Summer

We've now come through a very busy season in ministry for our family. It was much more busy than usual since we added a newborn to our list of responsibilities, but we managed to survive and enjoy ourselves in the process.

We had sixteen interns come for training at the end of May (and a 17th who is working at the ISC this summer). After spending two weeks with us, they headed to PNG and two countries in West Africa. We're very excited about this group of interns and continue to pray for them as they seek the Lord's direction this summer. I can't wait to hear their stories come August!

Just after the week of Pre-field Orientation for the interns, my mom flew to town for Addy's dance recital. Dance classes has been a gift to Addy from my mom for the last two years and she loves it. I was so proud of her - she knew her dance very well and performed beautifully.

Isaiah turned two months during PMI, our annual PBT conference. At his 2 month check up, he was 14 lb. 3 oz!! Quite the chunk!! He's in the 95th percentile for weight and the 90th for height. He really is such a happy baby - he smiles a lot and doesn't really cry unless he's hungry or ready for his nap. He has started stretching his nighttime sleep and has slept through the night a couple of times (7-8 hours) but isn't yet doing it consistently. Most nights he sleeps 5 1/2 to 6 hours and wakes up for a feeding. If he hasn't dropped this feeding on his own in a couple of weeks, I'm going to start working with him on it.

We've been able to manage his reflux pretty well with medicine. It is more severe than the girls' was. The medicine doesn't help with the massive amounts of spitting up, but it does ease the pain that comes with it. He still has bad days where he'll wake up screaming in pain from a dead sleep or cries during feedings because of it, but over all, he's doing very well. Thankfully his reflux hasn't impacted his ability to gain weight!

After PMI, our family decided to head out of town for our first ever family vacation. We went south to San Antonio to see some of the sites and really enjoyed the chance to catch up on some much needed family time. We've been wanting to visit San Antonio since we moved here and are so glad we took the time out to go.


The Alamo . . .

Inside the walls of the Alamo. We taught the girls the famous phrase "Remember the Alamo!" Jayden's rendition of it was "Remember the Elmo!" I bet she was confused when we didn't see Elmo or any of his friends while we were there!

Walking around downtown seeing the sites.

Taking a ride down the riverwalk in a boat. Addy used her money from grandma to buy a fun headdress at the Mexican market. Jayden purchased a bouquet of flowers made out of tissue paper. The girls also had their first snow cone while at the market and we later surprised them with a little play guitar we got there.

This scene along the river walk (and the stage to the right, which isn't in the picture) is the location where they shot the swimsuit competition in Miss Congeniality. Super fun!

Our big splurge for the trip was a day at SeaWorld. The girls LOVED it! The shows were amazing. When each one was done, Jayden would, "Where'd they go? Let's go to another show!" The girls also rode their first amusement park type rides while we were there.

In addition to the Alamo, the other cool thing we did while in San Antonio was visit the other missions whose ruins have been preserved. What's amazing to me is that, even though they were built in the 1700's, there are still Catholic churches meeting in these buildings today.

It was a wonderful four days of fun! We finished the week out at home and took the girls to see Toy Story 3 - which made all of us (except Jayden) cry! I'm so thankful for the fun memories we made on this trip and for the time we had to reconnect after so many crazy days balancing family and ministry responsibilities.