Beach Baby!

Beach Boy

This dude belongs at the beach!  He had such a blast and definitely looks the part.  His pictures were hard to choose.

Big Sister at the Beach

P is such a joy to watch explore new(ish) things.  The joy that radiates from her face reminds of God's love for us and His desire for us to experience Him in all things.

I have a feeling there will be lots of handstand pics in her future

Our Biggest Little at the Beach

This kid stayed on his board the whole time and was not too thrilled when we had to leave.  He is becoming one confident, independent young man.

Memorial Weekend in Galveston

We had a wonderful Memorial weekend in Galveston with my mom.  Lisa, one of my roommates at A&M even came to hang out with us one afternoon.....a fantastic treat!  The weather and water was perfect.  We went down Friday morning, missing a lot of the traffic and had a calm afternoon at the beach.  We bought some boogie boards for the kids Friday night and were so excited to watch them with them Saturday.  And who am I kidding, I loved them just as much as the kids!  They were definitely a hit!  We have too many great pictures to throw in one post so I am going to divide them up.  Here is picture overload #1:

Great Wolf Lodge

Back in September Christian won a gift card at work for Great Wolf Lodge.  To say that we were excited to take the kids would be an understatement!  We knew they would love it.  We decided to surprise them the first weekend of December.  We told them we were going somewhere special, the kids were convinced we were going to Chuck E Cheese (event though we told them we weren't).  As it got closer, I was hoping the kids wouldn't be too disappointed with us not going to Chuck E Cheese.  Luckily, when we arrived they were BEYOND thrilled!!!!!!

A wonderful weekend!

We headed to The Woodlands the first weekend of August for the THSC (homeschool) conference. We stayed with my (Erin) Uncle Pete and Aunt Sue's house and my mom came and stayed with us. We all had an amazing weekend! The kids got lots of "Grammy time" and plenty of swimming. I was able to attend the conference all weekend - BY MYSELF!!!!! Christian came with me Thursday night and it was wonderful for him to be a part of it and get to hear the 2 speakers for the night. Both talks were amazing and encouraging. I have been to this conference 3 times now and I think this was the best one yet. Maybe it has to do with where I am now but I thought the speakers did an outstanding job and I was highly encouraged, challenged and refreshed during this time. I also walked away with some "practical" things, which was great too. Plus, after the conference I got to spend some great time with family and enjoyed some down time. I am thankful for the time we were able to "get away" and for my time at the conference, what a blessing the whole weekend was to our little family.

now for some pictures

Enjoying an evening swim in the hot tub or little pool


love him!


How can you not smile when you see this picture?


air hockey!!!!!! Elijah is quite the little player. Hudson did a fantastic job playing with him. Hudson can play a mean game of air hockey if he is trying to win


This boy *LOVES* to swim! He will just jump in the water, enjoys going under and will just float around with his water wings on. Maybe next summer he will learn to swim!


deep in conversation

Tiger Leaping Gorge

To say this place was beautiful is an understatement! It was absolutely amazing and awe inspiring. I don't know how someone can look at this and believe in the Creator. While we were there it was the dry season so the water was lower than during the rainy season. However, the tradeoff was that the water was beautiful instead of the murkiness that is brought on during the rain. We had about a 2.5 hour car ride through the mountains in order to arrive at our destination. The drive was beautiful as well. I am always impressed to see how "resourceful" the Chinese are. They are able to grow gardens in the most usual places. Rural China is so very different than the big cities. This is a place that I could go to daily and never get tired of seeing it. Here is what Wikipedia had to say about Tiger Leaping Gorge: Tiger Leaping Gorge (simplified Chinese: 虎跳峡; traditional Chinese: 虎跳峽; pinyin: Hǔtiào Xiá) is a scenic canyon on the Jinsha River (Golden Sands River; 金沙江; Jīnshā Jiāng), a primary tributary of the upper Yangtze River. It is located 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Lijiang City, Yunnan in southwestern China. It is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas World Heritage Site. The inhabitants of the gorge are primarily the indigenous Naxi people, who live in a handful of small hamlets. Their primary subsistence comes from grain production and foreign hikers(as well as Chinese). If you are ever in this part of the world, this is a must see! Even if you aren't in the area, you should go! Now here are some of the pictures for you to enjoy....it's even better in person. A lot of these pictures were taken by Kim McKown:) Sorry there are so many photos, it was tough just to choose these.