Aunts and Uncles & the best part of any day

Yesterday Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Joy flew into town all the way from California, and we also got to spend some quality time with Aunt Rachel. Miss you guys so much!

 

 Jeremy pushing Corrie on the swings

 

 Jeremy and Rachel on the swings

And we also got to try out the neighborhood pool for the first time this year!

 

Aunt Meredith's wedding is this weekend, and yesterday we had a very fancy and delicious rehearsal dinner. Look at that beautiful bride-to-be (if you can avoid being distracted by that guy on the far right...he made that face on purpose!)

 

And a very beautiful Aunt Rachel

But the most special thing about the day - the thing I wanted to write about so that I don't forget (because I do forget) - is the sweet time that I was surprised by after all of the festivities were over and it was late and time to go to sleep. 

Before going to sleep, I had a small inclination to kneel by the bed and spend a few minutes with my Savior, Jesus Christ. I was so tired. I was not expecting much, just a few minutes to thank him for such a wonderful day and open my heart up to him.

How sweet those moments were, abiding with him! It is very true what the Psalmist wrote: 

"You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy" - psalm 16:11

I remember thinking, "Jesus, spending time with you like this is the best part of this already amazing day...better than any day or anyone...thank you!"

This morning I read an recent post from an amazing blog that I would highly recommend reading. The blog is written by a girl who went to Africa and ended up staying there and adopting a bunch of kids. Love reading her posts...they are So Real. She explains what I am trying to say so much better than I ever could: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-weve-been-up-to.html

Jesus, I just want to tell you that you are the treasure of my heart...and I love that even when I forget (how often I forget!), you are always faithful to remind me.

 

Darn!

Corrie's first doctor appointment in a year is today, and she fell out of a chair this morning.

The Trimans

Dan and Julia, if you get a chance to read this post, I want you to know that the first thing Mac said when he woke up this morning was, "Mommy, I want my friends to come back. Please my friends come back to see Mac?" He loves you guys.

Yesterday the Trimans ventured out of their cool urban apartment in the heart of Washington, DC to visit us Johns' in the mountains of Front Royal. 

What a relaxing and fun day we had watching the EURO 2012 soccer games and then going strawberry picking at a farm just up the road. You can see from the picture below that the scenery was beautiful. Even though we didn't exactly find a bountiful harvest to pick (apparently, it was the very last day for strawberry picking), we still made some good memories. You know, now that I think about it, it was probably a good that there were not tons of huge ripe strawberries hanging off of every bush...I think it seriously cut down on the strawberry squashing factor.

Julia was very exciting to start the picking!

Mac was ready with his trains in hand. Those are must for any adventure these days.

I started off by letting Mac hold the container while I picked the strawberries. I worked very hard to add 5 or 6 great strawberries, and then I heard, "Mmmm! Good! Mmmm!" I turned around to see this. I changed  my picking/gathering strategy after that.

Mac and Corrie were both enjoying the fresh strawberries.

After finding enough strawberries to fill four containers, I smelled something interesting. "Oh man! Mac! you have poopy pants!" Mac has really grown up the past couple of weeks and is now in real underwear. The only thing is that he has only made it to the potty once when it comes to going #2. We all decided that it was a good time to call it quits so we could find a place to eat our picnic dinner (and I could attempt to reconcile our poopy pants situation).

It turned out that there was a great little picnic table under the shade of some peach trees. We couldn't ask for anything better!

Corrie and Julia

Mac and Dan

And one last picture to end with: Julia and Corrie getting dressed up and ready for our strawberry adventure. Corrie is checking out her sweet hat in the reflection in Julia's glasses.

Our Yard

I was trying to remember if our yard had any actual grass in it last year. I thought for sure I remembered at least a little grass.

Well, this year we have a yard full of nothing but clover. Great for attracting bunnies! Not so great for attracting bees.

The clover has gotten pretty tall and thick these days, but we are still finding ways to enjoy it.

Mac being Mac:

The clover is so thick, the kids can pretty much disappear in it

They like to pretend like the long pieces are "fishing poles"

Quoted:

"Cinders and ashes! Thomas must roll carefully!" - Mac

Corrie Johns

Yesterday Corrie didn't take an afternoon nap, and we had some time to just enjoy her and capture some of the cute things she does right now. She has always been very observant of animals and she loves making the various animal sounds. Here is a video of some of her animal sounds:

Later, Ellis needed a haircut, so I put Corrie at the table with what I thought would be a pretty good amount food. I thought for sure she would be occupied long enough for me to cut Ellis' hair outside in the carport, which is just outside the kitchen... 

Well, our hair buzzer is pretty loud, so I guess I didn't hear her sneak past me and escape outside. When I looked over, I saw that she found a nice rain puddle to play in...complete with the bib still on and her nice church dress...and bare feet!

The funny thing is that my mom got Corrie a pair of rain boots on Saturday, which she has insisted on wearing 24/7 (even to church...see picture below). I couldn't believe she was in bare feet for the rain puddle!

Speaking of church, we tried riding our bikes to church again yesterday. I would say it went slightly better this time...but you can tell from this picture that Ellis was pretty exhausted after hauling the kids up the huge hill that the church is on. He is laying on his back, desperately trying not to throw up. 

In fact, the stress on the bike was so intense that it broke Ellis' wheel...which meant I had to pull the kids home...yeah, the ride home was a little slow. So slow, in fact, that Corrie fell asleep in the bike...which is why she didn't take a nap!

Canoeing 2012

It's been a few years since the last Johns' Family and Friends Canoe Trip,  but now that we are living in the official Canoe Capital of Va, we decided it was time to plan another adventure together. I am a little late on posting this, but I wanted to document this trip so we can always remember our first Front Royal canoeing adventure.

Since I was in charge of organizing the trip, I had the special blessing of getting to see "behind the scenes" the various ways that God made all of the necessary plans fall right into place. I knew how inadequate my own planning abilities were, and He provided so faithfully for us the whole time.

We all saw His goodness and His beauty as we floated down the river and camped together. Below are a few...okay, a lot of pictures from the weekend. :)

The whole crew! The biggest group yet. And plenty of kids this time!

And here is everyone in each canoe/kayak, still full of energy after just starting the first leg of the trip (Sorry Jenkins family...how did we miss getting a picture of you guys? Probably because you were so fast and already up ahead!):

Bobby and Tanya Stepp

Nathan, Lilly and Joel Foster

Uncle Scott, Aunt Joyce (and Taylor, who is lying down in middle)

The first collision. Not surprising that Uncle Scott was involved.

Derek, Ginger, Landon and Bryar Baker

Mac, Sue and EJ Johns

Jeremy and Amy Brooks

Jay, Lynn and Reed Kimmel

Chris, Kristy and Thomas Beaune

We hit our first set of rapids just a couple miles in the trip...and they were a little more exciting than we expected! The Foster canoe had the most exciting time of all of us...we looked back to see a capsized canoe and lots of items floating down the river. Nathan was holding onto little Lilly, and Joel (9 yrs old) was hooting and hollering and trying his best to rescue all of their stuff. He kept saying, "That was awesome! Let's do it again!" His little sister, Lilly, wasn't so sure about that.

We all decided to pull over and take a little break to dump the water out of our boats and eat and fellowship for a little while.

Here is Nathan re-gathering their stuff. Notice how he only has one shoe. I think the missing one was found eventually in the bottom of Mac and Sue's canoe.

Ellis and Jay

Bobby, Tanya, Robin, Elaina, John and Kristy

Uncle Scott, Nathan, Derek, Lilly, Sue, Joyce, Tabby and Taylor

Ames and Grams (Amy and Amanda). Roommates, teammates, and now canoe trip buddies. Love you Ames.

The little guys (Joel, Reed, Landon, Bryar, EJ and Thomas) were having a blast throwing rocks in to the river.

We stopped for another break along the river and kids had a blast playing in the water. I believe this scene is capturing all of the kids trying to rescue Thomas' little red car from floating down the river. They were successful. :)

We arrived at campsite  in the afternoon on Saturday and had a great time relaxing and eating. The kids were running around and enjoying each other. We even had a great big soccer game after dinner with kids and adults...it was some serious fun.

I think C.S. Lewis summed up our time together pretty well with this quote:

“Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?”

 

On Sunday morning, Big Mac was up bright and early to start cooking everyone one of his famous breakfasts!

 

 After breakfast, we put in the river for the final leg of the journey. Day two was much shorter and a little more relaxed.

The views were beautiful.

Too bad those Brooks' wouldn't leave us alone!

And the award for getting stranded on the rocks the most times goes to the Johns canoe!

We are looking forward to the next adventure! Thanks to everyone who was able to come and share the weekend with us. 

"We had sweet fellowship together..." (psalm 55:14, AMP)