A Ride on the Metro with Faith Kids

On Monday morning, Micah and the rest of the Faith Kids headed down to Los Angeles on the Metrorail train. Micah was so excited (to put it mildly)! For nearly two years he has talked about wanting to ride that train every time we see it passing through town. Before we even got to the station Micah informed me that he wanted to sit upstairs. (I'd never even examined the train closely enough to realize there was an upstairs.) We had a wonderful time on this great little adventure!

Micah and Jake, waiting for the train to arrive at the station

Micah had so much fun as the train traveled through Santa Clarita! He pointed out all the places the he was familiar with, including the roads that we are usually on when we see the train on the tracks.

Ashlyn, Mama, and Micah on the train

After disembarking from the train, we spent a few hours in downtown LA. We hung out with this group of boys and their moms and siblings. It was so fun to see Micah interact with a group of boys ~ they are so crazy!! Here they are in Union Station checking out the big room that we couldn't go into. For some reason, they were quite fascinated by it.

Olvera Street proved to be quite entertaining with all the toys and knick-knacks to look at

Enjoying an afternoon snack ~ cookies and ice cream

Heading home after a fun day of play

Fun Firsts!

Last week held lots of "Firsts" in our house. Ashlyn had cereal for the first time, and she finally rolled over for the first time (we got that on video, but I haven't figured out how to get it on the blog yet).

The spoon sure tastes good

Not so sure about the cereal though

I guess it gets better the more you eat

This week also held a "First" for Micah ~ his first week of Faith Kids! Faith Kids is a Mommy and me preschool at our church. We are so excited to be a part of it with all of Micah's friends from church. And we are excited about all the fun things we are going to learn this year!

Micah and Kelly on their first day of Faith Kids.

As I was working on this blog, Micah wanted me to add this following comment "so that Nana could know:" (He also said, "That's a lot of words. I hope Nana will read it all.")

Kelly is my best friend at church. I love her so much and I'm never going to let go of her family.

Finding his name on the board so he can sign in on the attendance sheet

They learned about the letter "A" during the first week

Here they are during Circle Time. Micah really isn't the only boy in the class, he just always wants to sit next to Kelly so there he is in the midst of all the girls.

Very proud of his "A"pple man!

I'm not sure what they're doing here, but it sure looked cute!

Week 2 ~ this week they made graham cracker trains for their snack

Making a craft with the letter "B"

This sure is fun!

Micah was very excited that he was selected to lead the flag salute this week!

Crazy Boys!

Micah and Josiah went swimming with their Daddies the other day. Here they are making waves. Hang on!

Joshua took his first swim in the pool. Aunt Bonnie has her hands full with two babies!

The boys had a special treat for dessert ~ chocolate covered apples! Sounds yummy!

Looks messy!

But it sure was fun!

What was even more funny was watching the adults try to each those apples without making a mess. Fortunately we didn't get any pictures of that though!

Pilot Lake Retreat

Over Labor Day weekend we traveled north to Pilot Lake Christian Camp. Nathan was the speaker for a retreat with the Travis AFB Hospitality House. He spoke at this same retreat 2 years ago so it was fun to return to the same location and to reconnect with some of the friends we made before. We were blessed to be a part of their retreat. Thanks for inviting us!

This was the view outside the lodge. Isn't it amazing!

It was a very long drive! 9 hours to be exact. And these two kiddos had very little sleep on the way. That didn't stop Micah from having a very full weekend. He did everything imagniable and still kept going. He sure has a ton of energy!
He started the weekend testing out Joel's drums after they were set up for worship. (Thanks for letting him play Joel!)
On Saturday he was eager to get out on the lake. Here he is taking a canoe ride with Daddy.

Hanging out with Auntie Vonna and Erica
Swimming in the lake with Mama
Taking a little rest...
Then back at it again... riding a dirt bike for the first time
Enjoying a game of pool with the boys

You can't spend time in the mountains without time around the campfire. Ashlyn was fascinated with the fire and would cry if you turned her away so she couldn't see the flames. I am always awed to see all the stars that light up the night sky (when you're away from all the city lights). It was fun to recount with Micah the story about Abraham and God's promise to him to make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens. It is so awesome to talk through the words of Scripture when you are surrounded by God's beautiful creation.

Micah loved roasting marshmallows, and eating them too!

Dianna and Micah
Snuggling with Mama

The boys enjoying their morning "Joe Time"
Ashlyn and her Daddy

Nathan did a great job teaching through the first chapter of 1 Peter. He was sick all weekend, but God was gracious to sustain him to teach 5 times. By the time it was over, he was ready to sleep for a week.
Playing at the lake

Micah helped serve lunch one afternoon

Micah and I went on a hike with several other people down to the river. It was pretty steep in some areas but Micah did a great job.

Micah with our new friend Leitha, who also came on the hike with us

Micah was very excited about going 4-wheelin' in a Jeep

What an adventure!


I had many willing hands to help me with Ashlyn during the weekend. Here she is with Erica, and below with all her other admiring fans.

Dianna and Ashlyn
Jennifer and Ashlyn
Auntie Vonna and Ashlyn
Micah made a new buddy while we were there. He thought Trent was great and he wanted to do everything that Trent was doing.

We had a wonderful weekend! It was great to spend it with you guys!

After all the fun things that Micah got to do this weekend, when I asked him what his favorite thing was, he was very quick to reply: "Playing in the dirt!"