Friday Fun!

It's another weekend of rained out football/soccer games, which actually worked great for our schedule so that we could head to Fort Worth on Friday! We had a surprise planned for Cambree as an early birthday present - a trip to Casa Mañana Playhouse to see the production of Junie B. Jones!

Still learning to tie his shoes...thank goodness for a helpful brother & sister!

A fun stop at Cracker Barrel (Cambree's choice!) for some great catfish!

I got to sit by this hunk :)

We're here! (The boys dropped us off and went to watch a Halloween movie.)

So excited!! (She has read EVERY Junie B. book!)

Autographs after the play - here's Junie!

And Lucille

And May

We got down the road a little ways and stayed in a motel in Decatur that has an indoor swimming pool (and hot tub) - which made for an awesome Saturday morning! Almost time to hit the road and head up to Hobart, OK to share about New Day!

Halloween in the USA - Part One!

What's NOT to love about October in the USA?? Um, nothing! :) Tonight was our first round of Halloween with the Victory Life Fall Festival! It was so great this year to be there, actually know quite a few people, and feel like a part of the Victory Life family! :)

Ready to go :)

Here's all 3 - this year we gave them a choice: We would buy them a costume, or they could use something we already had, and we'd give them $20. They all took the $20. :) So we ended up with a gymnast (thanks to Grandpa's running medal), a soccer star, and Raphael.

Andie, Caedmon, & Cason doing the cake walk

Blu tried and tried to win and finally got a sympathy prize at the end! ;)

Caedmon & Brian - good buddies!

Trying to win a 2 liter! After many tries he finally won and picked a Grape Fanta, after searching forever for a Ginger Ale for his mama - love that boy!

She's a cute little gymnast!

Cambree & Lindsey - they're pretty inseparable!

Cason loves his sweet friend, Alyssa!

And Issabella! (ladies man??) :)

One last try at the Ring Toss!

Back to Work - in College Station!

After a quick morning of laundry and unpacking, we got back in the truck for a 4 hour trip to College Station to share about New Day! The kids don't always come with us, but this time they did because there were lots of people excited to see them!

First stop - The Duncans! Josh & Dani came to New Day this past summer, and they have been close family friends and mentors to us since 2001! The kids had so much fun playing together!

"Duncan" donuts! (ha..I'm funny!)

Cambree loved playing with "older" girls!

Steve & Kathy are so sweet! (Fun fact: Steve was the VERY first volunteer to come to New Day in April of 2010 to help layout the place based on water flow, sewage, etc.)

On Sunday morning, we spoke at the Cowboy Fellowship of Aggieland - so fun! The people were so sweet, and the kids loved getting to practice roping before and after church. (Cason was REALLY into it..)

Erin, who came with Prosthetics back in May, goes to this church and took us to Layne's after church for some chicken fingers!

Then, she led Blu & the boys on a tour of the A&M campus! (It was raining...and cold...and Cambree sat in the truck for 1.5 hours and read our books... :)

The Aggie Ring

Caedmon really enjoyed seeing a real college!

In the afternoon, we spent more time hanging with friends - Allison & Lyndsey! They came to New Day back in 2011 when we had just received our first 4 orphans, and Allison has been back twice since then.

In the evening, we spoke at our "home" church in College Station - Parkway Baptist! Blu got back on stage and played the djembe like he did in days gone by!

Reunited with Katie & Melody, who visited New Day in July of 2013

They have the first 2 "New Day" tattoos (that I'm aware of anyway!)

Bro. Chris & his wife Cindy - love them! (and the church gave us the djembe to take back to Zambia!!)

Caedmon & his buddy Truitt - Truitt said, "Dude, you know it's gonna be 2 years before I see you again!"

Sharing about what's happening at New Day

And a long trip home...we rolled in at midnight!

Costa Rica - Day Four

We had a nice, relaxing last day in Costa Rica! We slept in and then left the resort, driving 4 hours back to Cloud's house.

Golf course view - so green!

A monkey seeing us off

Gorgeous!

Blu's view for the trip back!

Killing time with movie trivia and dumb stories!

Brothers

Cunadas - sisters-in-law!

We ended our night with Papa John's pizza and a VERY hard puzzle!

We had an unforgettable vacation that was relaxing and fun - we can't thank Cloud & Rita enough for their generosity! We are at the San Jose airport for our early morning flight - we should pull into our driveway around 10pm tonight! Can't wait to see our kids, and then Saturday we head back down to College Station for a weekend of sharing about New Day!

Costa Rica - Day Three - Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday! It's going to be hard to top this 35th birthday of mine - spent at the Four Seasons Resort on the Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica! Blu, Cloud, and Rita spoiled me all day - it felt like a day spent in paradise!

Room service on the balcony!

We started our morning with ladder ball on the beach.

Then, we went paddle boarding - it was so much fun and not as hard as I thought it would be!

Love spending time with this man!! We have spent 18 birthdays together!

At lunch, we went to the resort Tico's Bar for some yummy food - burgers for the guys!

I tried "Mini Fiesta Ceviches", which was a bucket of different mixtures of fish - my kind of meal!

And some pineapple juice!

We found a pool overlooking the ocean and swam for awhile

And then we found the waterfall jacuzzi!

I love the paths back to our room - this resort is gorgeous!

Love this ocean view!

After an afternoon of swimming, reading, and snacks at the coffee bar, we headed out for supper - sushi!

Blu's first taste....

His look = "It's not as bad as I thought, but I'll stick to burgers."

In the touristy parts of Zambia, there are monkeys/baboons everywhere - here, it's raccoons!

Rita had them bring me a special cake for my birthday - so sweet! It was a fabulous 35th birthday! :)