A Fun Evening Out

 This past week, some friends of ours invited us to accompany them to a special banquet on the RMS Queen Mary. We arrived at the port of Long Beach to board this impressive, historic ship, now docked there in the harbor. 

 We had beautiful weather for this late afternoon event. It started with a silent auction to raise funds for the International Seafarers Center of Long Beach and LA.

 We were treated to a mighty display by the port fire department. 

 (Humans were not the only observers present!)

 Several of the law enforcement agencies participated in a speed boat race...

 ...followed by a tugboat race. Impressive!

 Here we are in deck.

 We took a self-guided tour of the ship.

 The ship is huge! (One view from top deck)

We enjoyed delicious food and a fun evening at the Maritime Industry Salute Dinner. It was great meeting new friends, and we even went home with a prize! 

Priceless

These pictures say it all! We love our boys...big and little!

Retreat

Two weeks ago, we held a mini-retreat for our women at church. We had great attendance and enjoyed such a wonderful time together around God's Word. Our theme was "Seaside Escape"

We tried to create an atmosphere of calm and "beach-like"

 The purpose was a time to get away, relax, make new friends and let God speak to us.

B came with the girls, who had a good time playing with friends while mommy made new friends!

 Time for chatting...

...creating projects

studying the Word together...

 ...and learning about issues in our life--like control! Have you ever tried to "keep time" like sand through an hour-glass? (We did in our little experiment.)
 What would your life be like if you truly could make time move faster or slower simply by pouring sand through your fingers either faster or slower?  How is our timing different than God's timing? 

To remember our time together that weekend, we put a message in a bottle, and also put in several small objects (sand, a beach bag, sunshine, shells, a pearl, a starfish) to remind us of the lessons that we studied during the retreat, and then a message to ourself to remind us of the legacy we wanted to leave to others. 

 The little girls enjoyed meeting someone smaller than them.

We made new friends

And we had lots of help cleaning up afterwards! The days were very hot, and the air conditioner worked extra hard. We were thankful for the excellent reception of this mini-retreat (a first for our church group)  and the good impact that it made in our lives. 

A touch of Life

 Ok, I'm really far behind on posting! So I'll try to make up for lost time.

We've had a fun, busy few weeks. M&B came to visit. they needed a date night... 

 ...so they went out, and we had the little girls all to ourselves!

 "Me take picture, Nana?" 

Oreo cookies, anyone?

And they learned very quickly that when the hour struck, the coo-coo clock would start, and they both came running and climbed up on the piano to watch. When the music was finished and the people stopped dancing, K would say, "now we have to wait for one hour, E!" And they would go back to playing and reading books!

There was a bit of "nastics"

 ...and sisterly love.

And just time spent together! It was a wonderful couple of days.

The following weekend, we had a visit from J&K! 

We played puzzles (which B, the 2-yr old is very good at!)

...and we admired two very strong Spidermen

...and we enjoyed the smiling faces as they watched the clock!

Later in the afternoon, we were entertained by these mighty roadsters!

They love that the parking lot is big enough to really ride around in.

And J learned to ride his bike without the training wheels! Bravo, great job!
We are so proud of you, J!