Silver Dollar City - Branson

After the early service at First Baptist Branson, Silver Dollar City was our destination today. Josiah got the prize for quote of the day. He has had a problem with pinching his sisters and picking on them. (Of course they do their share of picking too.) While we were walking to one of the rides, we heard a little girl crying very loudly, Josiah said, "Someone must have given her a wet willy Mom...but it wasn't me I promise!!" Spoken from experience I'm sure.


Josiah and Lauren modeling some very distinquished hats.


Abbey and Lauren wrining their socks out after the log ride.


Emma posing with a great rhythm band...she is begging for those drum lessons, I think I am going to have to give in!

The boys....right where they belong!

Nana and Papa's gifts from China

Nana and Papa went to China recently and sent the kids some very cool gifts. Abbey and Emma got Jade necklaces and Japanese coin purses.

Josiah Got a Chinese outfit and sword, which he has no problem using on the girls! Lauren got a beautiful Chinese robe which she loves.

Night Out in Brownsburg

Tonight we went to the Night Out Against Crime all of the kids (except Josiah) climbed the rock wall. Lauren made it all the way to the top, she was so proud!

Abbey and Emma made it to the top too...

Check out Emma's new hair!

Messy Games!

My absolute favorite part of Messy Games was watching Josiah trying to pop the shaving cream balloon. He tried and tried and finally Emma came and popped it for him.

Josiah ended the day in puddle of tears...he was wet, cold, and covered from head to toe in chocolate pudding!

Camping!

We went to McCormicks Creek with the Painters and the Hackneys and found this beautiful waterfall! The kids had a great time playing in the creek and Jim was right there along with them!









































Josiah spent a lot of time whining! I know you all are having a hard time believing that!












































I had to include one sweet picture of the boy!

They found a turtle. The poor thing had to get a picture taken with each kid, yes nine pictures.

Mission Adventure Camp

Man it has been a long time... Mission Adventure Camp was awesome! 13 kids accepted Christ, 12 said they want to be missionaries and there were 5 other decisions including baptism and reccomitment to living for Christ. Several kids from Hope made decisions! The kids loved the being plummeted into the air by the blob and landing in the lake. They also enjoyed their class times. Abbey can now tell you how to start a fire and a lean to shelter if you are stranded in the forest. She took outdoor survival, which was taught by a man who had spent several years in the military. Emma took archery and got pretty close to a bulls eye. They both took Arts and Crafts with Mrs. Jen and made tie dye shirts, frames, and sand art. Very cool! Our missionaries this year were from China, they were a young family with three kids and did a great job helping the kids to understand what it means to be a missionary. The camp pastor was Amos Albright who is a pastor in Hunington Indiana. He was a great balance to some of our crazy counselors...Jim being the craziest one of all.

One funny thing that happened. Jim took Corbin to tp the girls cabin with the leaf blower. (later that night we used the leaf blower to shoot toilet paper all over the worship center...very cool something we saw when we saw the Blue Man Group one time). When Jim and Corbin finished tping Corbin turned to Jim and said... "Pastor Jim, I think we need to pray and ask God for forgiveness now." So they did. So cute!

We had several wonderful counselors that made the week possible. If you are a parent of the kids that went be sure to say big thank yous to Jen, Tina, Seth, Isaiah, and Jim. They really did do a great job with the kids. We had one man from another church who was 78 years old as a counselor and he said he couldn't wait to come back to be a counselor again next year! Now that is someone who loves the kids!

I'm at the SBC convention in Louisville now and can't seem to hold an internet conection long enough to post pictures, so be sure to look at my FACEBOOK to see MAC pictures!!

The Ladders

When Nana and Papa were visiting with us a few weeks ago we went to Turkey Run. It was muddy and Josiah was in heaven jumping from puddle to puddle. I don't think he was in Jo world most of the day...it was very unusual. Come to think of it he was often running ahead of us rather than straggling behind. The girls love the ladder trails, but being Memorial Day it was like waiting in line at an amusement park to go down them. But we waited and waited. Josiah was able to walk around the first ladder, but then we got to the second one and they only way down was by ladder. Papa went down first and Josiah stood at the top gripping the side rails in sheer terror and yelled, "I'm freaking out! I'm really freaking out!" Jim and the girls were already down the trail a ways and said they could here it echoing down the creek bed! So we backed up and tried to find another way down, only to find out we had to go down or all the way back. So once again we waited in line and while we waited Josiah kept saying, "I'm gonna freak out, I'm gonna freak out." So I did what any good mom would do, I promised him a frosty if he would go down. Once again he got to the top and I said, "go down without freaking out and I'll get you a frosty." Down he went and at the bottom he turned to Papa and said, "that was easy!"