Vacation

Summer it's filled with favorites! We love camping at Cachuma Lake, north of Santa Barbara and we love Spirit West Coast, so this vacation was great because we got to do both! We spent 3 days at Cachuma and 5 days in Monterey at SWC.

Given the busyness of our every day life, I love a vacation where we can relax and do fun things! We rode bikes, relaxed in the hammock, visited Solvang, rode Surry bikes, had a picnic, hiked around the lake, visited our favorite thrift store, played games, and roasted s'mores!! I was sad to leave Cachuma, but I'm looking forward to going back there next summer!! From Cachuma, to Monterey the drive is filled with wineries and vineyards cover the hills, it's so pretty. We stopped by the Madonna Inn, which was a first for the kids, on the way and had a yummy lunch.

We have been going to SWC since I was pregnant with Grace and for the last 6 years we've volunteered. The kids live for SWC and we haven't missed one in 12 years! This year, James headed up the transportation department, so it was essentially a working vacation for him, but he loved it. The kids and I had the best of both worlds, we enjoyed spending time with SWC friends, the concerts, Veggie Land and got to do fun things in Monterey! We went to the wharf, ate yummy chowder, visited a cool candy store, visited Cannary Row, played at fbcvccthe beach, Dennis the Mennis park,  We had such a great time!!

Zach, eye love you

Zach has had lazy eye lids since he was born. Over the years, we've seen the ophthalmologist on a regular basis, but now that he's older the Dr decided to do surgery to repair both lids.  We saw a Children's specialist and we really liked him. In the middle of my working the week of SERVE at church, Zach's surgery was scheduled. Other than the waiting time to get into surgery, the day went really smooth. His eyes will take weeks to heal and the bruising, months. We are hoping once the swelling goes down his eyes will look great! 

SERVE Redlands 2013

This past week our church hosted SERVE. I was blessed to serve by doing the food for the week. It's so cool to see how God works!! The week was long, required LOTS of planning, many hours of work, trips to the store and mornings starting at 3:30 am, but at the end of it all, it was more than worth it! In the middle of the week, I was able to share my cancer story, pray with and encourage 2 boys at SERVE that had just gotten word their sister was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. There have been many times I've wondered what I was supposed to learn from having cancer and I've been praying that my story could help others, this was how! In addition to that awesome opportunity, I got to work with 2 other great ladies every morning! It was so cool to see people of the River come together and give of their time and resources to serve others and be the hands of Christ.

16 years

16 years ago, we were just kids. I was 19, James had just turned 21, but we thought we were so mature and ready to face the world together. Thankfully, by the Grace of God, we have survived, not only do we love each other, but we still like each other too ;)
We've been through a lot, in these years together, but I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else.
This week and the coming weeks are a little chaotic, but we got to go out for the night and had dinner, drinks, dessert and went to the Redlands Bowl for some music under the stars.
Happy Anniversary Oates, I love you to the moon and back!! I thank God for you!

Summer nights

I love summer nights, especially when it cools down just a bit where it's nice to enjoy the evening together as a family. One item on our summer bucket list was to ride our bikes to the Queen Bean, a local coffee shop. We opted to walk and had Dairy Queen instead, but had fun just the same. We got to see the sun go down in the distance and it was like a cherry to top our ice cream :)

The building of "the table"

About 4 years ago, after dinner with our small group, James came up with the idea of a bottle top table. From that night on, pretty much everyone we know has been collecting bottle tops and the table idea went from a card table, to what it is today, a 12' x 4' dinner table. We have about 6000 bottle tops and after many drawings, the table is being built! James and I figured out the dimensions and exactly how to construct it and this week I went and got all the supplies. Also, just this week, I found a solid wood table and chair set on Buy/Sell/Trade for a great price and figured I could incorporate it into the base. I cut the table in half and lengthened it by adding 6ft sections of 2x4. After securing it all together, I added wood across the top to create a table base that is 12' long and 4' wide and has 6 sturdy legs. It was a lot of work, but it ended up looking pretty awesome, if I do say so myself :)
We had already decided that since this table has been years in the making and our small group played such a significant part in the idea, design and drinking of the beer to produce the bottle tops, :) that each couple in our small group would get a 2'x2' section to design.
Thursday night was the beginning of the art work. 4 of the 6 couples in our group were here to begin the top. The sections were marked off, the bottle tops were sorted by color and the fun began!! We still have lots of work to complete, 2 more couples need to complete their section, the Oates section needs to be done, as does the checker board and surrounding area (our kids are working on). Once all the artwork with the tops are done, I will grout the entire table, attach molding and glass to cover it.
We are so excited to see this project come to fruition and looking forward to many meals shared around this, our table of love! More pictures to come as the project comes to a close!!

Independence Day

I love 4th of July!! Today would have been my Daddy's 62nd birthday, but is now Peanuts (my neice Hilary)birthday- so the birthday fun will always continue :) This holiday has always been about being together with family and this year was no exception. We started the day off with a pancake breakfast with our church family; this has become tradition over the years.
With full bellies, we went home to make some festive yummy food.  We loaded up the van and headed down to my sisters to swim and BBQ with everyone. It was a fun time of eating, watching all the cousins play together, laughing and getting thrown in the pool. (I was a party pooper and didn't get thrown in) Then, we loaded back up to go to James' brothers house to eat and do fireworks in the street. Since, Scott and Christine bought their house we've done fireworks there every year. There was about 30 of us, lots of food, fireworks both big and and small and lots of squeals of delight from the kids!
It was after midnight before we got home, but it was a great day spent with those we love, celebrating our great country!!