sisters

I love seeing these girls become friends. They play, the fight, the laugh, they scream, they wrestle, they read, they love eachother.

Saturday night

Beautiful Saturday sunset out on West cliff. HUGE waves. Whinny sick kids. Salty air. Short on patience mom. Hopefully the ocean air will help us sleep well tonight and wake up healthy and full of love and patience. Thank you God for using you creation to heal our bodies and mind. Amen.

Big week

We had an interesting week of injuries. Sydney has not (knock on wood) had any major injuries. Cuts and scrapes, bruising etc. But there has never been a moment where I have had the inner thought of, " Oh my goodness if this wasn't my child I would be making a big OH NOOOOOOOOOO, That looks horrible face." But Today was that day. Sydney was down at the bouldering wall outside our backyard. She goes down there often to boulder around, play in the mud and just watch the trees. Today she came running up the hill whimpering. I heard her and then she rounded the corner and I saw this:

This picture is after I cleaned it up, but it was quite a shock since she wasn't hysterically crying, just a whimper. It is the biggest goose egg I have seen on either of my kids. Stella has had a couple good ones

She was a trooper. Sat with some ice on it and the swelling went down for a while. But around dinner time it looked like the swelling had started up again. We iced and by morning there was just a small bump. Pretty bad . Oh, she was running toward the bouldering wall, tripped and head butted the wall........OUCH!

Then Stella looked like this for most of one morning into the afternoon.

She had a one of three cavities filled. Yes , THREE cavities. Poor kid. I swear we brush her teeth. Maybe not everyday twice a day, but they do get brushed. She did so great at the dentist. She had Novocain, laughing gas, and quite a bit of tooth drilling. I was so proud of her. She laid on my lap and didn't even flinch. Just sat and did what the dentist told her to do.

I love that the side of her face is slowly drooping. It was pretty cute.

I think I have some tough kids!

While we were eating pizza the other night, Stella's piece on her fork was attached to another piece of pizza by a long string of cheese.

"Look a zip line pizza!"

Then the cheese string broke and she said, "Oopps, now a broken zip line."

Only our kids.

Stella

We went to the beach after dinner. It was a calm clear sky night. The sun had set a bit a go and there was a lingering purple layer. The crescent moon was shining bright in the sky. Stella sat on my lap looking up at the moon as we sat on the rocks at the waters edge and said,

"Mom I want to ride on the moon! I think it would just be silly." Her eyes were sparkling with the thought of such an adventure.

Church

On Sunday went up Highway 1 a bit yesterday to see if we could see any elephant seals and play on the beach. It was a gorgeous day! We found a great little hike along the cliffs with some rock filled coves to explore.We did see one elephant seal on this beach. it is almost right out from Sydney's elbow. It looks like a big clump of seaweed or a rock. it moved a bunch for us. The girls loved it. Stella, I think, was a little disappointed when she saw what an elephant seal REALLY looked like. I would have loved to see the picture she had in her mind

There were a ton of shells and flat rocks everywhere. We all had pockets full of tiny treasures.

While we were eating lunch Sydney said, " I am so glad we did this rather than go to church today!". I too was glad that we weren't sitting inside a building , but tried to explain and start to impress on her brain that Church is not just on Sundays in a building. She thought about that one for a bit and responded, " Oh yea, right!".

I was so thankful for the beautiful creation around us. The crashing waves, the tiny intricate shells, the warm sun, and my wonderful family. I am not sure I have had a better Sunday morning at Church.

Christmas time at Mount Hermon

There was so much Christmas fun at camp leading up to Christmas. The main road was decorated with lights, the canopy tour launched its 'Twinkle tours' complete with a caroler in the trees with a guitar, school programs, and a visit from Santa at the staff dinner. It was so much fun and brought so much anticipation to the season. Here are some of my favorite shots and a video.

Sydney as a Angel in the school program. She was the angel bringing the good news to Mary and Joseph. We were so proud of the way she said all of her lines with confidence. You never would have guessed she was the girl a year ago who would have cried at all the noise in the room and shyed away from being in front of such a large crowd. Wow has she grown.

I couldn't find the pictures of the 'reindeer' Nate had stationed at the Canopy tour for the Twinkle tours, but this is Nate and his Interns Bart and Cassie. Nate had them wear these outfits on the tour. Good to be the boss.

Sydney and Khenya had a blast eating a TON of candy and cookies, and cupcakes and brownies and..... at the staff dinner. I love this video of them sitting waiting for Santa! Sydney's face says it all. Christmas magic.

Can't wait for next years pre Christmas celebrations!