Summer Time

Some summertime sweet snap shots of our son..shine:)

A morning snuggle with his favorite stuffed animal;

a cool drink to be shared;

and an afternoon slide at his favorite park.

And of course you have to have ice cream on a hot summer afternoon, boy does Nathan love his ice cream! What a smile he has~I could just eat him up:) And Heidi wanted to lick him off...don't worry, I didn't let her.

Creation Calls

Nathan is amazed by the sky, especially the moon and the stars. We went to a firework display on July 4th and Nathan was a little afraid of the fireworks at first but he was enjoying them by the end. During the display and especially after they were done he was most excited about the moon, he kept on shouting "moon" and pointing~ I love it! If the moon is out even in the daytime (like this morning) he will find it and daily he points to the sky and asks for the stars. Usually I tell him each day that we can only see the stars when it's dark out. So a week or so ago we got home later than usual and it was clear out and getting dark so we decided to keep him up to see the stars. I was holding him and there was one bright star right by the moon and he started getting excited and staring in awe. I began explaining to him how God made the stars and the moon and how he made and loves him. ~ Nathan was quiet and then after gazing up he turned his head away and clung to me.

I think he was just beginning to grasp that there was something bigger out there and I felt the Holy Spirit right there with us. This was so comforting to me, God is at work in our little boy even at two years old~ Thank you Lord for speaking through your beautiful creation. Thank you for pursuing our son. Thank you for reminding me through a two year olds awe how big and amazing You truly are.

Family "Fun"

What a great vacation we had, thank you Lord for your kindness that you lavished upon us this past week. I think Nathan said "fun" repeatedly though out the week. We so enjoyed all the family time that we had together, mornings together and day trips enjoying God's creation, plus we got some projects done around the house. Here are some highlights of our vacation. Our first night together we went to a nearby pool and Nathan loved the little kid pool they had.

Nathan learned how to sip through a straw (this is a challenging thing to teach someone) and then we celebrated by having a milkshake. Now he keeps asking for milkshakes:) I made some freezer jam for the first time with the blackberries we picked from the park. I enjoyed this whole process especially picking the berries- fruit amazes me~ how God created something so delicious we can just pick and eat.
We went to the Baltimore Zoo and enjoyed watching Nathan see the animals, I think he got most excited when he saw how big the giraffe was. He also enjoyed his camel ride with Daddy and the trolly ride to and from the park.
We went to the creek at the Reading Museum a couple times and boy did we all have a blast. Nathan and Heidi loved the water, it was like a big puddle that Nathan got to throw rocks and jump in.
Nathan went on his first canoe ride with Daddy and a friend of ours. He had no fear at all ~ as you can see from the first picture he was sitting very nicely and holding on...the second picture I think he's trying to crawl out and Daddy is holding him tight. He really wanted to get in that water.
So now our vacation is over but we have many good memories to take with us. Here's a little excerpt from an article given to us from our pastor. The article is by CJ Mahaney about family vacations and he is referencing a quote by CS Lewis. Mahaney says "Notice how Lewis distinguishes between thankfulness and adoration. I not only want my children (and myself) to be grateful ("How good of God to give me this"), but ultimately I want them to be amazed by this God, amazed by "the quality of that Being" who has provided all these gifts, and adore Him."

We are so grateful to God for giving us this vacation and thanks to this article I have been reflecting on not just the gifts but the Giver of the gifts and am growing in amazement of this God.