Get Drenched 2012

This past Sunday was our church's annual baptism service - Get Drenched. It is pretty much my favorite service of the year. This year we went to Lynch Park to watch five people publicly proclaim what Jesus has done to change their lives.

The girls didn't quite understand everything that was going on, but I'm still glad they were able to see all that went on.

After the service we stayed for a picnic lunch, playground fun, and checked out a small garden area where we had quite a time trying to get pictures of the girls.

Jonathan took 17 pictures of us here in under a minute. After letting out a sigh on snap number 17 he said, "I think there should be a good one in there". Well, I can't pick one where everyone cooperated, but I sure found some fun ones.

Not sure what Sarah was up to, but she moved around the most.

I'm pretty sure a very loud shriek came with Lily's smile here.

The day started out a bit cool and cloudy, but ended up warm and sunny. It turned out to be a perfect day to watch people get drenched!

Camping Fun! - Day 2

The girls were up with the sun. We did what we could to keep them quiet until quiet hours ended at 7:00. We had breakfast, walked for a bit and then headed out for today's activity (after picking up coffee, first).

We went to Plymouth Long Beach. We got there before it got crowded and enjoyed collecting pebbles, playing in the sand, and walking in the frigid water. This was Lily's first beach experience. She spent most of it in our arms or on Jonathan's back. But she still had a chance to sample some of the sand and salt water.

We headed back to camp where we made preparations for our fire and dinner. Fridays are pizza and movie night for us, so we thought we'd stick with tradition (minus the  movie). I'll let you know how it went in a separate post.

Bedtime went easier than last night. Abigail was the first down, followed by Lily and then Sarah. All was quiet by 9:00. Jonathan and I enjoyed a quiet hour by the fire before we called it a night.

Lily woke up twice, but went back down pretty easy. All three girls slept well and even slept through the beginning of a thunderstorm with pretty heavy downpours. Soon after the rain stopped we packed up and took the tent down. We headed home around 8:00.

We had a great time camping! We'll hopefully do it again, and likely at this same campground. We may even stick around to do a bit more exploring. It is a large state forest with bike and hiking trails and ponds for swimming.

Beautiful Sunday!

This Sunday was such a beautiful day! The best part was spending it at the beach with our church, GENESIS, for our annual baptism service (we call it Get Drenched!). I've been talking about baptisms with Abigail all week and she, in turn, kept asking me when we were going to go to the baptism service. Needless to say, she was excited.

The girls were so well-behaved and sat through most of the service without making too much noise. Of course, it helped that the church floor was made of sand and they had buckets and shovels with them. We got to hear a number of people share their stories and then watched them as they were baptized in the Atlantic Ocean.

We stayed for a good 4 hours and all had a great time! I'm looking forward to next year!

Sand, Sun, and Fun!

Earlier this week Jonathan brought up the idea to take the girls to the beach this weekend. I was surprised he suggested it because he isn't the biggest fan of the beach. Regardless, I jumped on the chance to go and started making plans.

We kicked off our Fourth of July weekend with a trip to the Salisbury Beach State Park Reservation. We got there around 9:15, which ended up being a perfect time to arrive.

After setting up our spot we brought the girls closer to the water so they could play in the sand. It took Sarah a bit of time to get used to the feel of the sand on her feet and hands. By the end of the day she had sand everywhere.

While we were building castles Abigail decided that she needed to get some water. This made for a nice transition to splashing in the frigid Atlantic. Abigail would run toward the waves, then give a little girl scream and run away from oncoming waves. I got a really good shot of her expression as she ran away from one. Sarah mostly hung out with Daddy and occasionally let go to walk around and splash. It didn't take long though for the shivering to set in-so we decided to get back to our spot for a break.

The girls played in the sand some more, then we had a nice picnic lunch. After a bit more playing in the sand we attempted to fly a kite, but failed at it (I blame it on the kite ;-) After a solid three hours we decided to call it a beach day. The girls were worn out (you know, Abigail, Sarah and Mommy).

We had a great time. So great, in fact, that I think it would be pretty easy to convince Jonathan to do another beach trip in the near future!