Friday, July 23, 2010

Sonrise 2010

I could spend an entire day taking pictures of little kids. It just makes me happy. Here are a few classics from my week with preschoolers at Sonrise 2010, our church's day camp. There were almost 300 kids there, ranging from 3-10 years old plus over 100 volunteers. Kayti took tons of video and is preparing a movie for church on Sunday. Willie led a small group of 19 5th grade boys and I led a group of 11 preschoolers. Luckily, we had high school helpers who deserve medals for giving countless piggyback rides!This is Campbell ... she is just over 3 years old.

Kayti and I both have a crush on Luke and his blue eyes, blonde curls and dimples. Sweetie, whose real name is Elaine-Rebecca, may only be four, but she can read and write like a 10 year old.

Sophia only came on Monday and Tuesday, but kept us laughing both days. The kids had to race out into a field covered in plastic cups, find the green ones (our team color), fill them with water and bring them to their leaders. Sophia filled a cup from a bucket far away from our team and proceeded to walk very very very slowly back, careful to not spill a drop despite the kids flying past her the entire time. It took her 5 minutes to come back with one cup!

Kayti also adores Matthew, who is holding up a picture he drew of his mom and dad. (Amoeba parents!)

Nathan had a hugh temper tantrum this morning, sobbing and crying in Spanish ... I had to finally get help from Edwin because high school Spanish would not help me console him. By snack time he was much better!

These four sweet kids barely spoke English. Christyan, Samuel, Valeska and Enrique. They were cold from getting all wet during game time outside. Thanks to them, my Spanish has improved somewhat ... I can say "Come Here," "No more," and "if you don't want to get wet, stay with me" (well, kinda ... si no gusta aqua, staya aqui con mi). It worked!

And here's Robbie with some of my group ... L-R front row ... Samuel, Luke, Christyan, Sweetie, Robbie and Nathan. Behind them is Jackie holding Campbell, Kristin holding Matthew and Amber holding Valeska. Behind them, pouting and refusing to be in the picture is Carter. He only participated if we were dancing.

Time for a nap.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Lord's Pictures

On Tuesday, July 13, God woke me up at 5:45am. I was startled by a case of the hiccoughs ... who gets hiccoughs in their sleep? A hiccough woke me up and I sat up, hiccoughed two more times, then said out loud to God, "Okay, I'm awake." I looked outside and the sky was yellow. I ran to the sliding glass door and saw this beautiful orange ball low in the sky, grabbed my camera and walked out to the beach. The orange ball was behind a cloud, so I began a nice little chat with God while I waited to see whatever He woke me up to see.

I wasn't the only human awake at that hour, but I was alone on the beach for quite some time, so I continued to talk aloud to God as I photographed His amazing sunrise. I don't know if He woke me just to talk or to also have me photograph His work, but here's what I saw that morning ...




What a wonderful way to start the day!

Friday, July 9, 2010

More about Kingsmill

Our gathering at Kingsmill was wonderful. We were there to celebrate Betty & Fred's 60th wedding anniversary. We had so much fun all together. Here we are after the Monday brunch ... we're missing Doug, Diana, Sarah and Daniel, who all had to leave early that morning.
Several of us went into Colonial Williamsburg on Sunday ...
Jamie, Sarah, Kayti and I broke off from the group and headed straight to the candy store. While inside trying to decide which sweet treats we wanted to purchase, we saw a fellow tourist wearing a 3-cornered hat. We inquired as to where he bought it, and headed straight there.
We got one for each girl and proceeded down DOG Street (Duke of Gloucester) taking pictures with every costumed person we could find.
At the hotel, Betty spied an osprey nest on the top of a chimney ... we had fun watching the momma bird feed her babies throughout the weekend. Here's the momma ...On Sunday night we went out on the docks, put our feet in the warm water of the James River and watched the fireworks from Busch Gardens.
Happy Birthday, America. Happy Anniversary, Betty & Fred. It sure was fun celebrating together.




Sunday, July 4, 2010

A Brief Note about Kingsmill ...

Here I am, skipping along quite happily in Williamsburg with the entire in-law family ...
early morning walks
cards games along the James River
snow cones
poolside reading
miniature golf
and then I step into the fancy bathroom and I am slapped smack-dab in the face by a ridiculously huge magnifying mirror ...
zits
gigantic pores
hairs in places there shouldn't be hairs on women
yikes!

More to come once I return to the fold, including pictures, but trust me, there won't be any close-up shots!