Five Months

David is a happy little five month old.

He loves interacting with people, and sometimes he gets fussy if he isn't included in whatever the rest of us are doing.

He rolls all around now and can get his knees up under him and push himself forward a little. Between the two he gets around and likes having space to move.

David loves to laugh and gives us the biggest grins.

He is a charming, snuggly little guy, and we all love him.

Sewing Projects

Mom, Mary, and I have been having fun doing a number of sewing projects. She loves it and often says, "more sewing please." She of course can't actually sew yet, but likes sitting on our laps while we sew and helps by taking the pins out. She also likes putting fabric through the machine and playing with the safety pins.

Natalie's Birthday

Happy birthday to Natalie! We had a fun time celebrating a special day with this special girl on Sunday.

Michelle and I both wrapped her presents in food boxes which gave us all a good laugh.

I had the honor of making the cake for Natalie. 

Strawberry Shirt

Mary got a new strawberry shirt from Aunt Heather, and she wears it every chance she gets. She likes to pick strawberries off to eat them or give them to other people, just like I used to do when I had a strawberry shirt as a little girl.

VBS 2020

Grace Community Church put together an online VBS experience with backpacks for the participants and Heather hosted a cousin VBS for all of us this week. It was lots of fun.

The first day our craft was to color backpacks. The theme for the week was Rocky Railway.

The general schedule was to sing along with the video for the day, then learn about the Bible buddy. Next we had snack and craft time, then watched the rest of the video for the Bible story.

Heather set out coloring pages with the Bible buddies each day for the kids to enjoy during any periods of waiting. Mary also liked coloring hers during the videos.

We quickly learned the songs and had fun dancing and singing along.

Birdseed Rice Krispies treats to go along with our Bible buddy the second day, Ava the red tailed hawk.

The third day our craft was tie dyeing VBS shirts. It was a bit crazy, but fun.

Mary enjoyed naming the colors on her foot.

It was exciting to see the results of our work when we arrived the next morning.

We wrapped things up Thursday in our new shirts.

Our Bible buddy for the day was Finn the rainbow trout, so Heather had blue Jello and colored goldfish for the snack time.

Mary enjoyed exploring the Jello, but I think she thought it was a bit hard to deal with. She ended up mostly just eating goldfish.

We managed to squeeze in for a group picture before swimming to finish things off. It was an unusual experience for Mary's first VBS, but it was a lot of fun and she really enjoyed it, probably more than she would have enjoyed a big VBS at this point. We were excited to be around for this fun opportunity.

Father's Day

We had a delightful Father's Day and enjoyed a triple celebration. We kicked things off with a breakfast for Joshua.

Next, we attended church in Merced where Dave is the interim pastor then took him out for Father's Day lunch. Finally, we returned to my parents' house and had a celebratory dinner with my dad. It was great to celebrate in person with each of these special fathers.

Camping in Sherwood

Calvin Crest had to cancel all their summer camps this year, but they decided to open parts of the grounds for camping in small groups. We were excited to take advantage of this unique opportunity and booked a couple of nights in Sherwood Forest.

Our family got to stay in Reddingham, and it was a great trip. It was so fun to go camping, but nice to have huts to stay in and hot water in the bathroom. Plus, it was great to be at Calvin Crest again. The smell of the forest in early summer is one of my favorites. So many good memories.

The kids and Joshua wasted no time climbing up the stump.

We enjoyed the great fire pit in our hamlet by roasting marshmallows over the fire and making s'mores.

Friday morning we made pancakes for breakfast.

Joshua got back in the swing of things by cooking over the fire. It was fun for him to do this again, and delicious for everyone. There's nothing like food cooked over the fire; everyone kept saying they were the best pancakes ever.

After breakfast, a group headed up to hike Fresno Dome and the rest of us went on the Gethsemane Trail. It was a beautiful walk through the forest.

The kids enjoyed putting their feet in the water at the bottom of the falls.

Soon they got a lot more than their feet wet even though the water was quite chilly.

It was beautiful and peaceful by the river.

Back at camp, we had a quiet afternoon then started cooking breakfast burritos for dinner. It was a real treat to have breakfast burritos cooked over the fire in Sherwood again.

That evening, our friends the Gists came by for a visit.

Saturday morning, Joshua completed his cooking spree by making french toast. Of course, that was delicious too.

Mary loved all the time outside and getting to play in the dirt.

After checking out of our hamlet, we took a quick walk to see some of the fire damage. We were going to hike the manzanita trail, but it was grown over and we couldn't see the trail.

The fire damage was extensive, but there are a ton of flowers and other new growth in the area.

We left camp around noon and headed to Modesto to spend the night there and celebrate Father's Day. 

We had a lovely visit there as well.