We have 7 1/2 days of school left!! This Memorial Day weekend, we kicked off summer early with water balloons and a slip ‘n slide at my parents Octaranch in College Station.
You can’t do anything but cry when it’s a double sister water balloon attack!
Friday was beach day for the group at Caberete! But for us, more importantly, we were meeting our girl that we sponsor through Compassion! We started sponsoring Darianny two years ago, and purposely chose her because she was from the Dominican Republic, and in between Rilyn and Ella’s ages. We knew that one day, we wanted to go on a family mission trip through our church to the DR, and then, maybe we would be able to meet her! It was hard to believe that nearly two years later, our decision was coming to fruition! I contacted Compassion 2 months prior to our visit to set up the arrangements, and Darianny was driven 3 hours from her village to Caberete, a resort beach, on Friday morning. This is the photo we prayed over/stared at on our fridge for the past 2 years:
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And this is Darianny meeting Rilyn and Ella Friday morning:
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| big smiles! |
After talking with Darianny, through the translator Compassion gave us, we learned that she wants to be a fashion model when she grows up! She was very excited when one of the gifts we brought her was some stylish new sunglasses! Look at her strutting her stuff!
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| future model! |
This was Darianny’s first time at the beach, and the first time out of her village! The joy on her face never left all day!
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| joy |
She LOVED the ocean! She never wanted to get out!
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| me and my girls! |
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| Darianny asked how salt got into the ocean 🙂 |
After a yummy lunch of pizza, we took the girls to a bead shop where they each got to make a necklace! We learned that this was Darianny’s first time in a gift shop too!
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| new handmade necklaces! |
We got ice cream afterwards of course!
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| Darianny got watermelon flavor ice cream! |
What a special experience to meet her! It was the perfect ending to our trip! We hope that when we come back in a few years that we can visit Darianny again, this time in her village!
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| our family with Darianny |
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| goodbye hugs |
The last hour we had at the beach after Darianny left was spent relaxing and soaking in the sun!
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| rilyn |
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| Thanks Dominican for the life changing memories! |
“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18
Thank you to Makarios, to all our friends and family who generously donated money to our trip, and those who donated supplies for the students of Makarios so they can receive new clothes, shoes, underwear, and school supplies on their first day of school in September! God bless you all!
*to read day 7, click here. To see my photography blog pictures of the DR, click here*
Each new morning starts with roosters crowing in the Dominican. Wednesday morning was no different, and at 5 a.m. the roosters start their songs. We started the day at the Makarios school again. The girls and I went through each summer school class again. Ella found Rebekah and the hand games resumed!
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This is the arts and crafts room.
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In science, they were making homemade ice cream!
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| shake the bag! |
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| touching the ice cream that they just made! |
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Math time!
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| worksheets! |
In the afternoon, we visited the village of Pancho Mateo. One third of the kids at the Mak school come from here.
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| Rilyn |
There was a village basketball court, and we played there most of the afternoon. The village girls loved doing Rilyn and Ella’s “gringo” hair! And my girls loved having it done-over and over and over again!
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| girls will be girls! |
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| Rilyn feeling relaxed! |
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| time for another ‘do! |
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| this sweet girl did a great job with Ella’s hair! |
James played sports with the boys!
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| futball! |
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| bball! |
*to read about day 5, click here. To read about day 7, click here*
Yesterday, we took a day off to have, what we are calling, the “1st annual adults only lake day!” Our good friends, the Moss’, took out their boat on Lake Travis so we could water ski, tube, wake board, and boat on in to Hula Hut for dinner! Such a fun afternoon with great friends!! Next Friday, all six of us, plus our kids, will be traveling to the Dominican Republic together!
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| James wake boarding for the first time! |
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| me water skiing |
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| cool shot of James’ water skiing |
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| James is so good at water skiing, he tells us when he is done skiing (instead of just falling).
He is giving us the thumbs up that he is done and drops the handle! |
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| James tubing |
James asked Eddie to try and get him off the tube, so as Eddie drove the boat crazy, James flipped…and lost his bathing suit to his ankles!
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| flipping… |
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to capture that shot because his trunks fell down as the bottom of the tube was facing the camera and conveniently covering James’ full moon! 😉
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| James mooning the house behind him |
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| Hula Hut! |
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| Pennybacker bridge on Lake Travis with my girls! Jen, Denise, and me! |
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Asher has a thing for water in his face…he LOVES it!!
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| I think I’ll stand right here… |
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| so I can get dumped on!!!! |
And just for fun-grandma bought Asher and cousin Caden matching Jake costumes from Jake and the Neverland Pirates show. Cousin Caden’s birthday is coming up, and his party theme is from that show…grandma just couldn’t resist. Personally, I couldn’t even tell if that was a wig Asher was wearing! 😉
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These past two weeks have been all about camp and VBS! During first week of June, my girls went to Pine Cove base camp at our church!
I highly recommend this as a transition for overnight camps. Next summer, I would love to send my girls to Pine Cove overnight week long camp, and I think they would be totally ready for it based on the week they had at base camp! It was 9-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and they loved every minute of it! (Okay, Rilyn did complain about being too sweaty some days!) 🙂 But that is a girly girl for ya!
They had tons of water activities every day!
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| Ella on the far left |
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| Ella in the middle trying to drink the water sprinkles! |
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| Rilyn and her friends! |
They had Bible study in their tents every day!
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| Rilyn in the red |
They got to act silly!
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| Ella |
Listen to silly skits!
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| Ella loving being in the front row! |
They did the Wobble (I totally recommend playing this for the kids, so fun!)
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| The girls LOVE this clean version of the song |
They had worship!
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| Rilyn |
And during the last day, the counselors (which both my girls want to be when they are in college!), presented them with a certificate of character quality!
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| Ella and her counselor |
Ella’s said, “Ella is an outgoing young lady. Her enthusiastic attitude is contagious and inspiring. Her positive outlook is a blessing to those around her.”
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| Rilyn and her counselor |
Rilyn’s said, “Rilyn is selfless, putting others before herself. She is uplifting in what she says and does. Her gracious attitude is a blessing to those around her.”
We had a relaxful Memorial Day weekend with my family in College Station at my parent’s Octaranch!
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| the Octaranch |
There was rides on grandpa’s riding mower
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Grandpa taught Asher how to shoot a bow and arrow
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Asher could swing for hours!
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Learning how to shoot a bb gun!
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Collecting rolly pollies (one of my favorite things to do as a child too!)
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| Rilyn |
Going hiking on the land behind the house
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| grandpa and the kiddos |
My parents land goes right up to the Brazos river!
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| James the mountain man?!? |
Asher throwing rocks in the river (I was a little nervous watching this…James is on a slope!)
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This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend…grandpa leading Rilyn and Ella
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| through the forest |
Walking back to the Octaranch (aka the tree house) with my sister and her dog
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S’mores at dusk!
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Rilyn and grandpa talking while the sun goes down. Questions included “What came first, dinosaurs, or Adam and Eve?” Rilyn could of talked to grandpa all night…
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| Rilyn |
The kids had no trouble falling asleep Sunday night!
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| dreaming of their great day! |
Ella had the honor of the first swim of ‘kiddie pool season’ this year at our house! Since we are in the low 90s already, I think the time is right! I signed up Ella for ‘advanced swimming lessons for ages 3-5’ in June since she did so good last summer, but now I’m having second thoughts…what do you think? 🙂
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| I asked Ella to swim |
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| Choking after holding her breath under water |
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| trying to back float |
It was sure fun taking pictures of our little cutie!
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| From May 2010 |
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| From May 2010 |
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| From May 2010 |
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| From May 2010 |
The End
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| I’m foreseeing lots of this with my girls! |
Ella had splash day on Tuesday at her preschool and, well, I’ll let the pictures do the talking…
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| warming up and getting in ‘the zone’ for the big water slide |
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| Whoa! This is steeper than it looks!! |
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| (Anna, and a boy who obviously likes her, Jake, and Ella) Hike up that bottom girl! |
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| Again, this boy must really dig Anna! Ella is leaping for joy?!? |
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| From May 2009 |
I’m sure one day Rilyn will not be too thrilled that I posted these pictures, but it was so funny I couldn’t pass it up. James took these shots the other day (note: I’m trying to cut back in my photo-taking this month, not James.)
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| From May 2009 |
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| From May 2009 |
This is what happens when mommy has left over swim diapers from last summer and you have two older sisters.
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| From May 2009 |
the paquettes 