Trip to the mountains

I mentioned in my last post that I would have to put up some pictures of our recent weekend getaway to Luke's parents' house in the mountains of NC. Well, obviously, it's been a couple weeks, but I am finally posting them!

 The first morning was just the four of us and Mimi (Luke's mom). We decided to go visit the historic home of Carl Sandburg, American author/poet who spent his later years in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Actually, we didn't visit the house itself (that will be for our next trip!), we just visited the goat farm! His wife raised hundreds of prize-winning dairy goats throughout the early 20th century, but they have continued the goat dairy to this day. This was definitely a highlight of the trip for the girls.

Sam and Jonathan arrived that afternoon and we spent the following morning hiking to some beautiful waterfalls. The rest of these pictures are all from Jonathan's camera (I was too busy keeping the girls on the trail).

And of course, no trip to a new town is complete without checking out the playgrounds. We actually headed over to Hendersonville for this one and it did not disappoint. New playgrounds are always fun!

We had so much fun and are looking forward to going back later this summer. Anna Kate can't stop talking about the apple-picking that she's been promised!

Colossal Coaster World - Facing Fear, Trusting God!

It's the Monday after Vacation Bible School and I feel like I am just now catching my breath after a crazy and busy, but wonderful, week! Honestly, we've just been running non-stop the past week and a half with a trip to the mountains (blog post coming soon), VBS, a wedding that I did all the music for on Saturday, and my own violin students' recital yesterday afternoon - which explains the little blogging hiatus! I'll try to be better...

But back to VBS, the girls (and Luke and I!) had a wonderful week learning that God is always with us, that we can face our fears and trust in him at all times. Luke had his usual job of "other duties as assigned" which included registration craziness (230+ kids each night), finding missing children (don't worry, he was with his mom!), cleaning up messes, ministering to parents/families, checking on all the workers, etc. I helped my good friend Christa with the music this year and then took over for her on Thursday and Friday when she had a prior commitment to be at. I felt like I was back in my first year of teaching when I taught elementary music (complete with LOTS of singing and choreography)!

Anna Kate was in Ms. Erin and Ms. DeeDee's older 2's/3's class and had a BLAST. She told me absolutely everything they did on the way home each night and then promptly fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow (since VBS itself ran 30 minutes past their usual bedtime). She loved all the roller coaster and theme park decorations and all of the songs (she's still singing them daily), and the Bible stories, as well as the outside games...oh and the food! So really, she loved everything!

This was Caroline's first year to really participate in VBS. Technically we just start with 2-year-olds (with a nursery for babies of volunteers), but since the 2-year-olds were being taught by Caroline's regular LifeGroup teachers anyway (Ms. Tammy and Ms. Mandy), they thought she could just join them and see how she did. Well, she did fantastic! Caroline's favorite parts were craft time (she came home covered in green marker one night!) and music time (probably because she got to see me). But seriously, she really did like the main preschool song that we did called "God is With Me". Little story here - One morning at home last week, I was singing it with Anna Kate, and Caroline chimed right in with the right lyrics (that I didn't know she knew or could say)! It starts off with "Who is greater than God? Nobody!" Well, I sang the first part and before Anna Kate and I could say the answer, Caroline shouted, "NO BUBBY!" I think that was her first 3-syllable word!

Anyway, all that to say, Caroline really enjoyed VBS this year and I am so thankful for her teachers who let her join in with the big kids!

Caroline and Anna Kate with Ms. Tammy

On Friday night we had our program and Family Night. Here's a picture of all the preschoolers (Caroline is being held by one of her teachers - so she couldn't run down to me - and AK is right next to her on the step).

 

Anna Kate did such a great job standing up in front of the big crowd and singing and doing all her motions! Here is a little video of our "God is With Me" song.

Caroline on the other hand...just wanted to come down to where Mommy was leading everyone. So finally her teachers just let her =)

Well, we were definitely exhausted after such a long week, but we were so grateful for the opportunity to minister to hundreds of kids (and families) in our community and to give them an opportunity to hear the gospel!