My Boys and Their Dream Toys

What are these faces so mesmerized by?


That's right, heavy machinery.
They're adding a lane and a new sidewalk to the street we live on. Jonathan took the boys one afternoon to watch the machines work. They had a great time and Asher came home talking about the big machines and the work they do. He was so excited. Here are some more pictures of what they found so interesting.

Daddy and His Boys

Jonathan is usually the one behind the camera, which is why he's not in many of our pictures. When I see something special going on between the two boys, or the three boys, I normally treasure the moment in my heart. But, for the sake of my husband, I thought I should grab the camera and treasure this moment on "film".


PS. I still treasured the moment in my heart, it's just that the camera had first priority. ;)

Wordless Wednesday - Our Acrobats & Some Silly Faces

Youth Ministry Takes on The Amazing Race

Amazing Race Ames was a lot of fun!! We hope that next year, it will be bigger and better. That's right, I'm hoping we do this again next year. It required a lot of planning from Jonathan and Mark, but it went really well and it can only get better. ;)

THE
AMAZING RACE

The students could travel by foot or take the CyRide Bus.

First task:
Solve a Sudoku Puzzle.

Second Task:
Get water in a bucket from the bridge to fill a container
OR
shoot a series of baskets all in a row.
(filling the buckets was more time consuming but didn't require any special skills;
you did have to wait in line until the team before you was finished)
(choosing basketball could be faster if you're good at shooting hoops)

Third Task:
Break a clay plate with a slingshot.

Fourth Task:
Every team member must drive 50 yards OR
choose one person from your team to sink a putt.
(notice the ball is still on the tee; this happened a lot)
(which is why most teams waited in line to putt)
Fifth Task:
Find a piece of art on campus and get the name of the artist.

Sixth Task:
Kick a field goal.

Seventh Task:
Find 10 historic facts in downtown Ames.

Eighth and Final Task:
Get a driver under the overpass to honk,
wave, or acknowledge you in any way.

Winners:
Senior High

Junior High

Second Place:
Senior High
Junior High

Prizes were awarded to First place:
Cold Stone or Bowling with the Youth Staff

Housesitting in July

In July we spent a week housesitting out of town. It was nice to be on "vacation": away from the phone, the mail, the housework. We did have a cat to feed, a hot tub to maintain and a pool to keep clean. ;)

Honestly, taking care of a pool was more work than I thought it would be but we had a great time. The boys each got their own room which helps with sleeping - way better than everyone in the same hotel room. It was so nice to have the pool. We swam almost everyday and grilled out almost every night. One night we had our old small group over to swim and use the hot tub (don't worry, we had permission from the owners). It was so nice to have the space to entertain. And, again, the pool was great!! ;)

Here's the cat that we took care of. She was a good cat and didn't require a lot of work - that's what I like about cats. ;) The boys really liked having a kitting around.

There was a model plane "air field" a short drive out of town. Jonathan took Asher one evening to watch the planes. They had a great time!

Every morning, we ventured in the pool to vacuum. Phin helped me most mornings. The pool had a heater so it wasn't chilly when we got in in the morning. ;)

They had a lot of fun swim toys. Here's Phin modeling the Spiderman goggles.

We were in a really small town so you could walk everywhere in a matter of minutes. Most evenings, after dinner, Jonathan walked with the boys to the park while I cleaned up dinner dishes. It worked really well and tired them out for bed. ;)

Thank you, again, for letting us take care of your home. It was more like a "stay-cation" than work. ;) We had a wonderful time!!