Beautiful Girlhood

Sophie attended a Beautiful Girlhood Camp this week. She just LOVED it. Miss Betsy taught them how to make: books, hats, bread, dolls and more. It was a delight and I was thrilled Sophie could see such a wonderful, godly example of a young woman (who's even more dear to me since I found out she just recently graduated from my alma mater). Thank you Miss Betsy!

Josh turns 6

Josh is my planner. This year, he began the countdown for his birthday early. When I asked what he'd like to do for his birthday, he said he'd love a swimming/Super Mario party. And he'd like to share his cake with Gracie.




Josh loves boxes for organizing. So his daddy this year gave him a swiss army knife and his grandma gave him a wooden box with a key to keep it safe. He was beside himself!


Gracie is one of his best buddies. Their birthdays are 3 days apart. Gracie turns 7 this year. She was thrilled with sharing a cake too.



I found this cute Mario Cake idea here.

We're thankful for these two and love them very much.

Happy Birthday!!

The Hand That Paints the Sky

The hand that created living things

and made the birds to fly,

is the hand of the Creator,

The hand that paints the sky.

The hand that wove the clouds from air,

and brightens the sun up high,

was made from our Creator,

with the hand that paints the sky.

That hand made all furry friends,

and such squirrels, soft and shy,

was from the hand, the same hand

That paints the sky.

The hand comes from our Creator,

Who made you and I ,

the Creator owns that creative hand,

The hand that paints the sky.

by Sophia

age 9

There and Back to the Beach Again

Deciding to give Hilton Head another go with these dear friends, we set out this time with 2 teenagers added to the mix. Leah rode in our car and put up with Judah's chatter during the long car ride.





As we were arriving our destination, it was raining! OH no! Last year we hit Hilton Head on a week with record low in temperatures along with rain. Was this to be a repeat from last year?





As soon as we turned down 'our' street, it was SUNNY!




We made it!



It was a BEAUTIFUL week.






We enjoyed exploring sea critters all week.






One evening on our midnight walk, the four of us were able to see a Loggerhead Sea Turtle laying her eggs on the beach.

These were the tracks. The pictures don't accurately describe the beauty of them (or the size!)...



By the time I came back with my camera and some of the kids, there were people 'watching' over the turtle. I believe they were waiting until the beach authorities came to officially protect this endangered species. They were a little tense with me and my camera but I rebelled and got a picture anyway. I wish again the picture could show how large this turtle was. She was at least 4x the size of this visitor we had recently in our back yard. Watching her big flapper feet scoop out the sand for her nest was an amazing sight to see.





Making this a homeschooling experience, we went back to our cabin and googled Loggerhead Sea Turtles. We found out they just leave their little eggs to hatch on their own. 60-90 days later the hatchlings use the moon to guide them to the sea and they swim away. I guess Finding Nemo had it wrong! It was because of this, however, people would get fined if they left their outside lights on at the beach during hatching season. They didn't want the little guys to get confused.

The next morning we biked to where she was and found this:





The dads and kids made a fancy sandcastle almost every day. It was fun to see their creativity and intensity building it. Then, we had to 'take a picture-quick' before the tide would wash it away that evening.




We rented two bikes for the week. We all agreed it was worth the purchase. It was wonderful to explore the island this way. Because the beaches were firm enough, everyone rides their bikes on the beach too. Pictured below, we're riding near a march where hundreds of little holes are everywhere in the sand.






When we rode across, many little crabs scurried into their homes.

The boys had one afternoon of put put golf, while the girls hit some local shops.


Here are the girls and their matching jammies:




Usually I'm carrying the camera around, so we usually don't have as many pictures including myself. This week however, we were able to get several. Leah blessed us using her creative capabilities and captured several family photos of us.

We had a few evenings where just the four of us went out. We had a wonderful time as usual. One evening we went to the point where the lighthouse is located.

Like last year, we went to the Crown Plaza to their great seafood buffet.

After dinner, we walked behind the restaurant onto the beach. Since this was the last evening before we had to leave, we were trying to decide what we should do. Holly and I wanted to go for a walk along the beach and the guys wanted to go back and start packing, so they took our shoes and purses and drove back. We could see our house way down the shoreline, so we started walking. We had a great time, there's always great conversation with my friend. However, we were both wanting to get to the 'stream' before it got dark. Let me explain. Just northwest of our house there is a marsh and when there was a high tide the ocean connected to this and therefore creating a stream people waded through to get to to the shoreline on the other side. Earlier that day, Holly had walked across it and it was about ankle deep or so.

Back to our late night walk...

So the sun had set and all week there had been a full moon approaching, but the moon had not appeared yet. So it was dark and we still had not reached this stream part yet. We finally came to it and thought it wasn't a good sign that no one was crossing- the several people that were walking that night were all turning around and walking back. We approached and couldn't believe the once stream was now a gulf. We decided to brave it. We hiked up our dresses (too dark for anyone to see much, thank goodness) and started wading across. Holly couldn't believe how big this area had grown from that afternoon--it was now about half a football field in length. We weren't halfway, when we knew it was deeper then we thought-- we were waist deep already and it was dropping fast. There was a bit of a current and the waves were fairly strong. Did I mention- we couldn't see much? So do we turn around and walk the 45 minute trek back to the restaurant to call the guys? But our house was RIGHT there... once we got past this LAKE. We went for it and just started swimming towards the other side. I was just hoping, hoping not to spot- or feel- any sea critters (there were tons of jellyfish, some sting rays we say daily and even an alligator was spotted the day before). As we scrambled up the rocks at our destination I say, "Thank goodness there were no critters!!" Holly screams, "CRITTERS!!! I didn't even think about CRITTERS!!" We laughed the rest of the way home-just glad we made it.

The guys, needless to say, were surprised to see us returning, thoroughly drenched.

On our return trip we stopped in Chattanooga at Holly's hometown. It was wonderful to see where she grew up. Her view from her house, as a girl, was Lookout Mountain. We spent the afternoon in the park there and enjoyed the view.

It was here that Micah borrowed the camera to take some shots when, oops, he tripped on one of the steps and smashed the camera. The bright side was it was the last day of the vacation.

We are so thankful for this wonderful trip, great company and experiencing God's beautiful creation.

Psalm 9

1 I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart;
I will tell of all Your marvelous works.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.