Summer Snap Shots

Wow!  I can't believe it's been about a month since I've blogged!  Well, in one sense it's a good sign that I've been enjoying offline life!  My husband took a break from school over the summer and we were blessed to get to spend a lot of good quality time together and as a family.  With full-time work, full-time school next week and a baby on the way (in about 1 1/2 months!), we knew we needed a time of refreshment before the hard, busy season hit again.

So here are a few of the highlights from our summer [click on images for larger view]:

Living so close to the ocean, you think we would have made it out there more than we did, but with a toddler whose nap time is right smack dab in the middle of the afternoon, we did our best.  The day after Father's Day we made it down to the South Carlsbad State Beach and got to take my 8-year-old nephew.  He had a lot of fun digging up sand crabs and Leala had a lot of fun in the sand!  A couple weeks ago we made it down to the Oceanside Pier and took a nighttime stroll under a full moon!  We didn't realize until we got down there that it was the night of Oceanside's weekly Street Fair, so it definitely made for lots of activity and some searching to find a parking spot.  But it was definitely a memorable evening that started with a beautiful pink sunset.

In early June, we got to go witness my cousin, Cameron's baptism.  I think getting baptized is a very important event in a Christian's life and I feel strongly about going and being a support when someone I know has made this decision.  So it was definitely a privilege to me to get to be there.  Also, the baptism took place at the same house Gregg and I had gotten married at 4 years earlier!  We hadn't been there since.  I would never have imagined on my wedding day, while I was exchanging my vows with Gregg, that 4 years later we'd be standing in the same place with a daughter and me pregnant with our second!

Outside the same door I stood with my dad in, waiting to be given away in marriage, Gregg stood with Leala on his shoulders watching the baptism.

On the same rock Gregg and I held hands during our wedding ceremony, exchanging vows, Gregg held Leala's hand as she explored.

At the same place Gregg and I celebrated becoming husband and wife, we stood, now a family of 3 with another on the way.

At the end of June, we got to go to the San Diego County Fair with a pair of free tickets Gregg got from work due to his company having an exhibit set up there.  It was crazy to think that the last time we went I was pregnant with Leala and now here she was getting to enjoy it with us!  We got into the free parking at the horse park and brought $20 spending cash for lunch and to get $2 samples from the vendors participating in the Taste of the Fair Tuesdays.  We also ended up getting an ice cream treat from Farrell's.  Leala's favorite event was watching the Tuff Truck Racing in the Del Mar Arena (for more than an hour!) and her favorite animals were the sheep.  Gregg and I really liked the small bag of fresh churros sample from Apple Fries and I was so glad that this pregnancy I didn't have swollen feet and ankles!  We all had lots of fun at the fair!

At the beginning of August, last minute, I had the opportunity to fill in as a counselor for our church's Jr. High Summer Camp up at Calvary Chapel Christian Camp in the beautiful San Bernardino mountains.  I was originally planning on missing Gregg for 4 days, but instead, we got to serve together as a family.  I was so surprised that I was asked to counsel, being 7 months pregnant at the time, the camp being 7,000 feet up in elevation, and having a toddler.  But God has been teaching me lately to have an attitude of willingness rather than focusing on what I think are my inabilities.  When I got up there, God taught me the importance of not giving up quickly (my body decided to go through a cleanse the night before leaving for camp, that ended up lasting a whole day, which was counteracted with anti diarrhea medicine, leading to the opposite problem, combined with suffering from the significant change in altitude), and though I ended up being sick over half the time, God showed me the value of just being there.  And oh my goodness, Leala did so well for having to change her normal daily routine and try to sleep in a cabin full of about 50 girls who didn't go to sleep until after 11:30 pm.  The girls loved having her up there and I think she thought she was a big girl herself.

To end our summer, we were blessed with a pair of free tickets to Sea World from a family at church who got them with their annual membership.  Gregg and I had gotten to go once before during the first year of our marriage and it was even more exciting getting to share this experience with Leala.  We got to see the One Ocean Shamu Show and sit in the splash zone and watch the new Blue Horizons dolphin, pilot whale and bird show.  We made sure to cool off in the Penguin Encounter, the new Turtle Reef, and Wild Artic animal attractions.  Once again, Gregg and I were so blessed by how well behaved Leala was and on the drive back home we discussed how nice it was that not only does Leala's good behavior enable us to serve in ministry together as a family, but it enables us to have fun together too.  Leala must have had lots of fun because later when we were Skyping with my mother-in-law, she was bouncing all over on the couches, I think inspired by all the jumping, splashing whales and dolphins she had seen that day.