Sweet Visits and Fun

The last couple of weeks of May, we had lots of special visitors!  It brings my heart so much joy to have so many good friends in our home that we have had connections with over the years, regardless of the distance in miles that may be between us.  These pictures include too many special moments to miss!  I will treasure these memories always!

The Hollingsworth Family

The Hollingsworth family came back to Snyder for about a month.  They have been living for Jesus in Ecuador and we've missed them so much!  We held them captive for an entire day!!!  Whit fixed biscuits in the morning, which I'm making significant since he uses Alesha's recipe!  We loved how the kids didn't even seem to have an awkward "get to know you again" day.  They played and played and enjoyed seeing each other again.

Alesha and their son, Noah, who we finally got to meet!!  

Nate and David played together and had fun.

 Some hotdogs... loaded with giggles!

Isaac, Levi, Andrew, & Dan

 Glory & Isaac

 Glory & Abigail

Hey, look!  11 kids do NOT take up that much room! 

From Left: Abigail, Timothy, Nate, Andrew, David, Dan, Levi & the "train" from the top is Isaac, Luke, Glory, and Noah

 Silly Faces!!!

All of these make me laugh!

awwww...

HUGS & GIGGLES!!

The only part about this visit that I truly regret is that there is NO Taylor Hollingsworth pictured.  -Not pictured with Whit, not with family... nowhere.  Sigh.... I do love you Taylor, even if I didn't get a picture of you!

Granny came to visit for Isaac's piano recital!

She got lots of hugs from everyone else too :)  

just after Isaac won the "Most Memorized Pieces" award

We also had a visit from our Goddaughter, Whitley, who lives in Wyoming.  Her grandparents brought her to Texas for a visit.  

It is hard to believe that Whitley just graduated from high school!

Then the Ellis Family came!

Amy & Emily playing with Luke & David

Princess girls :)

 Natalie put Timothy to sleep

Emily a.k.a jungle-gym by the Bradberry boys

Dr. Mike came and saw us too!

These pictures, courtesy of Abigail :))  Which means, I actually am in a picture!  HA!

If you are a newer friend of mine, you might not know that Mike was/is my voice professor and mentor at Abilene Christian University.  Love him so much.  Enjoyed the visit a ton!

Thank you friends!  We could take visitation appointments for the month of June, but...hey... why don't you just stop by and say hello?  I might even snap your picture and brag about how you came to see us! ;o)

Love from our family to you and yours!

More Amistad Memories: Some learning, some downtime, and some FUN!!

Views from the Deck:

The pathetic view of the lake from the deck...  :o(

Can you spot my "ants on a hill"?

How about on this one?

Abigail & David feeding the deer

Exploring:

 We had more fun than you can imagine 

pitching rocks, hunting for fossils, and exploring for... whatever!

The following pictures were taken near the boat ramp.

-Way lower than the boat ramp since the water is so low.!

Three amigos on the border!

There were so many shells everywhere because of the low water level!
They crunched everywhere we stepped and they look like gravel in all my pictures!

Luke learned to throw rocks like the big boys!

Where did it go?

OH! It splashed!!!  HAHA!

This is fun!

Andrew... being.... HIMSELF!!  

The lake is still pretty!  This was taken on one of our golf-cart rides.

Another view from the golf-cart... There were lots of baby lambs with their mamas.

Took this picture one day as we were climbing back up towards the house, after exploring near the water.

Relaxing Indoors:

4 &1/2 months old here :)

giggling at a sibling

watching T.V.

Hmmmm.... actually this is more comfy....

giggles & grins

Andrew's Conquest:

From the house, it takes about 15-20 minutes just to get to this spot.  It's really kind of difficult so we didn't go to the water near the house much.  The first time we went though, Andrew said, "Mama, I wanna walk across over there!"  I told him it would be harder than it looks, but that if he wanted to do it we were going to have to come back some time with a life-jacket and some extra clothes in case he slipped in.  So the next day we left to go back to this spot, and Whitley had a raised eyebrow about why I was taking a life-jacket.  I said, "I'm going to assist Andrew in doing something very male.... he just wants to conquer something and he WILL wear a life-jacket while he conquers it!!" He smiled and asked no more questions... It was scarier than Andrew thought it would be because the rocks were very slick. He wanted to turn around, but I didn't let him because afterall.... he had a life-jacket!!!

The Thing to Conquer

wet, rocky path

He slipped a bunch, but never fell completely in.  At one point he said, "Mama, I think I better turn around now.  I went far enough."  I said, "Andrew you are just fine and I know you can do it!"  That seemed to satisfy him to keep going.

"I MADE IT! YES!!!"

more rock chunking

Another Kind of Conquest ;)

The lattice work is around the deck.  Just beyond that is a photo of the porch that got enclosed on the trip.

Relaxing Outdoors:

We all had lots of fun.  And though there's not many photos of the girls in this post, we promise we had fun too!

Love from our family, to you and yours,