Friends, Family Camp & Fantastic Airplane Food

As August's month comes to a close...

we are finding ourselves tying up loose ends and preparing to re-enter East Asia in 3 days! 

But first...

 Let's enjoy time with our dear friends we met in Monroe.

 Sleepovers are UNDERrated and have been enjoyed frequently by our kids and theirs! 

 Before bed though, let's go for a joy ride! 

 Oh no! Ran out of gas! "Girls, you better get out and push."-August

 We kept inching to the right but that silly bunny kept following! 

 What would the world do without big sisters??

 Let's pick some rhubarb & eat it too!

 The latest version of "The Chicken Dance"

 followed by "The Chicken Run"!

Our family enjoyed 6 days at Village Creek Bible Camp's Family Camp in Lansing Iowa this month!

 Here's Lil during our Chapel time- her favorite part! The music was rockin'.

Josh in front of our temporary home. This cabin held 4 families. Each family got one room and one bathroom. Perfect!

 The Camp Grounds are completely beautiful. I often stopped, looked around, realized I wasn't breathing fully, then took a deep breath. Country air created by God. Mmm.

 6 days of no cooking or dishes- what a treat for me!

(Not to mention how awesome the food was!)

 Cade learning how to Mountain Board from a camp counselor. 

 waiting patiently

He curved around the bend like a natural!

 and over the ramp without a problem!

 we'll have to work on posing :)

 Looks like Hadassah's tongue fell out! Oh, phew, it's just taffy :)

 Our sweet counselor Vera (from Ukraine) napping with Dass

 Viv building 15 buckets of sand in a row

 Vera is the 12th child (of 12) in her family and is so funny and sweet I wish we could take her back to China with us!

 Cade's friend Luke flying off the rope swing in style!

 Cade's turn!

 Dass spent most of her time with our other sweet counselor Joanna hanging out with the animals (horses, snakes, lizards). She was so brave... until our kayak started wiggling back and forth and Dass started screaming- I turn around to see a little water beetle! She catches spiders and ants and other bugs all day- but will have nothing to do with the water beetle!

 Lil coming up with a sneaky plan to harm Caedmon

Josh enjoying this seat before he'll be in an airplane seat for 16 hours!

Next time we will be saying hello from across the world!

Can it be August already? Part 2

(See "Can it be August already? Part 1" first)

So here are the amazing shirts Christa MADE! 

Each shirt has a "G" on it in a different font and also has the child's initials- how creative!

Such bright colors- and bright kids!

A Sun-shiney Day

Josh drove us all to Appleton and then jumped on another plane for his last academic visit to Florida! Hooray! The kids and I had a great time staying at the cottage on Bear Lake with GG & Gampy.

Cannonball Cade! (The nickname he received last time we were back in the States :)

Gampy & Lil

Kayaking is SO fun! Dass could have sat in there with me for hours and hours watching the fish and looking for turtles and frogs.

Lily's turn!

Modeling their new shirts for GG :)

Why wait for nightfall for s'mores?? 

Viv's fave

and Ob's, and Cade's and Lil's....

Back in the kayak! August had a rough first 2 days and then a large tooth appeared! The only thing that calmed him down was a ride on the lake.

we love cousins

Auntie Rachel, cousin Roxanne and her son Owen (10) all came to visit from California!

Sisters in style!

This game seemed to have lasted for an hour!

One day Gampy took us for a ride to the "Petting Zoo." It turned out to be way more than a petting zoo!

This bear dug and dug and dug and even twisted one of the bars keeping us all separated- let's get outta here! 

Cheetah looked hungry too :) What a beautiful creature.

Slowly making our way to the end of our visit.

These two were inseparable for days. 

Not exactly sure what they were doing...

playing catch

Olivet turned 3 while Josh was gone.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

We celebrated with lots of family...

and some great accessories!

The girls all decorated the cake the day before- so fun!

It's fun to be 3!

Lil trying on my mom's wedding dress!

Well, Josh made it home and we made it through his absence! We were blessed to spend a couple days up north for our 12th Wedding Anniversary before picking up the kids and driving back to Monroe (a huge thanks to mom and dad, & Nat and Tim for watching the kids!!!)

We also pulled mine out! I wasn't sure if Lil would want to wear it when the time comes, but she loved it right away and asked if she could wear it before I even asked! It was really fun to be reminded of such a special day and to enjoy the memories with my mom and kids!!!