GEMS Sunday

I can hardly believe that my first year as GEMS Club Coordinator is pretty much over. This morning we had a fantastic GEMS Sunday service. The girls sang beautiful and it is actually undescribable to me... God was so there... there was a praise team and the girls backed up the praise team as "the choir" and they did so good... with the congregation they sang "I Am Free", "Love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength" and "In Christ Alone" (this last one was particularly hair raising... along with the congregation as each verse everyone was louder and louder and the Lord was definitely being praised. Then we had a few technical gliches but after offering and the girls singing the theme song "Abba I Belong to You", I was finally able to go up and do the litany and my little talk. All in all it was a beautiful service. God is good all the time - All the time God is good! I had asked a lot of people to pray for me because I was a little nervous about speaking in front of the congregation - thank you so much to those who took me seriously and were praying for me... I could definitely tell! Our Girls & Counselors Having fun...as always!

Thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement for our GEMS ministry!

New Beds - Finally!

The boys FINALLY got the bunk beds they have been waiting for - for a long time! It has been such a saga trying to find the bunk beds we liked and finding somewhere that had them in stock. I have been to every furniture store in Grand Rapids -and every bunk bed website online. And finally the bunks have arrived! The bunks are in Justin's room - with the intent that they would just give us more space and an extra bed - but that is not how the boys see it. They are both determined that they are going to sleep in the bunks and that Levi's room is now the play room. I'm not so certain... Levi's bed is in his room and ready for him - but for now they are enjoying being together. I have a feeling though that it is going to get old rather quickly... one likes it dark, one has a night lite, one likes music, one wants it quiet... time will tell...
Last night when Eric & I went in to "say good-night" before we went to bed - this is what we found. The nice full size bottom bunk - empty. The top bunk - both boys sound asleep!

Like I said - time will tell!

Welcome Ben!

The other evening the boys and I had the privilige of meeting my friend Rachel's baby Ben for the first time. The boys loved all of Zachary's tractors and enjoyed playing with their new friend.
Ben was just over one week old - he is so tiny and precious - a true gift from God.

Aunt Holli - I gave him an extra hug from you!

Traveling to Alabama

On Friday, March 7 very, very early in the morning we headed out for a long day on the road that ended in Gulf Shores! The boys were wide awake when we got into the car - but within a few hours they were snoozing!

Justin was so funny because he had all ready been into his new goody bag and found his new sunglasses (as you can tell by the sticker still being on them!) - now you need to know that this picture was taken while it was still completely dark outside... silly kid!

Levi's 3rd Birthday

Sunday, March 9 was Levi's 3rd birthday - we was so excited to celebrate in Alabama.
The birthday boy! He had a hard time deciding whether he wanted to be 3 or 1 for most of the day he said he was 1! He is so fun! He is such a great little boy and is growing up so fast! Levi you are such a blessing to Daddy & Mom!

Pensacola Naval Air Museum

We spent another day at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum. What a beautiful place!
Another future pilot?...
This is the home of the Blue Angels - this is one of their practice planes and it was parked right outside the museum window.

They had a program called Famous Flyers - they gave you a large card with lots of questions on it and you had to find the answers throughout the museum. It made the adventure a lot of fun and it was a great learning tool!

Our family really loves airplanes so this was a great place for us to visit!

Camping Fun

The boys had a great time just being outside - they didn't care the temperature or the weather if they could be - they were outside!

Here Grandpa and Justin are bird "hunting" - they would search for birds and try to figure out what kind they were.

The state park has changed alot and looks kind of sad... hurrican Katrina pretty much wiped out the campground. It used to be fully wooded and very private - not it is wide open and there are lots of dead trees to look at.
This used to be a dense "forest" - now it is nothing...
This is the camp store - it was damaged in the hurricane and has yet to be cleaned up and rebuilt. Eric said he used to get lots of ice cream cones there... it wasn't quite the same.


Playing in the sand and playing baseball - can't get much better than that!


The boys got "headlights" at one of the stores we were at - so of course we had to take a night walk and see if they worked!

More baseball... we played lots of baseball this week!
Another favorite is playing hide & seek with the walkie talkies. Here Justin and Grandpa are hiding behind the power boxes and Daddy & Levi are trying to find them... it looks silly here - but they seriously spent hours playing this and the boys had so much fun!
My cool dudes!
We did lots of bike riding.
And of course swinging...

We had lots of fun - just being outside! Which you can't do in Michigan these days...

Beach Fun

You can't go to the Gulf and not play on the beach!
Levi was having a great time chasing and feeding the seagulls.
Our family!

Levi playing in the sand - he found this little spot very comfortable!
They spent a lot of time digging for shells - after the hurricane the shells are underneath the sand - so you really need to dig if you want to find some good shells.
Daddy & Levi

One afternoon we went to the beach in town and the boys had a blast "Jumping" around. They had the best time running around and just playing in the sand. They both were getting some serious air!
After finding the shells you have to clean them and organize them... they enjoyed comparing all the different shells they had found.

The Battleship in Mobile

On the same day that we went to Dauphin Island we visited the Battleship in Mobile.

The boat was huge and I was intrigued by the similarities it had to my Dad's Destroyer that he was on during the Vietnam War.

Justin was amazed at the size of the torpedos, and Levi loved the bunks!
The size of these chains was amazing!
The boys just in awe of everything...
Grandpa R used to fly an airplane just like this - any time we see one the boys say it is Grandpa's plane!

Dauphin Island

On one of the more cloudy mornings we went on a bit of a road trip. We headed for Dauphin Island.

We took the car ferry across to the island - a God thing... we were in the car spot #21 as we awaited to board the ferry. The sign said the ferry held 18 cars... the next ferry was in one hour and 45 minutes... what were we going to do on an overcast day in the parking lot for almost 2 hours... as the boat was being loaded of course we were the first car to be stopped to wait... after all the other cars were loaded (and a lot of praying by me!) the man put up his hand and said "1 more will fit!" Hallelujah! We were on the ferry! I was so thankful! We stayed in the car on the ferry - what a different sensation to be in the car and yet have no control!
On Dauphin Island we visited the Estuarium - Sea Lab. It was like an aquarium. The kids loved all the fish, snakes, lizards, jelly fish... it was small but the boys really enjoyed seeing all the unique water life.
We also went to Lambert's Restaurant - the home of the throwed rolls. It was a fun experience. They do actually through hot rolls at you and the waitress play jokes on you - one got Dad really good as she pretended to pour a full pitcher of ice tea on him (it was frozen!) but it really made him jump! The food too was really good!

The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo

We spent a morning at the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo. The boys had a great time.
Levi feeding the deer - he had no fear - he let them eat right out of his hand.
Justin on the other hand needed a little encouragement. I think he is praying for the courage to feed the animals like everyone else! He did end up feeding them... and liking it!
The boys LOVED the rabbits! They had free roaming rabbits all throughout the zoo and the boys spent most of their time searching and trying to catch the rabbits. Here they were even able to feed it.
Levi & Justin (below) feeding the camels - it was a little trickier because you had to lean over two fences to reach them!
Watching the ducks and lemurs play in the pond. Here you can see Justin he is in the far right side on his hands and knees... you guessed it he is trying to catch a rabbit!The zoo was great, there were lots of big animals, tigers, lions, jaguars, leopard's, monkeys, ducks, chinchillas, alligator, deer, birds, lemurs, lamas, goats, camels.... it was great fun in a very comfortable and relaxed setting.