Rocket’s Pad

This lil guy’s getting pretty good at helping set up camp.

Out on an explore

Sitting still enough for a dragonfly to land on them

Danny & I have really enjoyed reading these 2 books together this last month.

“Dangerous Jounery” is a child’s version of Pilgrims Progress. Here’s a review by Terry Delaney, who also read it to his 4 yr old son.  It’s recommended for 8 yrs old on up but Danny really enjoyed it and it prompted hours of discussion & questions.

“Hunkin did a masterful job of choosing the pertinent sections from the original Pilgrim’s Progress and placing them alongside the masterful artistic renditions of each scene.  The artwork in and of itself is worthy of the price of the book and might even be able to tell the story just by looking at the pictures.”

“Squire and the Scroll” is a beautiful allegory, again with gorgeous illustrations. The author has a whole website with instructions on how to use this book along with squire ceremonies, knights codes etc.

http://www.reviveourhearts.com

Me: Goodnight Carly

Carly: Goodnight Mommy. Mom, what are you planning on doing now?

Me: I’m going to paint my nails and get to some email.

Carly: Oh good, those are the 2 things I need to do too.

We had a magical evening on the waterfront celebrating all that the Lord has done over the past 10 years. It was wonderful to be able to have so many loved ones and co-workers make it. And it made us miss many of you who we’ve been blessed to live and work with who have moved on to new mission fields; Nic & Sherry, Paula & Phil, John & Abi, Justin & Linda, and Jason & Clara. You’re in our hearts and prayers!

Highlights from the last 10 years

Carly and Violet - Forever

Danny in the bounce house, where he pretty much spent the whole evening

We finally made it to Dino Mountain today, the latest Summer addition to the Wild Animal Park.  It’s very well done, the kids loved the over 2 dozen mechanical dinosaurs. complete with sound effects, baby dinos hatching from eggs etc. They were pretty real to life, Carly kept asking Danny which ones were meat eaters and then she walk clear around those.

Here’s Carly operating the do-it-urself Stegosaurus.

Danny was talking to me about his good friend Emmer: Mom, I realised that in all the time I’ve known Emmer I’ve never asked him if he believes in Jesus.

Me: Oh he does, sweetheart, his family are missionaries too.

Danny: Well, Mom, I’d better check with him, just to make sure he really knows.

So the next day…

Danny: Emmer, did you know that God’s love is just like numbers, it just goes on and on and on and never stops? Can you believe that!

Emmer: Oh yeah I know, it’s like a rocket ship, it goes to outer space and keeps on going.

Danny: Oh yeah, Emmer, it’s like a time machine, it goes forwards and backwards.

Emmer: Oh yeah, Danny, it’s like bigger than all the oceans and lands.

Danny: Oh good, I’m glad you already know that.

Emmer: Danny, I’m already 5 years old.

While in Chicago for a family wedding we got to attend the 26th Annual Blues Festival at Grant Park. Grant Park is a huge park in down town Chicago, we read that over 1 million people were expected to attend the festival. A big highlight was getting to see Jeremy Spencer perform live.

We also discovered the Chicago Bean!

The sculpture was constructed between 2004 and 2006 and is nicknamed The Bean because of its legume-like shape. Its exterior consists of 168 stainless steel plates welded together and highly polished so it has no visible seams. On the underside of the sculpture is the omphalos, a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections.

Chicago has so much to see and do with kids, I wish we could have stayed on another week. They had a pirate exhibit at the Field Museum that looked incredible.

At the Yosemite Museum of History, listening to an Indian legend

Totally out of character, Danny posed to take his photo here.

Carly was holding armfulls of cute animal stuffies at the gift shop when we told her she had to pick just one. She looked at each one and slowly put them all down except for this tiny coyote. She explained, “I love them all, but this one needs me.”

We finally saw one! And followed him through the forrest a bit to get this picture.