Greece (Part 2)

Morning in Lindos: we started with a delicious breakfast at a super cute cafe.  Then Gretchen caught the bug that Rooke had and she needed to head back to the hotel.  She slept it off the rest of the day and, thankfully, was feeling much better by the evening when we landed in Athens.  Both Rooke and Gretchen were especially excellent travelers while being super sick - they pressed on and stayed with the team! 

After breakfast, we spent the morning walking around the Lindos acropolis.  The views were incredible!  And the history of that place blows my mind.

Our friend, Catey, was such a fun traveler!  We loved having her with our family for one extra day.

We flew from Rhodes to Athens, arriving a bit later than expected, but our metro ride to the Airbnb apartment went smoothly.  We dropped our bags and hit the crowded streets with the goal of sitting on Mars Hill as the sun set.

Reading Acts 17 while sitting on Mars Hill was an incredible start to our days in Athens.

Greece (Part 1)

Our family embarked on a very special trip to Greece!  The main purpose of the trip was to provide childcare during a meeting of Americans serving overseas in central Asia.  The workers traveled as families to gather in Greece for three days of training, teaching, and fellowship.  We went to make sure the kids were well cared for so the adults could participate in the meetings.  Our church sent a small group to join with two others churches who were volunteering in the same way.  It was a privilege to partner for a brief time with the overseas workers, and to serve as a family with others from our church.

Arrival at the airport:

Let's fly to Istanbul!

The goal was to stay awake during our layover before the second flight to Athens.  Rooke couldn't help himself!

Safe arrival in Athens!  Waiting for our hotel van pickup

The hotel was close to the airport, but we were all feeling this tired

If you ever need an affordable place to stay in Athens with great transportation to/from the airport, we recommend Tina's Apartments  The girls found a burst of energy and had fun taking photos among the beautiful landscaping

A common theme people commented on during our trip was his size - ha!

Exhausted and hungry, we forced ourselves to stay awake and rode down to have dinner on the beach.  We literally sat at a table feet from the Aegean Sea and enjoyed a fantastic meal!

A great night of sleep, quick breakfast, and back to the airport for another flight to Rhodes . . .

Once we arrived at the hotel and settled in, we made our way down to the beach.  Ryan tried to show us how to skip rocks!

The ladies worked to prepare our room for the kids!  Ryan was in charge of "security" for the adult meetings (which mostly meant he had to discourage European grannies from curiously opening meeting room doors they weren't invited to!).

The girls had a bit of time to play in the pool before our childcare duties began.

Rooke participated with the other youth and was blessed to make new friends!  

Bridgette reading to the some of the kids we took care of

Catey and I enjoying the sunset on our last night at the hotel

After childcare was finished, we checked out of the hotel and headed down to the beach for a quick dip in the water.  The colors were amazing!

Unfortunately, Rooke got sick in the middle of our last night and was out of it for about 24 hours.  He slept as much as he could for about 24 hours, then perked back up to enjoy the next stop of our trip.

We hired a van to drive our small team to the southeast side of the island and stayed one night in the quaint town of Lindos.  The views of the water were gorgeous, and we finally got to really swim in the sea!

June

Most of June was spent out of the country . . . more on that later!  But here is a recap of what our June days looked like closer to home.

Beautiful flowers given to me at my end-of-year piano recital by one of my students

These guys are so funny together - getting cozy with blankets one morning a week when they get up early to do Bible study with their dads

Fun friend shopping trip to the mall

Aunt Vallerie gave Bridgette some candy molds, so she tried out making flavored chocolate bites to share with her friends at Bible study

We took Ryan out for an early Father's Day gift: tickets to see a one-man show about C.S. Lewis.  It was fantastic!

A little treat afterwards!

Wildfires in Canada affected our air quality for a few days.  After two days of all outdoor actives being canceled, I found an open gym for Rooke and a few friends to burn up some energy.  They pretty much had the place to themselves!

We participated in a mission trip and gathered with the other folks from our church who were going on the trip for dinner, trip preparations, and prayer.  It was the first time our church sent a group to serve together.  

More basketball!  Go #11!  It went in =)

Aunt Vallerie and Uncle Steve joined us to hear Bridgette perform in her violin recital.  She has worked diligently over the past two years and played her solo piece beautifully, and also played in three ensemble pieces.

Her wonderful teacher, Ms. Care

This is Big Time: plates for "Rooke's car."  What?!  Aunt Vallerie and Uncle Steve graciously gifted Rooke their old car when Steve upgraded to a truck recently.  What an incredible gift!  Rooke paid to have the car registered and will now be taking driver's ed to get his permit with his sights set on his driver's license - ah!!!

Such goofy and fun guys!

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Bridgette won her heat at the last home swim meet!

Bridgette was proud of her iced coffee concoction - ha!