Laine's birthday

I am woefully behind.  Laine's birthday was at the end of July, and I haven't posted these yet!

We were out at Smith Mountain Lake for a vacation the week of her birthday, so it was fun to celebrate out there.  We still had our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast.

And later that night friends joined us for dinner and cake.

Hard to believe Laine is 11 years old - she's going to be a teenager before we know it!  We're so thankful for her and the blessing she is to our family.  

Smith Mountain Lake

Last week we took a vacation to Smith Mountain Lake. We stayed at a lake house belonging to a family in the church, and it was a wonderful getaway.

The week allowed for fishing,

and all three kids were successful.

Cole especially loved fishing every day!

 We also got to paddle board and kayak.

And we swam, rode the jet skis, and pulled the kids on tubes.  (I even took a tube ride myself one afternoon!)

One morning we went to the local beach and played in the sand for a few hours.

We're so thankful for our time away and are very appreciative of such generosity shown toward us.

Mead's piano recital

Summer is flying by, and I've barely taken any photos to capture what's been going on!  Here are a few pictures from Mead's piano recital back in early June.

The recital was the day after we moved, and Mead did wonderfully, especially considering all the transition we had going on and the little amount of time she was able to practice while our piano was being moved!

Miss Patti had a great group of students - this was only half of them since she split the recital between two dates.

I'm proud of Mead for her hard work in learning piano, and I'm looking forward to hearing her music again this fall when lessons start back up.

More t-ball pics

Cole is almost done with his t-ball season.  He's had a great time playing this spring and has gotten lots of good hits and outs.

Love this great smile - Cole had so much fun playing!

He was quick running the bases,

and he hit the ball pretty far.  So fun to watch his do his thing!

Trip to St. Louis

Last weekend we went to St. Louis for a few days.  The motivation for the trip was Penny's graduation from the seminary with his Th.M. (Master of Theology).  Congrats Penny!

But it was also a great excuse to see friends and visit our old stomping grounds for a few days.

I brought my nice camera but didn't pull it out once - too many things going on and people to visit!  I did manage to get these two photos from phones.  We had a great visit - the kids are already asking when we can go back to St. Louis again!

T-ball

Cole started playing t-ball this spring.  He has loved it so far, and it's been fun to watch.

The games are about an hour long, and all the kids get to hit each inning (unless they actually get 3 outs!)

Cole has gotten several outs each game, and he's enjoyed having Dad helping out on the field.

What a cute t-ball player!

Seeing Friends

While we were on spring break we got to have dinner with the Baxters, some of our dear friends from our college ministry days.  Both Penny and Dave are now pastors at PCA churches, and Rachel and I have lots in common with being pastor wives, moms, and everything else that comes with those two roles.

It was so nice to catch up, brief though it was, and our kids had a good time hanging out with another.  There are 9 kids between our two families, but only the girls wanted to jump into the picture!