First Day of School 2017

Yesterday these two went back to school!!

Rachel is in 8th grade this year and Rebecca is a 3rd grader.

Rebecca was the first to go to school.

She is back at Sage School again this year.

I still need to blog all about Sage, on of these days.

She was excited to get back to school.

I know she was anxious to see her friends and get back to

a school time routine.

Rachel doesn't go to school until later, so Raphael and I went to the

bus stop to see her off. The bus was very late, so about 20 kids

waiting and talking. I made the girls gather for a picture :).

The bus finally showed up and off they went.

I know Rachel was happy to see her friends and looking forward

to her schedule this fall. I think 8th grade will be a good year for her.

They came home from school full of news and stories.

Sounded like the first day was a success!

Praying a safe and learning filled year for them.

The Month of July in Pictures

Ok, so I am way behind with keeping up with blogging this summer. Besides the trip to the PNW, we did a lot of summer time kind of activities.

Lake Lanier

Rachel and I went to the gym together and I started a new

program called Pinnacle .

Amy went home to Panama for a few weeks.

Rebecca and I went to Dave & Busters.

Lunch with Nana at the Great American Doll store.

Rebecca's doll got her ears pierced and glasses :).

And Nana bought the "Rebecca " doll for our Rebecca.

Anderson sunflower farm.

Rebecca got her ears pierced! She had been talking about it for

awhile and she did great!

More swimming.

Rebecca and I love musicals. The Fox Theater

had a sing- along for Mary Poppins, so she and I went to

see it. Raphael and Rachel went to see Spider-Man.

Life-- allergy shots, waiting rooms, shopping at Walmart.

We like to watch Shark Week each summer and it motivated us to

go the Georgia Aquarium for the afternoon.

After the Aquarium, we walked to the Hard Rock Café for dinner.

Fort Yargo Lake days.

Stone Mountain fun.

Sunshine and swimming!

I decided to get the girls cooking more. Rebecca went first and she

chose to make Crock pot garlic chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits and salad.

She did so great and the food was good too.

We did other little things too and had lots of lazy days at the house, but

that was pretty much our July.

We only have three days left of summer vacation. I can't believe how fast

the summer went by. I hate to see it go. I love summertime 🌞!

ALL -- WIn Shape Camp 2017

This year, both of the girls attended a Win Shape Camp. This was

Rebecca's first time at the day camp and she had a fun week.

They divide the kids up into teams and Rebecca ended up on  the Ocean team.

And her sub group was a Penguin.

The theme for camp this year was ALL.

Love the Lord with ALL your heart, ALL your soul,

ALL your mind and ALL your strength.

Mark 12:30

Fridays at camp are Chick-fil-A Friday Family Fun Day.

Rachel and I were able to go to camp with Rebecca.

Rebecca's camp ended with Tri-Angulation game.

It was crazy and fun and so hot outside.

When the games finished, we all had Chick-fil-A for

lunch and then time to go home.

The next week, it was Rachel's turn for camp.

This was her second year at Win Shape Camp at Young Harris.

The girls stay at the college campus for a week.

The campers are in groups and Rachel is in the Royalum group.

Rachel was so excited for camp this year. It helped a lot that she had gone last year and

knew what to expect.

We helped her unpack and make her bed.

I love college campuses... always so pretty. We

said goodbye and headed home for the week.

On the last day of camp, the girls all meet with their

leader and review the week. Each camper gets a

"paper plate award".  This year Rachel got the

"fire ball" award.  She really loved her leader and

her room mates.

The camp ended with a big group time, singing and then Chick-fil-A lunch.

So thankful our girls are able to go to camp, learn about God

and make new friends.

Final Stop -- Bend, Oregon

Our final stop on the tour was to Bend, OR.  I was hoping on our way from Portland to Bend that we could stop by Salem and McMinnvillee and show the girls where we used to live and work, but didn't have enough time.

We started slowly making our way higher and higher and finally Mt. Bachelor

came into view.

We made it to Bend and got all unpacked. We were staying at my Uncle Carl's

house there and it was so nice.

We just hung out and chatted with everyone and then us ladies

went to downtown Bend to shop and look around.

We played bingo and ate a lot of ice cream :)

The next day, we took some family pictures.

All the photographers.

Uncle Carl and Aunt Tami had to go, and then the rest of us drove

to Mount Bachelor.

We took the ski lift up to the top to check out the view and have some

lunch. We got to play in the snow for a minute too.

On the Fourth of July we went to the annual pet parade that is held in downtown Bend.

I loved it! The girls loved it too. We all thought it was great. Then we went to a park and

walked around a festival .

Our first date was on the 4th of July.

The rest of the 4th we just hung around the house. Grilled out and waited

for it to get dark. We drove to a parking lot to watch a fireworks show

that the city puts on.

Waiting for dark.

We all floated the Deschutes River. It was so much fun, but took quite

a lot of effort to get the inner tubes because it was just so busy.

I didn't take my camera because, Water, but it was a fun day.

We spent our last full day in Bend at the Museum.

It was a great place to visit. We spent all day there.

And then some random pictures of the town and neighbor hood and sunsets

and sunrises and flowers.

So many round-abouts in Bend!!

Our flight home was delayed in leaving Bend by two hours.

We then landed in Salt Lake City and ran our legs off to make

the connection to Atlanta.

We landed in ATL and all the luggage made it!

Went to pick up our car and get home. It was 1;30 ish

before we got to bed.

A really fun and interesting trip to the Pacific Northwest.

Travelling takes time and effort and money. But it is worth it.

To show our kids and ourselves other places and people is always

a good idea.

Also, it is good to be home!!