Randon Photos from our Vacation Trip to Mississippi

Our summer vacation trip to Mississippi was fun-filled from start to finish!  This will be my last post about it.  This post is filled with all the random photos I took during our time there.

We made A LOT of trips to Wal-Mart.  It is my favorite place to visit on all trips to the U.S.  We arrived in the States late at night and made our first visit to Wal-Mart the very next morning.  We were all excited!!

 

Reese's Puffs is their favorite cereal.

 

 

I love this shirt!

 

 

Here is a video of first trip to Wal-Mart.

 

We also made several visits to Chik-fil-A.  We had eaten it in the Atlanta airport the night before but ate it again for our first lunch in the States.

 

 

We did a lot of shopping!  We always stock up on everything while in the U.S.  Here we are buying shoes for the boys.  

 

 

shoe shopping

 

We enjoyed a few visits with the Johnsons.  I love getting our kids together to play.  Nicky and Jackie were in our student ministry years ago.

 

We made several visits to the Dairy Freeze for ice cream and snow cones.

 

 

 

 

 

They spent hours in the yard playing wiffle ball.  It provided them entertainment and exercise.

 

 

 

 

They also spent many hours riding their scooters.

 

 

 

We got to enjoy a few kid-free shopping trips of our own.  It was so nice!  We rarely get much time alone without our kids here in Guatemala.   Any time we do, it is a real treat.

 

We took advantage of one of their sleepovers with friends for a date night to Jackson.  We enjoyed a wonderful meal and movie.  We have not been to the theater without kids since 2009.

 

We saw Sound of Freedom. 

It was our first experience with reclining seats.  Wow!  That was amazing!

 

We loved being home during tomato season.  Here is David buying from a roadside stand. That honor system is something that would never work here in Guatemala.

 

 

Ahhhh.... tomato sandwiches.  That is something we definitely miss every summer. I lost count on how many we ate while home.

 

 

The boys spent a lot of time at the Sojourners.  These are also former youth ministry students whose kids are around the same age as ours.  I think our boys would spend their whole summer with them if we would let them..  They got to do many fun outdoor activities there like riding 4-wheelers, swimming, and tubing on the lake.

 

 

They also went on an outing with them to Party Safari.

 

gearing up for go-carts

 

 

 

We met friends from Easthaven Baptist for supper at Shiver's Fish House.  Most of this group had been on our our March mission team. It was great to catch up again in person over a delicious meal.

 

 

We shared during a VBS service at Sardis Baptist in Hazlehurst.

 

Our family sharing about life in Guatemala with a group of VBS kids.

 

They enjoyed getting to spend some time with their cousin Ryder after the service.

 

Enjoying snow cones with the Johnsons in Wesson. 

 

I loved all the beautiful sunsets we saw while home.

 

Me and the boys in my hometown.

 

 

flying back to Guatemala 

 

a video of our travel day

 

We returned home to Guatemala on July 30.  We were sad that our vacation had come to an end. It really was a perfect ending to a fabulous school summer break!!

Coffee Refill, Please

We are on week 7 of staying home.  Here is a look at our life over the past two weeks.

We are slowly but surely reaching the end of our school year.  We are on week 35 this week and have plans to finish next Friday, May 8.  Hooray!!!

Ben doing a language lesson.  

Working a Science vocabulary word puzzle. 

Here are Ben's "beans in a bag".   He checks on them everyday. 

Our last two weeks of Science lessons are on simple machines.  Here is Cruz learning about levers.

The older elementary co-op students did a Zoom call one day and worked a Science lesson together.  Cruz was so excited about it.  He got up that morning and "fixed" his hair.  It looked a mess so I asked him was he sure he wanted it to look that way on the call.  His response, "I want to look like Albert Einstein.  I think Mrs. Staci (the other Science teacher) will love it."  She did. 

One of my favorite things about school this year was our times of learning about people groups around the world and praying for them.  It is more special when we know someone who lives in a particular country or works with a particular group.   We have friends who are planning to move to India later this year.   It was a blessing to call them by name as they prepare to go and serve there.

"Draw Everyday with JJK" is how we have been ending our school days lately.  We watch his videos on YouTube.  

On this particular lesson the boys had to pick a book that they enjoyed hearing read to them as a small child.  They had a draw a character from the book. 

Ben chose Go, Dog. Go !

 Cruz chose Dig, Dogs, Dig

Speaking of art, I have seen a lot of cute chalk drawings posted on social media lately.  I did not try to do one with the boys but one afternoon they decided to do their own without my knowledge.  I assumed they were outside playing and having a fun time.  They were quiet so I left them alone.  After a while they came running into the house calling for us to come see what they had done.  They were so proud!  Me, not so much.  Every bit of concrete on our property (front yard and back) had chalk on it.  There was no cute pattern or design.  It looked more like graffiti or vandalism, lol.  

Tic Tac Toe

At least part of it was constructive.

Notice Cruz's favorite team thrown in there?  That part did make me smile.

And here they are again burning energy with a backyard sword fight.  This time it was on a recent Sunday morning before we sat down to watch online church.  

Notice the cloths hanging on the line.  I had burned some energy that morning too.

Another afternoon of backyard play.  We have spent more time in our backyard in the past 7 weeks than we have spent in all since we moved here.   It is my current favorite place to be.  Here are David and the boys trying to do handstands.  Like probably every parent in the world right now, I feel like I say all day long "be careful!, don't do that!, get down! You cannot get hurt right now!  We do not need a trip to the hospital!"  Be still my heart.

Playing "volleyball" over the clothes line.

Having an evening picnic in the backyard.  We had grilled hotdogs.  Not only have we been hanging out more in the backyard but we have enjoyed quite a few meals out there too.  

We began painting the inside of the house one room at a time last July.  It has been a slow process but we are nearing the end.  We stopped last November and only lacked the upstairs hallway.  We began that project again last week.  We are still not finished but getting very close.  We are going from yellow to white.

This sight made the boys and I squeal with joy.  David had gone into town to pay a bill and while there he saw that Dunkin Donuts was open.  They were offering buy 6, get 6 for free.  He is not a big fan of Dunkin but he knows that we like them.  He returned home just in time for our morning school break.  It was the "sweetest" break we have had in a while.

Here are David and the boys taking turns playing a video game one afternoon while I got to enjoy a few episodes of The Pioneer Woman.  I rarely watch any TV, but if I do sit down to watch it is most always a cooking show. 

Here is Cruz on another recent afternoon snoozing on the couch.  He had just finished telling me about how he was not tired at all although I could tell he was by his attitude.  Sometimes we just all need a nap to make us feel better.  I know I do.  These days of being endlessly stuck at home can wear on your nerves. 

 That's how we are surviving at the White house.  :-)