Branson Family Vacation

Every year, my parents take us on a week long vacation. This year, we chose to go to Branson, Missouri. It's a place we frequently visited when I was growing up, so it was really fun to be able to relive all my childhood memories with my own kids!

The first day we went to Silver Dollar City. All Abby wanted to do that day was walk which unfortunately she can't do independently yet. Luckily, there were enough of us, we could take turns!
Noah got to ride another train. There were plenty of kiddie rides (he loved the teacups!) and shops to browse through.

Noah loved the ball pit. There were vacuum hoses that could suck up the balls -- he got a kick out of that!



It was blazing hot the first half of the day, then in a matter of a few minutes, it cooled off and was incredibly comfortable! Then suddenly it started pouring on us! I don't think anyone complained though. It felt so nice after the heat! We crawled through the landscaping to find some shelter.

Here's one of my favorite parts of Silver Dollar City -- the winding and hilly streets.

Luke and Matthew participated in some kids games.....

The cabin we stayed in was beautiful! Every room had a big jacuzzi tub. The kids enjoyed bathtime more than ever! Abby would always drink out of the faucet.

I couldn't leave this picture out. Dad and Caleb (my brother) worked on bubbles for a couple hours seeing how big they could make them!

We spent a couple days on the lake. Cool Aunt Cindy has some friends with a lake house and a swimming dock. We rode in the boat, went tubing, and swimming all day. It was wonderful! The kids were stuck in their life jackets the whole time. But they eventually adjusted!

Noah and Luke went on the waverunner -- Noah was a big fan!

Luke lost his watch by toothpicking through the center of a tube. He came up with all kinds of contraptions and spent hours trying to retrieve it from the bottom of the lake, but all were unsuccessful. I think these pictures will always make me laugh!

Luke's big catch!

Here are the kids down at The Landing in front of the fountain show. I love the look on Noah's face!

There was a candy shop that had a train running around the top. Noah wasn't as interested in the candy, but the train -- that's what he wanted to see!

Noah's first mini golf experience.

The last night we all went to the Dixie Stampede. We cheered for the South and had a great time!

Noah's third birthday was on Saturday (the day we had to pack up and leave.) This was try number two for his birthday breakfast. The first time he threw up everywhere. But after an hour he felt better and wanted his cinnamon roll!

That's the brief version of our vacation. I seemed to speed through it the longer I typed! We had a wonderful and relaxing time and made some great memories!

Noah's Train Ride

Anyone who has been around Noah the last few months will know he has a major fascination with trains. He loves to build tracks and drive his trains all around. He'll come up with different scenarios -- like a train is trying really hard to get up the hill but can't, so his friend will come help. Or a train gets derailed, so the breakdown train has to come to get him back on the track. His trains have regular conversations which are really funny to listen in on!

Anyway, we were back in Missouri recently, and my Mom took Noah on a real live Amtrak train ride from Sedalia to Warrensburg (about a 30 minute ride). Noah thought it was AWESOME! He was all smiles.

Here we are waiting at the station.

When the train finally came, we realized we were on the wrong side of the tracks, so we had to cross the tracks and race around to the other side of the train. It was kind of a fiasco because we thought the train was leaving. But then, when we got to where we needed to be, we had to stand and wait (and sweat!) for about 15 minutes while they helped some wheelchair passengers off.

It was all worth it though. Noah had a blast! Mom said he was in awe -- all he wanted to do was look out the window. She took him to the snack car where he picked out a cinnamon roll. Today, if I ask him about his train ride, that's pretty much all he says -- that Grammy bought him a snack!

He'd cover his ears everytime the train blew its whistle. I guess he didn't like the loud noise! But he couldn't stop checking things out!

Birthdays, Ballgames and Camping Out

Here's how we've spent our last two weeks:

For some reason, it struck me that I've never had Abby sit down and color. She got a kick out of it for a little while, and then decided it was more fun to eat the crayons and the paper!


While Abby was coloring, Noah practiced his cutting and pasting skills!



There's a new minor league baseball team in town, so our fellowship team set a night aside for us to all attend. It started with a tailgate party at the church.

Then we went to the new stadium! It was the first time either of our kids have been to a big sporting event like this. They thought it was pretty cool!

The stadium is set up really well -- there's really not a bad seat in the whole place! We were only two rows up from the field!

The kids lasted about an hour and then were ready to go home. My mom happened to be visiting, so she took the kids back and Luke and I got to stay out on a real date! It was kind of weird being together.....alone.....with the other 200 people from church -- but definitely a treat to have a night out without the kids!

We've been enjoying the hot summer nights! Here are the kids on the deck!

Our little "baby" turned one on the 15th! That was a quick year! Abby has a precious personality. Just tonight someone was telling me how even tempered she it. She's very seldom crabby and gets excited so easily!

We had a little birthday party for her here. My mom was here, and we invited Emily (Noah's best friend/our ever faithful babysitter/and our friend too!) over.

Abby was thrilled to get something sweet!

Luke took Noah "camping out" in our backyard. Noah was THRILLED! As soon as Luke and Mom started setting up the tent, he started going crazy! He was running circles through the tent.

Abby had her fair share of fun before she got kicked out.....it was boy's only, you know!

Luke had been very diligently, watching for a good night to do this. Unfortunately, it ended up pouring rain on them! The tent did a good job of keeping them dry, so they made it all night, but I don't think either one of them slept very well!

In other news, our house is officially on the market!

You can check out the website: www.359gayledrive.com Mom was up for almost 2 weeks helping us finish up everything we had been putting off. She did lots of painting and purging, shopping and decorating! All the improvements make me like this house even more!

It's kind of a scary. We're not really sure what to do if we sell the house right away, or if we even hope to sell the house right away with the baby coming. It's definitely a point of faith building for us! And an area we would appreciate you all praying about! The timing of our support raising, house selling, and adding a new baby to the family are completely out of our control!

The house is nice and peaceful right now -- Luke's away with the student ministry on a mission trip, and both kids are sleeping -- I think I'll lay in bed and read which is a luxury I seldom get to enjoy anymore! Love to you all!

June Cliff Notes

Wow......is it July already? I'm so far behind on so many things. I'll give you the Cliff Notes version of our June to get you all caught up!

We've been spending an immense amount of time support raising. We've spent hours visiting and calling our friends and family, telling them our story and about Agape Flights. We've sent letters and more information to all our contacts. In addition to that, we've had several "dessert socials" and talked in two churches! It's been both tiring and inspiring!

We're happy to say we have 43% of our support raised in 6 weeks! There have been an additional 25 or so families that have said they want to support us but haven't given us or Agape a firm figure yet. We are blown away by that figure. God has worked in His mighty ways to affirm our call to missions!

We also found out we're expecting our third baby next January! This is a picture of the ultrasound (sorry, our scanner is broken!) -- with a little creativity, you can pick out the shape of a little baby.

So, on with our June update.....

We had a massive rummage sale the first weekend of June. My mom came up to help orchestrate it because she is the master rummage saler. We were very pleased with the amount of stuff we moved out of our house!

Noah visited the dentist for the first time. Luke took him, but said he did and excellent job. He was fascinated with the little sink and water cup!

(Notice the creepy alligator in the background.....is that supposed to motivate kids to brush their teeth???)

My sister and her family came up for a visit. They all went to Cedar Point one day. It was Noah's first time to really be able to go on any rides. He had a blast!

Abby's as sweet as ever! She'll be celebrating her first birthday next week! She's definitely developing a personality. She LOVES her daddy. She'll get so excited when he gets home from work, then she just wants him to hold her. She also likes to roughhouse with the boys. She always crawls back for more!

She cut her two top teeth and one on the bottom. She's starting to walk a little bit. She'll take 8 or 10 steps back and forth between people, but doesn't quite have the confidence to get up and go on her own!

She graduated up to a big car seat! Here she is waving hi! The car seat sat in the living room for a few days before it made it out to the van. She and Noah would fight about who got to sit in it -- and they always wanted to be buckled in!

We spent a week in Missouri support raising and visiting family. The kids LOVED spending time outside!

Mom and Dad got a sand and water table that Noah really enjoyed. He kept the sand and water separate for about the first 30 seconds and then they were pretty evenly mixed! Most of the pictures from outside are X rated. It was pretty hot, and as soon as we went outside, Noah would strip down to nothing. So here are a couple that are safe!

Enjoying some ice cream with Papa at the end of a long HOT day.

Recently, Noah has had a major fascination with trains, so we ran by the old Katy Depot on the way to the airport.

And finally, one day last week, Noah decided he wanted to take his nap in a box. I'm sure it's the first of many odd choices he'll make, but I had to take a picture to capture the memory!

That's all I have to share for now -- all I can think of anyway -- my mind's a little fuzzy these days! We pray you're well. Love to you all!