Reds Game

Every year at Great American Ballpark, they have a special day called "Faith Day." Our church often plans a trip to Faith Day, which is a game that starts at 1:00, followed by a Christian concert on the field. This past Sunday was that day, and we had a hot but great time....

(above) Mega thanks to that guy sitting behind us who took this picture of our family!

The boys were much more into the food and drinks than the actual game; however, all boys growing-up in a city that has a Major League team need at least one trip to the ballpark each year! This year, the tickets our church group bought were in the "All You Can Eat" section of the park: by paying extra for the tickets, you're given a wristband that lets you go to the concessions as often as you want and get as much as you want without paying. At first I had shirked at the price of the tickets, but on a scorching hot day like this way, those tickets paid for themselves and then some. We only let our kids have a soft drink about once a week; but on this day, which we nicknamed "Soft Drink Palooza," they were allowed to get as much as they wanted. Christopher himself drank more than 4 24-ounce drinks. It was so nice ot have such cold drinks!

(above) I love this view of the city. No matter how many times I see it, I still get chills.

After the game, Mercy Me had an AWESOME concert. My favorite song was their final one, All of Creation. I had to laugh when the leader singer, Bart made a joke as they started the song.... "This is usually the part where we walk off stage and pretend like we're done, when in reality we have another one planned in our line-up. Then you clap really loud and we pretend like we came back for a spontaneous encore. How about we just skip that part and sing the song?"

The Reds beat the Giants 9-0. Go Cincinnati!!!!

Little John's Big Day

John celebrated his 7th birthday on Thursday. His friends Noah and Spencer Smith came over to celebrate with us, in lieu of having a party: we wanted to really enjoy the time with John, and not just have a house full of kids and chaos that distract us. It turned out to be an awesome day! John was allowed to choose what to eat and do for his birthday, and he chose to eat at the Olive Garden and then go play at Chuck-E-Cheese...

John requested a Star Wars birthday this year. Everything seemed so black and morose to me!!! What happened to thet cute little red and yellow and blue clowns and such?! I guess my baby is....sniff, sniff....growing-up.

Given the option of going anywhere in Cincinnati to do anything he wanted, John chose the Chuck-E-Cheese that's 2 minutes from our house. I don't quite understand kids sometimes... But whatever made him happy made us happy. Daddy even sprang for the super 160 token pack.

Happy Birthday John!!!

My baby is 7 years old today!

I picked one picture from each year of his life to remember how amazingly quickly he has grown.

We love you, Baby John!

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation, Conclusion

Various final pictures from our vacation.

What a wonderful 10 days!!! Thank you, Lord!!!

Tim found the above starfish for me at low tide at the end of the island on Cherry Grove Beach.

One of our favorite places to visit down there is Ft. Fisher. We visit the fort, its museum, and the Ft. Fisher Aquarium.

I ate the most AWESOME shrimp and grits (I LOVE shrimp and grits) at a restaurant called The Lucky Fisherman in Southport, North Carolina. And on my plate was my very first taste of alligator. Tastes like chicken. Very chewy, flavorless chicken.

(above) John was so excited to find a restaurant named Captain John's that he made us eat there one evening. And henceforth after that meal, he made us refer to him as Captain John.

Hangin' With Our Friends in Calabash

While we were at the beach, we were SO incredibly blessed to get to spend an evening with our good friends, Diana Kearney and Alison Clemans. Diana lives in WV, and Alison lives in Ohio (soon to be Virginia), but God has the most amazing way of orchestrating times when we can be together. We met at the....pardon me while I wipe the drool from my mouth... Calabash Creamery - which is in my estimation the greatest ice cream parlor on Earth. It was so wonderfully relaxing to spend time with such wonderful friends.