PureGrace

Portraits for the girls

Allen Penton came and did a portrait session to try out some new camera techniques. You can see his work at www.artistallen.com (There's a free plug for ya Allen!)

Bikes, Birthdays and More!

Anna and Rachel BOTH bid farewell to their training wheels! Fast learners in the fast lane...

Celebrating the birthday of their pal Heather. Are there any OTHER themes for 4 year old girls than "Princess Party?" I didn't think so.

On their fourth birthday, the girls and several friends became the pre-K version of Cirque du Soleil, leaping on a bungee-trampoline.

Costume parade at Stone Mountain Park's Pumpkin Festival.

Anna: "They're all looking at ME!"

Rachel: "When do we get to dance?"

Their first boy cousin! We loved visiting you, Cooper!

June and July pics

Mary started a Monday morning Bible Kids club for our girls and their playmates.

Our neighbor kids enjoy a parade at the Bible club.

If Jesus is our shepherd, then that makes us...sheep!

Adam's plot at the community garden is a favorite spot for the kids to come play.

We've spent a few weeks this summer taking refugee kids on their first wilderness camping experience in the U.S. They loved it! Rachel eats a smore at a recent camping trip.

Rachel plays with a light stick while camping at Raven Cliff Falls.

More light play at campfire

Fearless Anna holds a snake we found while hiking at Raven Cliff falls with friends.

A turkish bride and groom at a wedding Mary attended recently.

Costa Rica

We enjoyed this view for 5 days walking from meetings to meals during our ministry conference east of San Jose.

Adam enjoying the cold but beautiful pool at the conference center.

Oops - sorry I forgot to rotate it - the lushness of Monteverde goes deep into your soul.

View from the top of one of the canopy tour zip lines - so relaxing!

Ok, this part was not relaxing - at the end after 20 or so zip lines, you can choose to do a tarzan swing, which includes a long drop before the rope catches you - absolutely terrifying - I'll never do it again.

Costa Rica Travel Tips:

Better late than never - we were blessed to have 4 romantic days in the lush highlands near Monteverde and Arenal and would highly recommend the trip to anyone. It's easy to take the bus from La Radial station in Alajuela near the airport up to Monteverde the day of your arrival - don't go into San Jose - for only a few bucks each. Stay at Sleepers Sleep Cheaper hostel in Monteverde owned by a precious family and only $10 per person per night with a private room with hot water shower, perfect view of the valley, a great breakfast, and unbiased travel advice. Bring your own snacks from the US to Monteverde as the tourist prices on food are outrageous. Go ahead and cough up the $40-50 per person for the Extremo Canopy Tour - it'll change your life and will only fuel your dreams of flying! Forego the horseback to Arenal as the groups we saw looked wet and uncomfortable. Do reserve a car rental in La Fortuna for the time you'll be there - they were all rented out when we arrived without a reservation and realized how helpful and cheaper a car would be than paying taxis to take us all around the spread out area. At Arenal, don't stay in croweded La Fortuna (which is on the dormant side of the volcano), and don't pay to go to the hot springs. Instead, ask any local where the free hot springs are where the locals swim in natural waterfalls - but don't take your camera as we steamed ours by accident. And make a reservation in El Castillo - if you can afford it, the Arenal Lodge of the Observatory lodge - closest to the lava - but we were happy with the cheaper cabins on the hill in El Castillo, each with a full back-wall window view of the volcano. We woke up every hour through the night and caught majestic glimpses.

Now I'm planning our January vacation to Honduras - apparently many of the same lush rainforest areas, amazing beaches/snorkeling, but add ancient ruins and all for 1/2 the price of Costa Rica. If you don't yet have an Amex frequent flyer credit card, get one! We pay for everything on the card and pay it off every month, and after two years of $55 annual fees, we're able to take all 4 of us to Honduras for only $200. Let me know of any travel tips from those who've been to Honduras - especially cheap beach spots.

sill angel rachel

Anna practicing her long jump

Nathan questioning silly Anna - or is it Rachel?

Ok, I know this one's Rachel.

And I know this one's Anna - the pigtails only stay in for 3 minutes, but they're a cute three minutes!

Telling them apart

Are they identical? It's still up in the air - only a DNA test will tell , and honestly, we're having more fun just guessing. But if they are identical, then you really don't have to worry about cloning destroying our civilization because even with 100% same DNA, they are their own.

Anna's eyes are larger and rounded like Adam's. Her face is fuller, and she has two red "Anna-marks" on her left cheek near her ear. Rachel is slightly more petite in every way, and of course they each have their own silly expressions. Eventually, we'd like to have their hair different lengths (Rachel with the longer name having longer hair), but their hair grows rather slowly and is so much work once it gets past a certain length, so we'll see how tht goes.

There will be dress up clothes in heaven!

Our friend Carrie laughing with chocolate covered ballet girls.

Anna the pig, and Rachel the clown.

Betty's dog Joyful passed a few months ago, and this spurred an ongoing discussion of death and heaven and Grampa Phil and Jowan, our neighbor who died last year. Anna found a drawing in her Bible of heaven depicted as a golden, glowing castle on the clouds. Well, it hardly seemed the time to explain to her Adam's and my recent musings on how the Biblical idea of the "new heaven and new earth" conflicts with traditional ideas of heaven. So I just responded, "Yes, honey, when we die, we'll all be princesses in the Kingdom of God." "Will we be brides?" Anna asked? "Yes, we'll all be princess brides." So over the last few months, usually during pillow talk, more heaven questions have popped up randomly, "Will there be beds in heaven? When are we going to die? When is ____ going to die? Will ________ be in heaven with us? and on and on." Well, tonight, after several such questions, Rachel thought for a long time and asked, "Will there be dress up clothes in heaven," and this one I confidently knew the answer to, "Yes, there will definitely be dress up clothes in heaven!"

(If you haven't been to our house recently, then I should let you know that the girls favorite toy is a trunk full of dress up clothes, and their dextrous ability to change clothes 5 times in 5 minutes has amazed many a visitor! Their dance and circus trick routines grow more complex and daring by the day!)