Saying Good Bye Part 1

Suzanne spent most of the summer training for her journeyman adventure in Africa for the next two years. At the end of her orientation, all the missionaries going out were given a commissioning service where family and loved ones could attend. This was where everything got "real" for me that my baby sis was about to move across the world to serve our Lord. Before the service the families were invited to attend a "meeting" where they pretty much encouraged us to lay everything out on the table before our missionary left the country. I was NOT mentally prepared to start saying good bye that day. I still had about 2 weeks left! It was so great to be able to see where Suz had spent her summer and meet the people she grew so close to in just a few short months. Imagine about 130 people who are all like minded spending the summer together. Suz had a blast and made friendships that will last forever. Love that!

Suz with the proud parents

Map of Africa

Suzanne will be serving in Johannesburg, South Africa until the summer of 2012.

Two of Suz's two new best friends - Abbey and Grace. AMAZING girls!!

Suz's sweet mate for the summer and also headed to Africa - Machael.

Sweet Kristen who will be in Jo'Berg with Suz!

Thanks so much to my WONDERFUL hubby for letting me travel up to Virginia to support my sis and for putting on many different hats while I was gone. Love you, honey!! More pics to come of our good byes...

Audrey is 3 1/2!

Our sweet girl has been 3 1/2 for almost a month now. She is getting so big and she loves to announce to everyone that she is not 3, but 3 and a HALF!! Here are some pics of her and her siblings the weekend before Aunt Zuzu left for Africa.

This is about the best smile I can get our of Audrey these days and it doen't matter if I put her hair up in a pony tail because she will take it out by the end of the day. :) She also has recently decided that she likes the whole "ride my bike" thing like her big bro. Maybe we will get her a big girl bike for her birthday this year...

Things Audrey is into these days: all things princess, pink and purple, she is loving going to preschool 2 days a week, singing, singing and more singing, playing by herself (our little introvert:), coming down and sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed (we will be dealing with this soon!), drinking from a big girl cup, sitting on the couch with Daddy in the mornings, hearing the story of when she was born, reading books and her Bible, and Audrey still doesn't go too far without her pink blanket:)


Sweet days of riding bikes up and down our street.

This cutie wanted some of the lime light. Imagine that! ;)

Zuzu helping little miss Ains

Brother "helping" sis go faster.

LOVE this pic of Ains and Zuzu!! Such sweet smiles and memories!

Washington D.C. Part 2

Here are some more pics from our trip to D.C. :)

LOVED the Washington Monument!

There were so many runners around all day long! It is such a safe-feeling place and so very clean. It seemed like there was a police officer on every corner!

The Smithsonian Museums were amazing! I wish we would have had more time to spend in each one of them. I took most of these next pictures for my son. :)

Union Station

The White House! It was so beautiful!!

It was a great ending to a fantastic day!

Washington D.C. Part 1

At the end of September, I travelled with my parents to Virginia to attend Suzanne's foreign missionary commissioning service. We got there a day early so that we could spend some time in Washington, D.C. This former American history teacher was so excited! We had a wonderful day and I took WAY too many pictures. :) Here is the first batch:

Supreme Court

Capitol Hill

My parents were thrilled to be touring the city as well. It was my Dad's first trip and my Mom's last visit was when she was in the 8th grade.

Lincoln's memorial was one of my favorite parts of the day.

I loved everything about this place! I also know I am going to have to go back again with my hubby some day. ;)

Our New Friend

YES!! This is a tarantula and YES he was on our back porch and YES we were all freaked out by how close he was to our house and how very BIG he was!!

Daddy definitely had to "fix" this problem! He was very brave. ;)

Park Days

Just wanted to throw up some pics of us at the park since one of our motto's is "if it's pretty outside, what better pace to be than playing (for free!) at the park." :) Our sweet Ainsley just started swinging on the "big swings" and as you will be able to tell, she is very excited about it. :)

We are loving this beautiful fall weather!! More posts to come! (I am SO behind!)