Sunday, July 19, 2009

According to Ava....

Ava is at such a precious age right now. Her little mind is soaking up and reflecting on the world around her. She has especially taken to learning new praise and worship songs or making up her own. This morning at church Andre played her two favorites right in a row. As soon as she recognized the songs, her eyes would get huge and she'd look at Nathanial and say "Daddy, I know this one. It's 'You never let go," or "'Sing, sing, sing." Well as the other songs started, she'd listen and sing for a while, then whisper something to her daddy. Nathanial would get a big smile. This happened for each following song. Ava was making up titles for each of the songs she didn't know. So, according to Ava, we sang at church this morning:


Oh no you never let go
Sing, Sing, Sing
Love and Cheers for Jesus
Jesus died on the cross to save the world
Jesus makes our hearts feel better
and
Jesus loves the world
It was so precious to see her think deeply about the songs, cup her little hand around her mouth, and whisper in her daddy's ear.

Her are some pictures from Minnesota of Ava performing her own music and choreography.











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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Back from Minnesota!

I'm so tired right now, but with three days of work ahead of me I know this won't happen if I don't do it right now!! We just got back today from our week in Minnesota. We had a great time, the weather was perfect. Minnesota summers are great! Blue skies, cool breeze, great sights.... what more can you ask for?? We went up to visit the Anderson's who are in Minneapolis for the next 6 months. They are the family we went to India to work with. It has been two years since we've been back so it was great to see them and catch up. I don't know if Ava really remembered them, but it took her no time to warm up to all of them and then she wanted them to come with us when we left! We spent 3 days with them and then headed up to Duluth and the north shore of Lake Superior to do some tent camping. Some days were very chilly and others were near perfect. I'm just going to try and pick some pictures from the hundreds that we took!!




This is of us and the Anderson's.... Nathanial taught their son and younger daughter while we were in India. There eldest, Jenna, went to high-school in Chaing Mai, Thailand.




Some of the food we had at a Nepali restaurant in St. Paul, it was very authentic and tasted very much like the food we had in India.


Ava's reaction to how the food tasted!!


Petting the goats at the Minnesota Zoo.





The girls had fun swimming where the Gooseberry River runs into Lake Superior, the temperature change from one side of that sandbar to the other was DRASTIC to say the least! The lake was FREEZING!!! Painfully so!

Ava and Nathanial standing at the top of Gooseberry Falls. Ava had a blast rock-climbing. She wanted NO help from mom and dad, which was hard for me... she's so little. We just made sure to always stand where we could catch her if she fell! Thank God that didn't happen! I'm so thankful for nothing more than minor scratches on this trip!
The sweeties relaxing at our campsite after their shower! Giving them showers at the campground was fun let me tell ya!




These last two pics were taken at Leif Erickson Park in Duluth. They have the most beautiful and fragrant rose garden! I love going there! I lived only 2 blocks from there for about 6 months and spent a lot of time walking along Lake Superior. I guess there aren't actually roses in the pictures, but those just didn't turn out as cute as these two!

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