We took our annual trip to Skyland Bible Conference - at a new location this year in Bluefield, VA. It's basically our Harrell family vacation and it is such a blessed week. The speakers were great, the kid's program is always so sweet, and the slip-n-slide was a huge hit. Here's David with his fun grandpa - he eventually got brave enough to go on his own (David, not Benne:)).
Here are Eli and Morris - the little ones didn't weigh enough to go too fast so it was really the perfect slide.
Steven met this little boy at the park and invited him to come out to slide - he came with his great grandpa who was one of the original Rocket Boys!
We brought the big 3 scooters to ride and they were a big hit - there was a great common area they could ride around on (plus about 10 other kids that had the same ideas and brought their scooters).
I didn't see Sadie much - she is so social that she was always running off to play with someone - but here she is with her cousin and some friends learning to play Bananagrams.
One of the biggest blessings of the week is the children's program, and not just because it allows me to listen to the messages. These sweet people are so dedicated to the kids and put so much time and effort into teaching them about the Lord. Below is David's little class performing for us the last night. He mainly just sat up there and smiled, unlike Eli, who surprised us all with his passionate singing. I never captured it with my video camera but we will never forget Eli singing "The Blind Man" song - our aloof, usually quiet child came out of his shell, to say the least, and belted it out Stevie Wonder style. I laughed until I cried, literally.
After some recovery time at home and another week of swim team - Steven took the kids to Roanoke to Grandma Wina's house. We spend the next day at Smith Mountain Lake - she has a beautiful piece of property there with everything fun you can imagine.
This, to David, is the "vroom vroom for the water"
Last year I showed Sadie my favorite way to swim as a little girl - put the life jacket on backwards (like a diaper) and run and jump in. Try it, you can't do it without laughing! She begged me to swim with her that way and I did- I'm a little old for it at 35 but I couldn't turn her down and it's still fun to bob up and down in the water. Plus you don't have to touch the bottom so other than the embarrassing fact of how I look it's really a win-win.
Steven's grandpa built this cool boat house years ago before he died, equipped with a bathroom and mini-kitchen. The kids were fishing here, right next to the boat, when Eli looked up and said "Why do you have a boat in your kitchen?" Gotta love him.
Here is Sadie fishing. They actually caught a few, before the fish wised up and stopped biting.
Mary Jo isn't so sure of the water, but she liked the boat ok. She is one independent little 17 month old. All 17 pounds of her thinks she can handle this life on her own. But at least she's polite - she's learned to say thank you .."tank two" Supposedly the kids have gotten her to say "shake your booty" as well, but I haven't actually heard that one.
The kids and I didn't get enough lake time so we're heading to my parent's lake house tomorrow in SC. Summer is great fun and is passing by way too fast. Although I'm actually pretty excited about the school year to start - Steven and I have decided to try homeschooling Sadie and Eli this year. It will be a big undertaking but hopefully a good fit for us. Goodnight! 1
