gbc in mexico

for the third year in a row a group from gbc went down to do some mission work in mexico. we were able to pass out some Bibles, visit members of the local church and do vbs for some of the nearby villages. as in the past, it was an amazing experience and challenged me to examine my own life and faith.

here is part of our group doing a skit of Jesus walking on the water

tavo leading the kiddoss in songs

we visited one of the same villages as last year...pompeya...so beautiful!

i wanted to bring these two home with me!

have you ever seen a dirtier kid? believe it or not he did not get a bath that night...we arrived back at the compound after midnight.

the sunsets were incredible!

this food was delicious. we even ate cactus (the green veggie in the top of the pic).

jackson loves baseball

happy 4th of july

i had to post a pic of these two before church this morning because they looked so cute in their patriotic wear. mackenzie is not pictured due to sickness.

turks and caicos

with many things to celebrate this summer (colin's graduation, me turning 40 and our 15th anniversary), we decided to go to the beautiful island of turks and caicos. the pictures do not quite capture the beauty of the island. the color of the water is nothing less than spectacular...the most gorgeous color of turquoise i have ever seen.

to help us celebrate, oma and the lewallens came on the trip with us.

we snorkeled, ate some delicious food (even jackson liked the conch), took a boat ride, caught some fish (grouper and snapper) and cooked them for dinner, trekked to remote beaches and treacherous parts of the island and played games. it was fu-un!

reese caught the biggest fish (not pictured).

these kiddos were so good about trying new things and did a great job snorkeling!

this is at malcomb beach...very remote and so pretty. reese and oma stayed home because reese was sick and oma was sunburned.

the conch shells were plentiful. i think we had conch almost every meal. we brought several home that we found on the beach.

this little guy is fearless.

some of our good friends were staying at another resort on the island so we got to hang out with them in paradise for one afternoon.

although jackson did not want to wear his mask, he loved snorkeling on our backs. we saw plenty of fish when we snorkeled: parrot fish, barracuda, about a 5 ft nurse shark, a giant lobster and many bright fish that i did not know what they were.

the flowers were beautiful and plentiful.

we ate outside almost every meal...just the way i like it!

we had the beach all to ourselves at our resort.