfacing. Ewwww

 Samuel Adams.

 Mother Goose's grave had bird poop on it. Definition of irony. Although anyone from Lubbock can tell you that is NOT goose poop.

 Paul Revere's grave.

We also went to the Old State House, a bunch of good places to eat, did the freedom trail, the USS Constitution, and probably some other stuff I am forgetting. It was a fun, whirlwind trip right before we left for Blue Haven!