Surprise visit

We were lucky to have a surprise visit by my mom this week! We are so glad she came to see us. We had so much fun! Since mom lives 7 hours away, she didn't exactly just drop by, but called on Sunday to tell me she may be able to come Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. What a great surprise!

If any one if wondering if Christopher still likes the green ball....the answer is YES! There are still many nights slept and many meals eaten with the green ball! Here he is sporting his new lawn mower too. He loves that! It is for outdoors, but it's been raining so I let him have it inside too.

Here we are at the Minnesota History Museum in St. Paul. We went to see the Ben Franklin exhibit because he is our long ago relative. My mom's cousin has traced him back on our family tree...hmmmm. Well, he was smart!

We had a great time at the museum. We ate lunch at the cafe there and I had something new I've never tried before: green bean fries - they are like onion rings, only with beans, yummy! Good fair food!

We looked around at some other parts of the museum and when we entered this room with part of an old fashioned bus in it, Christopher said, "bus!" He's starting to get that talking thing!

Cman had a blast running around the museum!

Sadly, Ashly couldn't join us because her last day of school was today!!!! She is officially (well, I'll be getting the report card in the mail soon) a freshman (WOW!). She'll be a 9th grader, but 9th grade is still at the junior high school so she won't go to the high school building for another year yet, but that's okay with me! They will be the big kids that rule the junior high next year.

Ashly got selected to be in the WEB program (I don't know what that stands for). She will help with the new 7th grade orientation. So she will spend three days at the end of August before school starts with the new kids showing them around the school, answering questions and doing "get to know you" activities. What a great program. I'm proud of Ashly for applying for that role and getting it.

Last night Ashly and I went to her final mission trip meeting. They are leaving for Denver, CO next Friday at 830am! They will be gone for 10 days. Along the way they will be staying at other churches and one of the churches has arranged to bring in their youth that evening and have an activity with our kids. While at the work site they will be broken up into groups and will be doing several activities including: sports camp for kids who cannot afford them, vacation bible school, working with the elderly an assisted living facility, painting houses. Also one evening they have free time and they have arranged to go white water rafting. I'll let you know all about the trip when she returns!