Wonderful Time of the Year

Every time the seasons change I think to myself, "THIS is my favorite season"! So yes,

right now, during the heat of summer, it's my favorite season!

We have already had such a great summer. The kids ended school early (gotta love that!) and we headed to the States for three weeks. I already wrote about our week at Gull Lake Ministries (total plug here...if you're interested in joining us there, we'll be back first session 2012. Dave gets to speak there again...already happy to think of returning!). Now just want to get caught up on the rest of the trip!

Caleb and Claire headed to be with my parents in Oregon for the second week in the States. They flew by themselves, experiencing the joys of internet on Alaska Airlines while flying! Picked up in Portland by my brother, they then headed down to Eugene for five days of happy times with my parents...a trip to the Oregon coast, lots of Starbucks, summer clothes shopping, visiting friends up in Portland, strawberry picking...total delight for all involved!

While they were there, Dave and I were in and out of Illinois and Michigan doing a variety of things...seeing people, being at one of our supporting churches, and of course, visiting Starbucks ourselves! (The closest one to us here is in Prague...needless to say we don't get there often so it's one of those American treats that we love when we have the chance!)

The four of us met up in Denver, arriving in the same concourse just fifteen minutes apart (thanks to a good travel agent who figured that one out!) - was fun to meet the kids at the gate. Remember those days when we used

to be able to do that?? I miss that!

Dave's cousin, Carol, picked us all up and we headed for his folks' house, even though they were in Wisconsin at a Cadence staff conference! But Dave's childhood home welcomed us well and we enjoyed looking at Grandpa's garden that evening before heading for bed.

Headed up to Ft. Collins the next afternoon to spend the week-end with long time frien

ds, the Chase's, and to be at another one of our dear supporting churches, Faith EV Free where Dave preached Sunday morning. Spent Saturday up in the Rocky Mountains near Estes Park - truly one of the prettiest places! What a great day (and week-end!) that was!

Then had a week with family in Englewood...ahhh, those are the things that good summer memories are made of! Good meals around mom and dad Patty's table, ceramic painting and ice coffee with Joyce and Kyrie (sister-in-law and niece), brother-in-law and nephew's baseball game, shopping with the girls, morning breakfast with my dear friend Jerri, meeting up for coffee and Qdoba with the Chase's in Longmont, shopping at Whole Foods for gluten free things to bring back for vacation, watching Caleb take his driver's permit test at the DMV (he passed and then got to have Grandpa teach him to drive!)...ALL SO GOOD!!!!!

Caleb actually stayed an extra five days so that he could get in some driving lessons with Grandpa, who even let him drive a long 200 mile trip one day to really cement all he'd learned! He won't be able to get his license until he's 18 (which, gulp, is in just six months!) but it got him started!

After so much goodness, it felt right to come back home to all that's going on here this summer...I'll write about that in another post though!