Mud Island

We went to Mud Island today with our friends Kelley and Will and Carrie, Lucas and Evan. We try to go every summer even though last summer was the first time. It is free to do the river walk. This time we paid to ride the monorail over (since we didn't do that last time).













Kyle, Lucas and Evan used their shoes as boats to float them down the river. They were racing but then would pick up the shoes and move them to the front so they could be winning.









Then we got to the gulf and played for a while.












The weather was perfect and the kids acted really good. All in all a great outing!

Big purple chair

I saw this on the news the other night and thought it would be fun to go and sit in the big purple chair. Plus it makes for a good POTD! So we went with Kelley and Will (cause you need someone there to take your photo!) today and sat in the big purple chair! Then went to Stevie B's for lunch. Good day!

St. Jude Dream Home

We went and toured the St. Jude Dream home today. We were really just looking for something interesting to do. I had also decided that I would buy a ticket, well really make a donation since the odds of winning are 1 in 13,000! They sell the tickets for $100. The house is valued at over $540,000. It is really really nice and in all actually too much house for us. But it was fun to go see.




The master bedroom



This is the walk in shower with two entrances and 3 huge shower heads



This to me is the selling point of this house. The master closet. It is 200 square feet. That is bigger than either of my kids rooms. Plus it has a great closet organization system already in it.



This is the extra bedroom downstairs. Kaitlyn walked in it and said "oh mom, this could be your scrapbook room". Ahhhh, she knows me so well.



This is the bonus room (you can see me in the mirror)



And this room is in the bonus room, called the media room. There are no windows or overhead lights.



The office, with french doors



Then at the other end of the hallway are two bathrooms with a jack and jill style bathroom. They decided this would be Kyle's room:



And this would be Kaitlyn's room:



Living area



Kitchen



Then as you enter the front door, we noticed this brick in the side. Kinda nice and special that the house is marked forever as a St. Jude home.



And I am sure we probably won't win or ever have the perks in a home that this house has but I guess that is why it is called a "dream home".

VBS -- Journeys

This year was the third year in our 3 part VBS series "the Word". Here is link to last year's VBS. This year we focused on Acts and Paul's journeys. Once again we set the fellowship hall up but this time like a Roman forum.

Justin played a soldier





Mr. Chris



the produce shop



King Agrippa



Mr. Stan teaching us about worship



giving our coins back to God



the theater



Kyle and Lucas



the jewelry shop





the shipwreck scene





getting a ticket to watch the "movie" about how the church started



Justin and Mandy



I have no idea how we will top this 3 year series next year. It was the best VBS's ever.

Magic Springs

We spent the weekend in Hot Springs at Magic Springs with Luke, Susan, Ashley, Roger, Lora, Aaliyah and Cohen. This was our annual amusement park trip with the family. Out of the 3 parks we have been to (Six Flags in St. Louis, Dollywood in Gatlinburg, and now Magic Springs), I will say this one has been my least favorite. But we still had fun and have season passes (because it was cheaper that way) so we might even venture back before going back to school.

We especially like that the water park is in with the rest of the park. It was so hot that we spent most of our time there despite getting sunburnt the first day.





Kaitlyn took Ashley up to ride this slide. We thought they were coming down together, next thing we know here comes Ashley, backwards on her stomach. But she wasn't crying so I guess she liked it.



Kyle went across this thing several times.



Of course, he didn't make it the first time.






This is Kyle. I rode this same blue slide and thought I was going to die. When I hit that hump I promise I was airborne and thought I would fly right off the thing.



But Kyle rode it 3 times.





Uncle Luke and the little kids





Riding the old timey cars







It is impossible to get more than one kid (much less 5) to look at the camera at the same time.









That is Papaw (Roger), Kaitlyn and John at the bottom.



Weeeeee