handsful

Being in St. Augustine means we’re only about a 2 hour drive from Dylan’s Luoyang buddy, Hope. She lives in Orlando.

So, what else could we do but drive to Orlando!

We met Hope and her sweet Mama, Amy, at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney for lunch. The kids loved it, moving jungle animals everywhere (they were happier once they were told they weren’t real), rain sprinkling down from the ceiling (but magically not landing on anyone), and thunderstorms that occurred every 30 minutes.

Lainey scored a cool frog cup.

After lunch, both of them ended up on Amy’s lap.

We hung out and talked and talked, while Dylan and Hope shook salt onto the table and blew it off. Maybe not the best parenting decision, but they thought it was a hoot.

Time to get out into the heat…I mean sunshine. Hope grabbed Lainey’s hand, and Dylan “helped” Amy push the stroller.

We stopped them every few feet to take pictures. They didn’t mind too much.

It’s just in his nature…he’s a kisser. Not sure what this means for his teenage years.

All aboard…

Time to play…shopping was a welcome relief from the heat. Did I mention we were in Orlando? In August?

Merry go round…Amy made a joke about Dylan riding on a white horse. She’s already referring to me as the mother in law. I see nothing wrong with arranged marriage!?

Hope seems on board with the whole idea, too.

They had a blast playing in the photo booth. We skipped the $5 per picture and just let them push the buttons.

Randy goofed around, too. His brother would appreciate this picture, he just loves snakes. Heh.

Goofy’s candy store had a “goofy” mirror.

High top!

Amy liked the image of her looking tall and lean!

Time to go and say our goodbyes.

We look forward to our next get-together…already talking about meeting at the CCAI reunion next summer.

We had a lazy morning…no pictures of that.

Then, we decided to hit the beach. We only lasted an hour or so, it was just too hot. I realized that I’m more of a late afternoon beach person.

Only Lainey would do this!

We then made the drive to Jax to attend Marley and Payton’s Power Up Clubs. First one was at 5pm.

The clouds looked BAD, but they held off until 5 minutes before the club was over.

Marley helped her little brother with some of the games.

Last year this time at the clubs, Lainey refused to participate in any of the club activities. She was just too shy. I’m so happy to see her jumping right in this year!

Dylan makes friends quickly.

Payton’s club began at 6:45.

Payton walks up for his part in the skit. He’s the guy who thinks if he drinks gallons of milk and eats tons of cereal that he’ll become a big, strong Superhero. He learns that God cares about what’s inside us, and not what’s on the outside.

It’s blurry, but I had to show Lainey playing in a relay race with hopping balls!

Drip, drip, drop. (Think duck, duck, goose – only with water) I love Payton’s face as the water falls, and Lainey’s face watching! Lainey never did get dropped on, so her sweet brother got her good with a full cup of water later. She squealed.

Payton is also his club’s “Surginator” – the guy who gets the kids psyched about Friday’s Power Surge event at the church. Food, rides, prizes, fun!

He gets into his role. Apparently, Dylan felt he needed some rain protection!

Tomorrow, we drive to Orlando to visit again with Dylan’s friend Hope and her family!! We’ll visit more clubs tomorrow night, too. So far this vacation is a ton of fun, but not terribly relaxing!

This was Dylan’s first glimpse of the ocean…he took to it right away.

Lainey was very excited! Back when we lived here, she always liked the beach but the waves scared her a bit. Not this year.

The buckets and shovels were put to good use.

His idea of belly surfing?

Someone needs sunglasses

not a care…

Warning: These next two pictures involve themes that could be construed as non-politically correct. You’ve been warned.

Can you tell which is which?

I have no idea what to say here.

The beach is a great place to practice your cartwheel.

These pictures are from last Saturday. We went back to the beach yesterday, but decided to leave the camera behind. Dylan loved it even more, going out deeper with Daddy, jumping waves with Julianna and Emily (our friend Jon and his daughters came to hang out with us), and making wet sand castles. Even I – not exactly a beach lover – had a fantastic time.

So, we’re in Florida right now…and, it’s hot. Though, I hear it’s just as hot back in NC.

We’re here so that Abbey, Marley, Payton, and Ethan can be student leaders in our previous church’s Power Up Clubs. If you’ve been reading our blog for any length of time, you might remember what that is. In a nutshell…

80+ church members have offered to host and donated their front yards.
27 teams made up of 7 people each (age 12 up to college, plus 1 adult leader)
Each team puts on 3 clubs per day – 10am, 5pm, and 6:45pm.
Each club lasts 1 1/2hours and it’s made up of music, drama, games, snacks…think VBS without the church building :)
The kids spend the whole week at church…girls in one building, and guys in another. A whole staff of church members have the daunting task of feeding them 3 meals plus a snack each day. God bless them.

This is Abbey’s 3rd year doing PUC, and the trips 2nd. They have been beside themselves excited to do this again. And, let me tell you…it ain’t easy. It’s work. In very hot weather, sometimes in yards with little to no shade.

But, none of that matters. They get to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Something that puts Christ on display in front yards all over the city. Something that I pray will grow them in their faith, while they show kids what it means to love God without bounds.

This morning at church, the kids busted into the sanctuary (for all 3 services) with all the energy that 180 teens have, and did one of the PUC songs for the congregation. Forgive the blurry pics…

Abbey and Payton in this one.

And, Marley. It took us a while, but we finally found Ethan in the back. Because we saw his hat.

After church, we took the kids to lunch. Zach, one of the boys best buds, joined us. Guess it was pretty sunny, since 2 of them had to shut their eyes for the pic.

Move in time. Having 2 girls and 2 boys doing this, means we end up walking back and forth (and back and…) between the two buildings.

Abbey’s little corner of the world for the week. She’s been in the same room with the same friends for all 3 years.

Marley’s room. She’s the one in the red shirt. Heh.

The littles loved being around all those teenage girls. Two of the girls in Marley’s room took a special interest in them. These are sisters, both adopted from China. Elizabeth and Emeline spent a ton of time with them, letting them play with their phones and taking pictures with them. How sweet.

Abbey and Angelina – friends for years.

Over in teenage boy world, here is Payton and Ethan’s room. Payton has an air mattress, pillow, and blanket. Who needs a sheet, right? Ethan’s bed has a yellow ball on it. ?

I found Ethan in the jr. high room. The theme for this years PUC is Superheros, so each team comes up with their team name and signature (i.e. color bandana, mask, etc.)

Ethan might be taking it a tad too far. Not sure if this is superhero or terrorist?

They had their first clubs tonight. Payton has a part in his team’s drama, as does Abbey. Marley and Ethan give their testimony tonight at their clubs. I’ll be sharing pics of the clubs we take the littles too – you can be sure. Like you doubted.

Tomorrow…pictures of our afternoon at the beach with Lainey and Dylan (his first time!)

I realize the blog has been full to the brim with lake pictures lately. So, this one is for the grand parents, who truly want to see more of them! Sorry to the rest of you :)

Marley loves the new skis

Anna Grace and Marley strap into the knee boards. There are no pictures to prove it, but I actually knee boarded for the first time on Friday. Got up on my second try. It’s harder than it looks!

Samara…she also did some skiing, but I somehow deleted them all. Makes me a rotten aunt, don’t you think??

So, I’ll post two of her on the knee board. She’s making it over the wake here. She had a massive fall off the tube on Friday and pulled a muscle in her leg. Lake fun is dangerous.

She also joined Lainey in kneeboarding. This is the first time Lainey has held onto the rope, rather than just the sides of the board. I didn’t see it, but she had a scary moment when she fell and the board flipped over with her legs still strapped in. Randy said he swam like lightning to her, but she freed herself before he got to her. Kinda glad I didn’t witness it.

Micah, getting some serious air on the board. He tried skiing too, but couldn’t quite make it all the way up.

This is the closest he got. Not bad.

Josiah, the youngest of Randy’s brother’s family.

Sister-in-law, Dee Dee. She loved the kneeboard, said she could’ve done it all day. She was good, too. She rode with me when I tried, and was very encouraging as I struggled that first time!

All of these pictures are from Saturday. We went out on Friday too, but didn’t have the camera. It was that day that Ethan, Gabe, and Payton rode the tube together. Randy likes to give tube riders a good time (eh), and all three fell off at the same time. Ethan’s eye was cut, did alot of swelling, and is now a nice purple color across the whole lid.

Gabe. He loved trying everything and going BIG when he did.

Kneeboarding can be done in twos, which helps a lot when you’ve got 11 kids that wanna do things!

Ethan and Micah

We’re getting a lot of use out of our skis this year, since the kids got a new pair for their birthday. We even pulled out the adult skis.

Yes, that’s Randy doing something OTHER than driving the boat. I’m not the best boat driver (he’s gonna teach me), so having Tony here gave him a chance to ski. It had been years, but he got right up.

Tony also took a turn.

Of course, Ethan had to show everyone how it’s done on the wakeboard.

And, how to fall gracefully.

I don’t have shots of Abbey – I wasn’t on the boat when she was, and the weather was getting really windy – making it hard to take pictures. I’m told she landed some really good jumps on the kneeboard, and has the sore muscles to prove it. Dylan rode the kneeboard on Friday (again, a no-picture day), and did a lot of swimming on Saturday. He just asked Randy a second ago if we could “go boating”. Most of us are just about boated-out this weekend!

But, we had a wonderful time, no serious injuries, and no bad sunburns. Success.

This past weekend, our trio of 13 year olds invited their friends over for a day of lake fun to celebrate their birthday.

The weather was less than perfect, but not a party-canceler by any means. Just cloudy and cool. The water temp (82) was warmer than the air (72)!

That didn’t stop them. After pizza….

They headed out on the boat. Thankfully, we got the new boat the day before. We had 13 kids and Randy drove. Boat holds 14. Nice.

They left at 1:10. Party was scheduled to end at 4:00.

4:00 came and went, and parents started arriving. Still no Randy.

Time got away from them, and they pulled in at the dock about 4:30.

Worked out nicely, all the parents got to share the brownies and birthday cakes.

These cakes went like lightning. I never got a piece!

Party went perfectly, everyone had a blast, and I’m clear of birthdays for a while! Whew!

* Monday – Friday…VBS at church. Up and out early everyday. Abbey was a teen leader – helped teach the little cheerleaders, which she loved. Lainey was a big Kindergartner, the youngest group at VBS. I have to admit, being able to run a quick errand between the drop off and getting back home was priceless.

* Well check for Marley, Payton, and Ethan. All healthy and doing great…all below average in weight, some more than others! They survived their vaccines. The doctor we saw was very thorough (really like her), and the appointment was long!

* Okay, I’m cheating…Lainey and Dylan’s well check was last week. I’m gonna talk about it anyway. Lainey is 42.4lbs. (75%) and 44.5″ (90%). Who said Asian kids are small?? Dylan – on the other hand – is 27lbs (<3%) and 38.5" (25%). Yes, you read that right. He's STILL 27lbs. Same as almost 8 months ago. The doctor isn't terribly worried. He is growing in height. But, she did order blood work to rule out anything that could be an issue. * Wednesday was supposed to be Marley and Ethan's dentist appt, but we got stuck in traffic and thought we weren't going to make it. Called the dentist, and she said come on...as long as we're not more than 10min late, we're fine. Traffic clears and I know we're gonna make it. Whew! Dentist calls my cell...they've had an equipment failure and need to cancel. Sheesh. New appt? Next Tuesday at 7:30am. Oy. * Don't even get me started about Thursday. Spent most of the day in the van, driving what felt like thousand's of miles, carting kids here and there and always feeling like I was gonna be late. Started driving at 8am, finally drove back home for the last time at 8pm. Still tired. * Today...was great. Nice ending to a whirlwind week. VBS was great. They had the Finale celebration for the parents and Lainey was cute as a button on stage, singing and doing her hand motions. We had some downtime around the house in the afternoon, and then decided it was time to put the new boat into the water.

Verdict? We love it. Now, we adored our previous boat…we’d had it since the trips were Lainey’s age. But, this one holds more people (we’d about maxed out the other one with just our family), so we can have friends over for boating.

Speaking of friends…Marley, Payton, and Ethan are having their birthday party tomorrow! They’ve each invited friends over for pizza, cake, and lake stuff (kayaking, swimming, and boat fun). Stay tuned for pictures.

This week. It’s been full, frantic, frustrating, and fun.