St. Louis!

July 2-6, we went to St. Louis for a family vacation. It was the best vacation we've had in a long time. We went to the City Museum filled with slides, tunnels, a ferris wheel on top of the 12 story building and much, much more. We stayed there 12 hours it was that much fun! On the 4th, we watched fireworks at a town called Webster Groves, and I've got to tell you, it was the best fireworks show we have ever seen (and we saw Telluride's last year--didn't even compare). It was a great town and we let our kids ride some carnie rides. We went to the Magic House, where the kids pretend-played doctor, grocery store, CSI Agent, house, construction builder, etc. They were busy workers!!! We also headed to Grant's Farm for some free beer samples for Vince and a bird show, goat feeding and animal watching for the kids. Finally, we headed to the Arch. It was crowded and we were pooped out. We got home at 1 am, just a couple hours before Alex got sick, Vince got pinkeye and then it all went downhill after that. Here are tons of pictures of us at City Museum. More to come of the other adventures during our trip.

Vince, the fowl slayer

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.-Matt. 10:29

On our way back from Topeka last night, a bird flew out of no where, smack into our Tahoe. Vince thought it must still be on the car, because all we saw were white feathers flying in the wind behind us. Oh, how sad! When we got home, sure enough, the bird was still there. We removed it with a shovel and Lila swore it wasn't dead yet, since its eyes were still open. We stopped her just in time from beating it with the shovel.

On a happy note, we saw Marmaduke and enjoyed Olive Garden. It was a great Sunday to NOT work on the fence and just spend time as a family. Oh, and the clouds were AMAZING last night!!! I think the clouds are getting more and more incredible. God is so good!

May Birthdays!

This is a whole lot late in posting, but in May we had a family "May Birthday Party" for Mae, Titus, and Alex. Titus had a fun time playing in the water and jumping on the trampoline at Nana and Papa's house. I made a cake for Alex and later she did get to have a few friends spend the night. Tomorrow was supposed to be Haley and Lila's friend birthday party (Lila didn't get to have hers, since we were in Ethiopia), but considering Alex, Vince, and Haley all have fevers, headaches and can't get out of bed, we decided to postpone.

Lila's Dance Recital

Lila was in a Christian Dance Group throughout this year. Sometimes she liked it, sometimes she dreaded going, but she sure did shine during her recital. It was so amazing seeing my little girl dance! This will probably be the last recital however, since she wants "to learn how to play the flupe".

Working with Daddy!

It's been a busy couple of months. Swimming, wrapping up school, fixing cars, building a fence, going to Omaha, VBS and more. Back in May (I think) I walked outside to check on Vince, who was putting a piece of something under the car, and this is what I found! So cute, so I had to take pics.

Life in the fast lane!

It has been a long time since I've posted. We have been busy homeschooling, swimming, running laps around our house when we get in trouble :), singing in Choir, going to zoo's, and trying to stay sane while daddy works so much. Did I tell you he is a fill-in supervisor for the TWO supervisors who moved positions and is still the Planning/Outage Manager, while being in outages most of the past two months! Daddy=BUSY! Mommy=CRAZY!
Tariku is the SWEETEST, most LOVING little boy ever!!! He whispers sweet baby-talk into momma's ear, gives me kisses and pats my back. He yells "ALEX!" when he wants her to get him and laughs and cries at the same time when he sees his bottle.
School is almost over and VBS is coming soon! We are so excited for school to be over and we can just relax and have fun!
In Lila's picture, she is wearing our Ethiopian Airlines eye cover. She was so excited to have one, she wore it every night for a few weeks!

More Pics

It's crazy getting to FINALLY rock Tariku to sleep in my arms...after all of these months praying and crying for him. He is doing very well, but has no problem going to anyone. So mommy and daddy are going to have to really work on bonding with him a lot so that he will be more discriminate with others. He loves all the attention he is getting, but it is going to change a little with homeschooling getting back on track. Tomorrow should be an interesting day of learning at the Avila house.