Pensacola

Andrew and I flew down to tour Pensacola Christian College.

The campus church

Water park in the Sports Center on campus

Rock climbing wall in the Sports Center on campus.

I would love to say that the whole trip was great and for the most part it was.  But... it was also stressful!  My happy-go-lucky, joyful, glass is half full boy has found deciding on which college to attend is not an easy thing!

We did have fun touring the area also!

Love that sweet boy!

 We would eat breakfast on campus, attend classes and chapel and then head to the beach in the afternoons!

 Pensacola has a really pretty downtown area.  We enjoyed walking through the streets of that area.

Downtown waterfront

 We also found some great eating spots.

 We had a great view from this seafood restaurant.

 Andrew loved his seafood platter!

 We found a fun pizza place...

 and a great outside eating area with four food trucks in the downtown area where we walked.  The food was great and it was a fun area.

 We also enjoyed a beautiful sunset.  This picture does not do it justice, the sun was blinding as a huge fire ball that seemed so close and then seconds later it was down out of sight.  Absolutely beautiful!

We are glad we made the trip, it is much different to read about a college and experiencing a college.  Simple things such as how welcoming and friendly the place is makes a huge difference!

Praying for my sweet boy, for God to give him absolute peace on which school to choose.

Apples, APPLES, Apples!

We had a wonderful day in the mountains picking apples.

It had rained and was very muddy but we still had a great time.

 Of course we sampled a few!  Yum, nothing better than an apple right off the tree!

 We went with a group from our church and Mr. O challenged the teens with a great devotional.

Lots of yummy, fresh apples of course means lots of baked apples and apple bread at our house! Yum, yum!!

The Zoo

Our home school group went on a field trip to a local zoo.

We had a great time!

 It was a beautiful, warm October day! 

 The little guys loved seeing all the animals.  We went to a zoo in China on our adoption trip and they had fun remembering that day and telling me what they remember seeing.  It was fun listening to them talk about that day since in China we couldn't communicate yet.  Seth was especially inquisitive, wanting me to read every sign to him, as he soaked it all in.

 Carrie Anne's favorite animal, the giraffe!

 Abby LOVED the goats and didn't want to leave this area.

 Hmm, must be time for an afternoon nap!

 Our own little wild animal! :)

A great day spent with friends playing and learning!

Andrew!!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Time flies way too quickly!

How did it happen that my cute baby boy with the chubby cheeks is growing into a handsome young man??

As if our camping weekend couldn't get any better, Andrew's birthday fell right in the middle of our camping weekend!  He was able to enjoy his birthday with many friends around.  The night of his birthday we had cake with all the families that were on our camping trip in honor of Andrew.  He loved it!

Before we left to go camping my parents came by to celebrate Andrew's birthday with us!  It's always fun to celebrate my kids birthdays with my parents.  We missed Taylor being with us :( 

For months prior to Andrew's birthday he had asked for one thing, an eno hammock!

We gave it to him our first night camping so he could enjoy it the whole time we were camping!

He loves it and slept in it all four nights we were camping!

Now it is hanging in his bedroom. :)

Enjoying the view!

Happy Birthday sweet young man!  We love you much!  You are such a blessing to us and we are honored that God choose us to be your family!  Follow Him, honor Him, He has great plans for you!

CAMPING!!

A new tradition has started!  Each fall we go camping in the mountains with our home school group!  It is a weekend that the kids had counted down to for months.  We actually extended our stay and went a day early and stayed a day late as did many other families.  From the time my children would wake in the morning they were with friends until their heads hit the pillow at night, they were in heaven.  It truly is a sweet group of Christian friends that I feel blessed to have in our lives.

I took very few pictures this weekend, I am thankful for the photographers in our group that willingly shared their photos!

Here's the whole gang:

 They loved hanging out with sweet friends for 4 days.

 A great group of teens!

Perfecting his whistle!

 Kayaking fun!

 A highlight of the weekend is our worship service.  This year the teens lead the entire service, including leading music and bringing the devotional.  They did a fantastic job!  

What a beautiful back drop for our worship service!

 They also played some pretty intense, yet fun, games of street hockey!

Score!!

A great weekend with friends in the beautiful mountains!