Back to Texas

We are back - got home around midnight on Saturday. It was a GREAT trip, lots of seeds planted in the Kingdom. We will continue to pray for Royal Heights and the people we met there. Well, I hope to publish details with pictures at a later date but in lieu of that today, I give you 10 things that are different in Canada:

1. $1 and $2 are in coins instead of bills - called a loonie and twonie....
2. Sentences are often ended in eh?
3. There are more Dairy Queens there than we have in Fort Worth - isn't Dairy Queen the Texas Stop Sign? But, no Sonic!!
4. 90 degrees is a major heat wave.
5. If you want a plastic grocery sack to carry your groceries in, you will pay 4 cents each for
them.
6. Canada is exceptionally clean and EVERYONE recycles.
7. Pedestrians Rule! All cars stop for humans crossing the road.
8. There is no Mexican Food.
9. There is a reason why everything is green - and it's not the sprinker systems.
10. There are no bathrooms or restrooms - they are washrooms.

Needless to say, we had a great time on the trip. We are praying about going back next summer. We will see what God reveals. Many more details and pictures to come as I begin to sort them out. Thanks for praying while we were gone. Kelsie had fun at Camp Grammy and they took lots of pics too. We were glad to get home and hope to take her next year if we go.

Thursday in Vancouver

We are almost at the end of our week here, in some ways it has been a long week - I guess because we seem to get in bed late every night and are up fairly early to be in the lobby at 8:15 each morning. But, in other ways it has flown by so quickly I can hardly believe that tomorrow is our last day of Music Camp. Our kids are so sweet and have really had a good time and caught on quickly to the music. Unfortunately, I do not have many pictures of the area as our basic schedule has included being at the church until noon, eating lunch and doing our afternoon shopping for the next day's supplies/snacks, etc and then back to the church in the afternoon to cook, then to the hotel for bed. I did get to go with the Servant Evangelim team on Wednesday b/c we weren't cooking - we all wanted to get out and see some stuff. Some went downtown to see the fireworks show but Wayne and I chose to go to the Fisherman's Wharf to eat and "be tourists." It was relaxing and such pleasant temps. Other than that, I haven't seen much of Vancouver but I know my purpose was to come and serve in Music Camp. I do have lots of pictures of our class and kids. I will share all of them in detail when I get back but here is a small taste. Thanks for praying - if you want a more detailed account of the trip, visit the Wedgworship site - it gives you an idea of all the teams.

Flowers right outside the church, it's beautiful everywhere - flowers or trees.....love it.
Our kids outside playing parachute just to have some activity and get outside for a while - weather is finally good - no more rain.
Panoramic view of the front of the church.
Bree, Elijah and Julieahanna.
Sadie, Kyla and Carolyn - all sweet girls!

In Vancouver

We are here in Vancouver. We arrived yesterday and have been very busy since we got here. I have managed to briefly update the Wedgworship blog so if you are interested in more that what I write here, check it out. Also, Holmes Happenings may reflect some of our trip b/c Genny is with us as well as Paige Griffin. I plan to update the trip with much more detail once we get back but for now here are the highlights - in pictures...... Pray for us this week as we serve and share the Good News through basketball and music camps, servant evangelism and prayer walking. We are excited to see what God is already doing here at Royal Heights and blessed that we can partner with them for this short time.

This is Sheila, she is the missions director at Royal Heights Baptist Church, the church we are working with here. She is a sweet lady and has worked hard with us planning all the elements of this trip.

Pastor Alan, the pastor of Royal Heights. He talked with us a little the first night we arrived. The church graciously served us dinner and we learned alot about the area they are serving here in Surrey/Delta/Vancouver area. He shared his heart for this area and the church's vision. He is a servant - and he can preach!

Wayne with the bass player, Craig, after Sunday services.

BEAUTIFUL HYDRANGAS! These are everywhere and they are huge and gorgeous. You don't see these in Texas this big - I guess ours get scorched.

This is the entrance to the Capilano Bridge.

The overall view of the Suspension Bridge from the lookout point. It was fun walking across - beautiful views!

Some of our group crossing over.

The trees all around are huge - it's a little misty in these pictures.

Wayne next to the "Wii" smart car. These look like little toy cars. This was at the Richmond Night Market. Very cute.
At the market, there are all kinds of food vendors. Everything from slushes to grilled eel - mostly Asian influenced cuisine. This guy was making some kind of funnel cake - he was really putting on a show and when he saw my camera, he posed.

Quick Update

Just a quick update that we are all excited and getting ready for our trips. Kelsie is headed to Camp Grammy for the week - we will meet them on Friday. Hailey (K's cousin - she is 4) is excited to see her. Wayne and I are headed out on Saturday with our group on a mission trip to Vancouver. We are looking forward to the trip as all the final details are coming together. I will try and post something about our trip on the blog while we are there - Wayne is taking his laptop so we can keep the wedgworship blog updated each day and I will try and post here too. Pray for us if God brings us to your mind while we are gone. More soon....

Kelsie's Home

Kelsie is home! We picked her up at the church at 11:30 this morning - headed straight to Wal-Mart to get her pictures developed. While we waited the hour, we ate at Mimi's (Kelsie's choice) and came home for Kelsie's explanation of pictures and stories of her week. We also surprised her with a new comforter on her bed in her room - she has been wanting to get rid of Strawberry Shortcake. We didn't paint or anything but the new bedding was a start. After all that, we laid down for a much needed nap. Here are some of K's pics of the week....glad she's home and it sounded like she had a great time - she said the week went by really fast and she couldn't believe today was her last day. Thankfully, she missed us though - not sure who she missed more, us or Bogey. There is no rhyme or reason to the order of these pics.....

Kelsie's bed - top bunk.

2nd grade group - silly faces.

She looks well rested doesn't she - must be day 2.

Kelsie's CIT - Stacy Harvick. Kelsie just loves her although I think she had to pull rank at night to get her and Brynn to go to sleep!!

Christa Fannin - what is she up to?

Jordan - Kelsie's bunk mate underneath - Morgan was under Brynn.

Kelsie made sure we knew these were "staged" pictures and that they were not really fighting. This was Thursday night - they dress up on Thursday night.

Kelsie and Brynn "fighting" - cute.

Kelsie, Morgan and Christa.

The 2nd graders doing their act at the talent show. They did a cute song that Stacy taught them.

The assembly place.

Kelsie on her bed.

Brynn on her bed.

The room.

Kelsie Off to Camp

Well, Kelsie is now at GA Camp in Glen Rose at the Riverbend Retreat Center - they left this afternoon. She was really excited as we were packing (and labeling) everything on Monday and then this morning but as it got closer for them to load on the bus she started looking a little apprehensive. Some of her little girlfriends went last year and it helped that she knew her CIT (Counselor in Training - basically a youth helping the counselors). We stayed until the bus drove away and once Kelsie got on the bus she was pointing and telling us that they had a TV right in front of where they were sitting. So, off they go.

Then we got this phone call from a sweet lady in our church to go and visit this lady named Virginia who was at the hospital with her husband. Long story short - we ended up visiting with her for 3 hours in the hospital's family room. She is a Godly woman with so much faith and I will tell you more in a future post about her story. Anyway, after that visit we went to eat at Uncle Julio's and then off to Home Depot - are we that boring? When we got home, Bogey looked out in the garage a couple of times for Kelsie - it was cute! Well, we sent Kelsie to camp with 2 disposable cameras so we are hoping to get some good pics from her and I will post them later in the weekend - we pick her up Saturday morning. Here are some pics from today, have a good week!

Kelsie and Brynn in the gym waiting to get on the bus.

Brynn, Kelsie and Christa

Kelsie getting Brynn back for giving her bunny ears in the last pictures.

Kelsie, Brynn and their CIT Stacy Harvick coloring while they wait for the luggage to be loaded so they can get on the bus.

Here they go - getting on the bus.

Burger's Lake

Our church has an annual outing to a place called Burger's Lake in Fort Worth. It is a really cool little spring fed lake with diving boards (those are rare at swimming pools anymore), a swing trapeze and a huge slide. It has plenty of shallow swimming and spots of grass and beach to sit around the lake. Also, the park is full of big trees, picnic areas and sand volleyball. The church provides the hamburgers and hotdogs (thanks to the men who volunteer to cook LOTS of meat) and a group of us got together to bring different things to share. We started out with a big boom of thunder and were afraid that our swimming would be cut short but the storms stayed away and we had a few times that it sprinkled a little bit and the breeze was nice. The kids all had a good time - Kelsie was wiped out when we got home and went to the shower and was in bed by 8:30. It was a good day! Here are some pics of the day - mostly taken from quite a distance, I was paranoid about taking my camera too far into the water. More to come as Kelsie leaves for GA Camp on Tuesday afternoon.

View of Burger's Lake from our little beach area.

Brynn, Morgan and Kelsie on the little diving platform in the middle.

Kelsie going down the big slide. She loved it!

The girls are posing in the shallow. What you may not see is that Mr. Joel (Morgan's dad) is putting wet sand on their heads. That started a semi-war that ended with 3 dads hoisting girls on their shoulders for "chicken." It was cute -they had a great time.

Morgan laughing at the fist full of sand on her head.

The Hellman's (otherwise known as Brynn's mom and dad)

Angel and Brenda. Look at their cute little picnic table.

This was the only nuisance - bees. There were quite a few around sugary drinks. These 2 bees landed in this bottle of orange soda and were forced to drown in there b/c a deck of cards was on top to keep them from flying out.

The girls "playing outside" and "finding something to do" while the adults were eating and visiting in the shade at dinner time. They were dying to go back down to the water but we wanted to finish first so we kept telling them to find something to do outside - in this beautiful wide open space. This is what they came up with - building a fire. Luckily, no fire but they were busy gathering sticks and making a wood pile. It was just a short time until we went back to the water - a very fun day.

July 4th Weekend

Hope you had a good 4th of July holiday. We have had a relaxing weekend - mostly full of rain but still good. Wayne worked on Monday and Tuesday but took off the rest of the week and we have enjoyed being together. Here are some pics from the 4th.

Kelsie and Bogey waiting for our neighborhood parade to start. They thought about being in it but decided at the last minute just to watch. Our house was on the parade route so we got a front row seat in our driveway.

Here is the parade starting down our street. The fire truck was a BIG hit!

The cute part of this "float" was that the sign said "Almighty" - like the movie Evan Almighty. Very cute!

Another cute float.

Rob and Wayne grilling up steaks, hamburgers and hotdogs for everyone. Too much pressure? There were quite a few of us to feed. They had to take over the duties since Jimmy G was in Florida. Thanks Liz for keeping the Bedford party going this year!

Lots of Swimming! Thankfully the rain cleared out and they kids got to swim most of the afternoon/evening. They had a great time and the temps were great for us to sit outside and visit with everyone. What a great day!

The Brockster!

Tori and Jasmine!

The Morris Fam waiting on the fireworks to start.

The Watsons

Kelsie and Wayne waiting on the fireworks! At night we walked down the street for the Bedford fireworks show at Bedford Boys Ranch. We actually sat down in a parking lot and the fireworks were right over our heads. We had a wonderful view - even though the kids thought it was too loud.

Kelsie and her new friend Abigail. Abigail didn't like the loud fireworks and wanted to sit with Kelsie to watch them. How cute - Kelsie is a kid magnet.

A few fireworks shots - not too bad!

On Friday it rained all day and so we decided to drive over the Stonebriar Mall and do some shopping and eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We didn't make it to Sam Moon unfortunately but my wallet is probably happy. Anyway, when we got home there was a full rainbow that you could see from the front of our house. It was beautiful so I had to take some pics, even though you have to really look to see it! God is good - it reminded me how blessed we are to have His hand on our lives, in the great times with health, loving friends and family and fruitful ministry as well as in the bad - when things are "going right." He promises to guide our steps and hold us in His hands through it all! (Psalm 37:23-24)

The panoramic view of the rainbow....look closely!