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!

May

May started with a culmination performance of Mary Poppins.  Gretchen and Bridgette have practiced weekly in a musical theater class with our dear neighbor friends.  The performance was great!  Several friends came to watch, including a lovely neighbor who brought flowers for all the girls.

Gretchen played the role of Mr. Banks and did a fantastic job.  She'd stayed pretty quiet about the specifics of her part, so we were surprised at how many lines she had to memorize and how many solos she had!  Bridgette played several smaller parts with enthusiasm, including a beautiful solo as the Bird Woman.  

Steve and Vallerie are the best cheerleaders!

Meanwhile, when Rooke isn't playing the supporting role of Big Brother, he is playing hard on the court.  His team played in a tournament that was close to home, which made it easier for all of us to be at all of the games.  They won their way to the final game in their bracket, and ended up playing the other team from the same AAU organization.  The photo on the right is Rooke guarding Max, one of his best friends who plays on the white team.  They played hard against each other, and Rooke's team won!

Happy Mother's Day to me!  

The family treated me to lunch after church one of my favorite smoothie bowl spots

 

Another weekend, another basketball tournament.  

I brought a charcuterie dinner picnic for us to enjoy in between the games.  Gretchen loves bread as much as I do!

Still making sourdough . . . this is what the fancy bread makers do when cutting into a fresh boule.  I am anything but a fancy bread maker, but I do love it!

Getting close to the end of school, we took one last field trip: a tour of the U.S. Capitol.  We'd gone before, but joined friends from our co-op for another tour.  I'll admit that my kids don't appropriately appreciate how "normal" it is for us to hang out in DC and visit important places, like the Capitol Rotunda?!  But I like to think that someday they'll look back and be grateful for things like this that I make them participate in - ha!

This is it!  The Last Day of School!  We finished 5th, 7th, and 9th grade with smiles (mostly!). 

Our last day of Co-op: Bridgette received a "Helpful Heart" award.

Gretchen was awarded the "Best Speaker" in her grade from The Great Debate Day.

End of School Celebration!!  We went to Jenny's ice cream and ordered a FLIGHT of scoops: ten scoops of ice cream.  Everyone picked two flavors - yum! 

Fun photos I find on my phone:

Before we started our 2023 Family Summer Reading Challenge, we needed to cash in our prize from last summer!  We spent the day at King's Dominion: an amusement park with great roller coasters.  The weather was perfect and the kids are up for all the rides.  

Well, most of the rides.  Bridgette and Ryan were the only ones who wanted to try the Intimidator.  A 305-foot drop at speeds that can cause you to momentarily lose your senses??  No thank you.  But they rode it twice and tried really hard to convince the rest of us to give it a try.

For Memorial Day we drove out with friends to our other friends' farm house in Luray, Virginia. 

Rooke and Max (who is standing on his toes to try and be as tall as Rooke - ha!).

Me and Molly (Max's mom), enjoying the covered porch and staying out of the rain.